Using Mistral AI With Kilo Code

Kilo Code supports accessing models through the Mistral AI API, including both standard Mistral models and the code-specialized Codestral model.

Website: https://mistral.ai/

Getting an API Key

  1. Sign in to Mistral AI Studio.
  2. Open API Keys and create a standard Studio API key.
  3. Copy the key and store it securely. Mistral only shows the full key once.

You do not need a separate Codestral key. See Mistral's API key setup guide for the current steps.

Configuration in Kilo Code

Open Settings (gear icon) and go to the Providers tab to add Mistral and enter your API key.

The extension stores this in your kilo.json config file. You can also edit the config file directly — see the CLI tab for the file format.

Reasoning Variants

Mistral's adjustable reasoning support is exposed only for reasoning-capable Mistral Small 4 models: mistral-small-2603 and mistral-small-latest. When one of these models is selected, Kilo offers a high variant that sends reasoningEffort: "high" to the Mistral provider.

Other Mistral models do not get automatic reasoning variants, even if they appear in the same provider. See Mistral's reasoning documentation for provider-level details.

Using Codestral

Codestral supports code completion through Mistral's FIM API. Use a standard Studio API key for requests to https://api.mistral.ai.

For autocomplete through Kilo Gateway, add the key under Mistral AI on the Kilo BYOK page and select Codestral as your autocomplete model. Follow the Mistral autocomplete setup guide for the steps and legacy-key troubleshooting.