Improved error handling for model loading (#732)

app/MindWork AI Studio/Assistants/I18N/allTexts.lua

@@ -6205,6 +6205,21 @@ UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::LLMPROVIDERSEXTENSIONS::T3424652889"] = "Un
 -- no model selected
 UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODEL::T2234274832"] = "no model selected"
 
+-- We could not load models from '{0}'. The account or API key does not have the required permissions.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T1143085203"] = "We could not load models from '{0}'. The account or API key does not have the required permissions."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}'. The API key is probably missing, invalid, or expired.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2041046579"] = "We could not load models from '{0}'. The API key is probably missing, invalid, or expired."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider is currently unavailable or could not be reached.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2115688703"] = "We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider is currently unavailable or could not be reached."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider returned an unexpected response.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2186844789"] = "We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider returned an unexpected response."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' due to an unknown error.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T3907712809"] = "We could not load models from '{0}' due to an unknown error."
+
 -- Model as configured by whisper.cpp
 UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::SELFHOSTED::PROVIDERSELFHOSTED::T3313940770"] = "Model as configured by whisper.cpp"
 

app/MindWork AI Studio/Chat/ContentText.cs

@@ -174,10 +174,21 @@ public sealed class ContentText : IContent
             return false;
         }
 
-        IEnumerable<Model> loadedModels;
+        IReadOnlyList<Model> loadedModels;
         try
         {
-            loadedModels = await provider.GetTextModels(token: token);
+            var modelLoadResult = await provider.GetTextModels(token: token);
+            if (!modelLoadResult.Success)
+            {
+                var userMessage = modelLoadResult.FailureReason.ToUserMessage(provider.InstanceName);
+                if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(userMessage))
+                    await MessageBus.INSTANCE.SendError(new(Icons.Material.Filled.CloudOff, userMessage));
+
+                LOGGER.LogWarning("Skipping selected model availability check for '{ProviderInstanceName}' (provider={ProviderType}) because loading the model list failed with reason {FailureReason}.", provider.InstanceName, provider.Provider, modelLoadResult.FailureReason);
+                return false;
+            }
+
+            loadedModels = modelLoadResult.Models;
         }
         catch (OperationCanceledException)
         {

app/MindWork AI Studio/Dialogs/EmbeddingProviderDialog.razor.cs

@@ -285,10 +285,12 @@ public partial class EmbeddingProviderDialog : MSGComponentBase, ISecretId
 
         try
         {
-            var models = await provider.GetEmbeddingModels(this.dataAPIKey);
+            var result = await provider.GetEmbeddingModels(this.dataAPIKey);
+            if (!result.Success)
+                this.dataLoadingModelsIssue = result.FailureReason.ToUserMessage(provider.InstanceName);
 
             // Order descending by ID means that the newest models probably come first:
-            var orderedModels = models.OrderByDescending(n => n.Id);
+            var orderedModels = result.Models.OrderByDescending(n => n.Id);
 
             this.availableModels.Clear();
             this.availableModels.AddRange(orderedModels);

app/MindWork AI Studio/Dialogs/ProviderDialog.razor.cs

@@ -312,10 +312,12 @@ public partial class ProviderDialog : MSGComponentBase, ISecretId
 
         try
         {
-            var models = await provider.GetTextModels(this.dataAPIKey);
+            var result = await provider.GetTextModels(this.dataAPIKey);
+            if (!result.Success)
+                this.dataLoadingModelsIssue = result.FailureReason.ToUserMessage(provider.InstanceName);
 
             // Order descending by ID means that the newest models probably come first:
-            var orderedModels = models.OrderByDescending(n => n.Id);
+            var orderedModels = result.Models.OrderByDescending(n => n.Id);
 
             this.availableModels.Clear();
             this.availableModels.AddRange(orderedModels);

app/MindWork AI Studio/Dialogs/TranscriptionProviderDialog.razor.cs

@@ -300,10 +300,12 @@ public partial class TranscriptionProviderDialog : MSGComponentBase, ISecretId
 
         try
         {
-            var models = await provider.GetTranscriptionModels(this.dataAPIKey);
+            var result = await provider.GetTranscriptionModels(this.dataAPIKey);
+            if (!result.Success)
+                this.dataLoadingModelsIssue = result.FailureReason.ToUserMessage(provider.InstanceName);
 
             // Order descending by ID means that the newest models probably come first:
-            var orderedModels = models.OrderByDescending(n => n.Id);
+            var orderedModels = result.Models.OrderByDescending(n => n.Id);
 
             this.availableModels.Clear();
             this.availableModels.AddRange(orderedModels);

app/MindWork AI Studio/Plugins/languages/de-de-43065dbc-78d0-45b7-92be-f14c2926e2dc/plugin.lua

