Gonka AI Provider

Gonka is a decentralized AI inference network built on a Cosmos-SDK chain that routes LLM requests to a peer-to-peer pool of GPU operators. Zeph supports two access paths.

Gonka is particularly useful for:

• Privacy-preserving inference — Requests are signed with your key; no account credentials stored on Gonka servers
• Cost control — Direct token consumption with no markup or subscription fees
• Decentralization — Work is distributed across independent GPU operators

Path A: GonkaGate (Recommended for quick start)

GonkaGate is a hosted gateway to the Gonka network with USD-denominated billing — no token staking required.

Setup:

1. Sign up at https://gonkagate.com/en/register and create a gp-... API key.
2. Store the key in the Zeph vault:

   zeph vault set ZEPH_COMPATIBLE_GONKAGATE_API_KEY gp-...
   

3. Run zeph init and select “Gonka (decentralized — via GonkaGate)” when prompted for a provider.

Resulting config:

[[llm.providers]]
type = "compatible"
name = "gonkagate"
base_url = "https://api.gonkagate.com/v1"
model = "gpt-4o"

Pricing: USD-denominated. Top up at https://gonkagate.com.

Path B: Native Gonka Network (Requires GNK staking)

The native path connects directly to Gonka inference nodes over a signed transport. Requests are authenticated with a secp256k1 key and GNK tokens are consumed per inference.

Prerequisites:

• Download and install inferenced CLI from https://github.com/gonka-ai/gonka/releases.
• Acquire GNK tokens and fund your address.

Setup:

1. Create a key with inferenced:

   inferenced keys add zeph
   

2. Store the signing key in the Zeph vault:

   zeph vault set ZEPH_GONKA_PRIVATE_KEY <your-hex-encoded-secp256k1-key>
   zeph vault set ZEPH_GONKA_ADDRESS <your-bech32-address>  # optional, for validation
   

3. Run zeph init and select “Gonka (native — requires GNK staking)”.

Resulting config:

[[llm.providers]]
type = "gonka"
name = "gonka-mainnet"
model = "gpt-4o"
gonka_chain_prefix = "gonka"

[[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]]
url = "https://node1.gonka.ai"
address = "gonka1..."

[[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]]
url = "https://node2.gonka.ai"
address = "gonka1..."

[[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]]
url = "https://node3.gonka.ai"
address = "gonka1..."

Pricing: GNK token consumption per inference.

How GonkaProvider Works

The native Gonka integration (Path B) uses three components working together:

RequestSigner

RequestSigner handles request authentication using your secp256k1 private key. Every request is signed with:

1. Request serialization — The message payload (chat parameters, tools, etc.) is serialized to JSON
2. Signing — The payload is signed using secp256k1 ECDSA with your private key
3. Envelope — The signature and public key are included in the request headers

EndpointPool

EndpointPool manages multiple Gonka nodes for redundancy and load distribution:

• Maintains a pool of healthy node endpoints from [[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]] entries
• Performs health checks to detect unavailable nodes
• Routes requests round-robin across available nodes
• Falls back to alternative nodes on failure

Capabilities

GonkaProvider supports all standard Zeph LLM capabilities:

Configuration Details

Full Native Gonka Config Example

[llm]

[[llm.providers]]
type = "gonka"
name = "gonka-mainnet"
model = "gpt-4o"
gonka_chain_prefix = "gonka"
max_tokens = 4096

# List of available inference nodes
[[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]]
url = "https://node1.gonka.ai"
address = "gonka1acnx3cpm8cz5nqu24aql4cqx5fxqm9w4vf2hqr"

[[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]]
url = "https://node2.gonka.ai"
address = "gonka1bcx3cpm8cz5nqu24aql4cqx5fxqm9w4vf2xyz"

[[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]]
url = "https://node3.gonka.ai"
address = "gonka1ccx3cpm8cz5nqu24aql4cqx5fxqm9w4vf2abc"

Combining Gonka with Local Embeddings

If you want Gonka for chat but prefer local embeddings for cost reasons:

[[llm.providers]]
type = "gonka"
name = "gonka-chat"
model = "gpt-4o"
gonka_chain_prefix = "gonka"
default = true          # use for chat

[[llm.providers]]
type = "ollama"
name = "local-embed"
embedding_model = "nomic-embed-text"
embed = true            # use for embeddings

[memory.semantic]
embed_provider = "local-embed"

[skills]
embedding_provider = "local-embed"

Troubleshooting

Run the built-in diagnostic tool to check credentials and node reachability:

zeph gonka doctor
# or for machine-readable JSON output:
zeph gonka doctor --json

The doctor prints [OK], [WARN], or [FAIL] for each check: vault key resolution, signer construction, and per-node HTTP probes with latency. Exit code is 0 on success, 1 on failures.

Migrating from GonkaGate to Native

Run zeph migrate-config — it will add advisory comments to your config pointing to the fields that need updating. Then:

1. Install inferenced and fund your GNK address.
2. Store ZEPH_GONKA_PRIVATE_KEY in the vault.
3. Update [[llm.providers]] in your config: change type = "compatible" to type = "gonka" and add [[llm.providers.gonka_nodes]] entries.