Kilo Code with ARK

Kilo Code: An open-source coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and the command line.

Before you start

You need an ARK API key: sign in to ARK Cloud and copy it from the dashboard, or use a key from your own ARK deployment and its base URL. The examples use arklabsai/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B; for the hardest tasks use arklabsai/Qwen3.5-122B-A10B. Both call tools and read up to 256K tokens.

1. Install

code --install-extension kilocode.Kilo-Code

2. Connect it to ARK

Kilo keeps providers in its config. Add ARK to your global config in ~/.config/kilo, with tool calling and ARK's token limits:

{
  "model": "openai-compatible/qwen3.6-35b",
  "provider": {
    "openai-compatible": {
      "options": {
        "baseURL": "https://api.ark-labs.cloud/api/v1",
        "apiKey": "{env:ARK_API_KEY}"
      },
      "models": {
        "qwen3.6-35b": {
          "id": "arklabsai/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B",
          "name": "Qwen3.6 35B A3B (ARK)",
          "tool_call": true,
          "limit": { "context": 262144, "output": 8192 }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Set ARK_API_KEY in your environment. In VS Code you can also add the provider from Settings (gear icon) → Providers → Custom provider, with Provider API OpenAI Compatible and the base URL above; token limits and tool calling are set in the config.

Good to know

• qwen3.6-35b is a local name for the model; id is the model id Kilo sends to ARK.
• Set limit: without it Kilo does not compact long sessions and assumes 32,000 output tokens.
• Kilo resolves {env:…} only in trusted locations such as your global config, not in a project's kilo.json.
• Code completion while you type needs a fill-in-the-middle endpoint, which ARK does not serve: use ARK for chat and agent work.
• Agents offer tools on every request, and while tools are offered the Qwen models answer without thinking (see Reasoning).
• These tools send the whole conversation on every turn, so they use ARK statelessly. ARK's prompt cache speeds up the repeated part of each prompt; every prompt token is still billed.

Next

Read about tool calling and limits and capacity on ARK, or browse other integrations.

Configuration keys follow Kilo Code's official documentation as of October 2026. If the tool has changed since, its docs take precedence.