@@ -6207,6 +6207,21 @@ UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::LLMPROVIDERSEXTENSIONS::T3424652889"] = "Un
 -- no model selected
 UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODEL::T2234274832"] = "Kein Modell ausgewählt"
 
+-- We could not load models from '{0}'. The account or API key does not have the required permissions.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T1143085203"] = "Wir konnten keine Modelle von '{0}' laden. Das Konto oder der API-Schlüssel verfügt nicht über die erforderlichen Berechtigungen."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}'. The API key is probably missing, invalid, or expired.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2041046579"] = "Modelle aus '{0}' konnten nicht geladen werden. Wahrscheinlich fehlt der API-Schlüssel, ist ungültig oder abgelaufen."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider is currently unavailable or could not be reached.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2115688703"] = "Wir konnten keine Modelle von '{0}' laden, da der Anbieter derzeit nicht verfügbar oder nicht erreichbar ist."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider returned an unexpected response.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2186844789"] = "Wir konnten keine Modelle von '{0}' laden, da der Anbieter eine unerwartete Antwort zurückgegeben hat."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' due to an unknown error.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T3907712809"] = "Wir konnten die Modelle aus '{0}' aufgrund eines unbekannten Fehlers nicht laden."
+
 -- Model as configured by whisper.cpp
 UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::SELFHOSTED::PROVIDERSELFHOSTED::T3313940770"] = "Modell wie in whisper.cpp konfiguriert"
 

app/MindWork AI Studio/Plugins/languages/en-us-97dfb1ba-50c4-4440-8dfa-6575daf543c8/plugin.lua

@@ -6207,6 +6207,21 @@ UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::LLMPROVIDERSEXTENSIONS::T3424652889"] = "Un
 -- no model selected
 UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODEL::T2234274832"] = "no model selected"
 
+-- We could not load models from '{0}'. The account or API key does not have the required permissions.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T1143085203"] = "We could not load models from '{0}'. The account or API key does not have the required permissions."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}'. The API key is probably missing, invalid, or expired.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2041046579"] = "We could not load models from '{0}'. The API key is probably missing, invalid, or expired."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider is currently unavailable or could not be reached.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2115688703"] = "We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider is currently unavailable or could not be reached."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider returned an unexpected response.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T2186844789"] = "We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider returned an unexpected response."
+
+-- We could not load models from '{0}' due to an unknown error.
+UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::MODELLOADFAILUREREASONEXTENSIONS::T3907712809"] = "We could not load models from '{0}' due to an unknown error."
+
 -- Model as configured by whisper.cpp
 UI_TEXT_CONTENT["AISTUDIO::PROVIDER::SELFHOSTED::PROVIDERSELFHOSTED::T3313940770"] = "Model as configured by whisper.cpp"
 

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/AlibabaCloud/ProviderAlibabaCloud.cs

@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
-using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
+using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 
 using AIStudio.Chat;
 using AIStudio.Provider.OpenAI;
@@ -71,7 +70,7 @@ public sealed class ProviderAlibabaCloud() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.ALIBABA_C
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         var additionalModels = new[]
         {
@@ -100,17 +99,21 @@ public sealed class ProviderAlibabaCloud() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.ALIBABA_C
             new Model("qwen2.5-vl-3b-instruct", "Qwen2.5-VL 3b"),  
         };
         
-        return this.LoadModels(["q"], SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional).ContinueWith(t => t.Result.Concat(additionalModels).OrderBy(x => x.Id).AsEnumerable(), token);
-    }
-
-    /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(["q"], SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
         {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+            Models = [..result.Models.Concat(additionalModels).OrderBy(x => x.Id)]
+        };
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    {
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
+    }
+    
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         
         var additionalModels = new[]
@@ -118,45 +121,33 @@ public sealed class ProviderAlibabaCloud() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.ALIBABA_C
             new Model("text-embedding-v3", "text-embedding-v3"),
         };
         
-        return this.LoadModels(["text-embedding-"], SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional).ContinueWith(t => t.Result.Concat(additionalModels).OrderBy(x => x.Id).AsEnumerable(), token);
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(["text-embedding-"], SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models = [..result.Models.Concat(additionalModels).OrderBy(x => x.Id)]
+        };
     }
 
     #region Overrides of BaseProvider
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
     #endregion
 
     #endregion
     
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(string[] prefixes, SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(string[] prefixes, SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-        
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-        
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return modelResponse.Data.Where(model => prefixes.Any(prefix => model.Id.StartsWith(prefix, StringComparison.InvariantCulture)));
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data.Where(model => prefixes.Any(prefix => model.Id.StartsWith(prefix, StringComparison.InvariantCulture))),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional);
     }
     
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/Anthropic/ProviderAnthropic.cs

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 using System.Text;
 using System.Text.Json;
@@ -124,7 +123,7 @@ public sealed class ProviderAnthropic() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.ANTHROPIC, "
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         var additionalModels = new[]
         {
@@ -136,59 +135,52 @@ public sealed class ProviderAnthropic() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.ANTHROPIC, "
             new Model("claude-3-opus-latest", "Claude 3 Opus (Latest)"),
         };
         
-        return this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional).ContinueWith(t => t.Result.Concat(additionalModels).OrderBy(x => x.Id).AsEnumerable(), token);
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models = [..result.Models.Concat(additionalModels).OrderBy(x => x.Id)]
+        };
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     #endregion
     
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models?limit=100",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data,
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional,
+            failureReasonSelector: (response, _) => response.StatusCode switch
             {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
+                System.Net.HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized => ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY,
+                System.Net.HttpStatusCode.Forbidden => ModelLoadFailureReason.AUTHENTICATION_OR_PERMISSION_ERROR,
+                _ => ModelLoadFailureReason.PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE,
+            },
+            requestConfigurator: (request, secretKey) =>
             {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-        
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models?limit=100");
-        
-        // Set the authorization header:
                 request.Headers.Add("x-api-key", secretKey);
-
-        // Set the Anthropic version:
                 request.Headers.Add("anthropic-version", "2023-06-01");
-        
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(JSON_SERIALIZER_OPTIONS, token);
-        return modelResponse.Data;
+            },
+            jsonSerializerOptions: JSON_SERIALIZER_OPTIONS);
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/BaseProvider.cs

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ public abstract class BaseProvider : IProvider, ISecretId
     /// <summary>
     /// The HTTP client to use it for all requests.
     /// </summary>
-    protected readonly HttpClient httpClient = new();
+    protected readonly HttpClient HttpClient = new();
     
     /// <summary>
     /// The logger to use.
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ public abstract class BaseProvider : IProvider, ISecretId
         this.Provider = provider;
 
         // Set the base URL:
-        this.httpClient.BaseAddress = new(url);
+        this.HttpClient.BaseAddress = new(url);
     }
     
     #region Handling of IProvider, which all providers must implement
@@ -103,16 +103,16 @@ public abstract class BaseProvider : IProvider, ISecretId
     public abstract Task<IReadOnlyList<IReadOnlyList<float>>> EmbedTextAsync(Model embeddingModel, SettingsManager settingsManager, CancellationToken token = default, params List<string> texts);
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public abstract Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public abstract Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public abstract Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public abstract Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public abstract Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public abstract Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public abstract Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public abstract Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
     
     #endregion
     
@@ -129,6 +129,71 @@ public abstract class BaseProvider : IProvider, ISecretId
 
     #endregion
 
+    protected static ModelLoadResult SuccessfulModelLoadResult(IEnumerable<Model> models) => ModelLoadResult.FromModels(models);
+
+    protected static ModelLoadResult FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason failureReason, string? technicalDetails = null) => ModelLoadResult.Failure(failureReason, technicalDetails);
+
+    protected async Task<string?> GetModelLoadingSecretKey(SecretStoreType storeType, string? apiKeyProvisional = null, bool isTryingSecret = false) => apiKeyProvisional switch
+    {
+        not null => apiKeyProvisional,
+        _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType, isTrying: isTryingSecret) switch
+        {
+            { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
+            _ => null,
+        }
+    };
+
+    protected static ModelLoadFailureReason GetDefaultModelLoadFailureReason(HttpResponseMessage response) => response.StatusCode switch
+    {
+        HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized => ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY,
+        HttpStatusCode.Forbidden => ModelLoadFailureReason.AUTHENTICATION_OR_PERMISSION_ERROR,
+        
+        _ => ModelLoadFailureReason.PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE,
+    };
+
+    protected async Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModelsResponse<TResponse>(
+        SecretStoreType storeType,
+        string requestPath,
+        Func<TResponse, IEnumerable<Model>> modelFactory,
+        CancellationToken token,
+        string? apiKeyProvisional = null,
+        Func<HttpResponseMessage, string, ModelLoadFailureReason>? failureReasonSelector = null,
+        Action<HttpRequestMessage, string>? requestConfigurator = null,
+        JsonSerializerOptions? jsonSerializerOptions = null,
+        bool isTryingSecret = false)
+    {
+        var secretKey = await this.GetModelLoadingSecretKey(storeType, apiKeyProvisional, isTryingSecret);
+        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(secretKey) && !isTryingSecret)
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY, "No API key available for model loading.");
+
+        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, requestPath);
+        if (requestConfigurator is not null)
+            requestConfigurator(request, secretKey ?? string.Empty);
+        else if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(secretKey))
+            request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
+
+        using var response = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
+        var responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(token);
+        if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
+        {
+            var failureReason = failureReasonSelector?.Invoke(response, responseBody) ?? GetDefaultModelLoadFailureReason(response);
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(failureReason, $"Status={(int)response.StatusCode} {response.ReasonPhrase}; Body='{responseBody}'");
+        }
+
+        try
+        {
+            var parsedResponse = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<TResponse>(responseBody, jsonSerializerOptions ?? JSON_SERIALIZER_OPTIONS);
+            if (parsedResponse is null)
+                return FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_RESPONSE, "Model list response could not be deserialized.");
+
+            return SuccessfulModelLoadResult(modelFactory(parsedResponse));
+        }
+        catch (Exception e)
+        {
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_RESPONSE, e.Message);
+        }
+    }
+    
     /// <summary>
     /// Sends a request and handles rate limiting by exponential backoff.
     /// </summary>
@@ -155,7 +220,7 @@ public abstract class BaseProvider : IProvider, ISecretId
             // Please notice: We do not dispose the response here. The caller is responsible
             // for disposing the response object. This is important because the response
             // object is used to read the stream.
-            var nextResponse = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, HttpCompletionOption.ResponseHeadersRead, token);
+            var nextResponse = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(request, HttpCompletionOption.ResponseHeadersRead, token);
             if (nextResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode)
             {
                 response = nextResponse;
@@ -696,7 +761,7 @@ public abstract class BaseProvider : IProvider, ISecretId
                     break;
             }
             
-            using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
+            using var response = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
             var responseBody = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(token).Result;
         
             if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
@@ -766,7 +831,7 @@ public abstract class BaseProvider : IProvider, ISecretId
             
             // Set the content:
             request.Content = new StringContent(embeddingRequest, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
-            using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
+            using var response = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
             var responseBody = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(token).Result;
         
             if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/DeepSeek/ProviderDeepSeek.cs

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 
 using AIStudio.Chat;
@@ -70,54 +69,38 @@ public sealed class ProviderDeepSeek() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.DEEP_SEEK, "h
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         return this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-        
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return modelResponse.Data;
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data,
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/Fireworks/ProviderFireworks.cs

@@ -71,33 +71,32 @@ public class ProviderFireworks() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.FIREWORKS, "https:/
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         // Source: https://docs.fireworks.ai/api-reference/audio-transcriptions#param-model
-        return Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>(
-            new List<Model>
-            {
-                new("whisper-v3", "Whisper v3"),
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels(
+        [
+            new Model("whisper-v3", "Whisper v3"),
             // new("whisper-v3-turbo", "Whisper v3 Turbo"), // does not work
-            });
+        ]));
     }
     
     #endregion

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/GWDG/ProviderGWDG.cs

@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
-using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
+using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 
 using AIStudio.Chat;
 using AIStudio.Provider.OpenAI;
@@ -71,61 +70,55 @@ public sealed class ProviderGWDG() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.GWDG, "https://ch
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model => !model.Id.StartsWith("e5-mistral-7b-instruct", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models = [..result.Models.Where(model => !model.Id.StartsWith("e5-mistral-7b-instruct", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))]
+        };
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model => model.Id.StartsWith("e5-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models = [..result.Models.Where(model => model.Id.StartsWith("e5-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))]
+        };
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         // Source: https://docs.hpc.gwdg.de/services/saia/index.html#voice-to-text
-        return Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>(
-            new List<Model>
-            {
-                new("whisper-large-v2", "Whisper v2 Large"),
-            });
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels(
+        [
+            new Model("whisper-large-v2", "Whisper v2 Large"),
+        ]));
     }
     
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private async Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
+        var result = await this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data,
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional);
 
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
+        if (!result.Success)
+            LOGGER.LogWarning("Failed to load models for provider {ProviderId}. FailureReason: {FailureReason}. TechnicalDetails: {TechnicalDetails}", this.Id, result.FailureReason, result.TechnicalDetails);
 
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return modelResponse.Data;
+        return result;
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/Google/ProviderGoogle.cs

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 using System.Text;
 using System.Text.Json;
@@ -107,7 +106,7 @@ public class ProviderGoogle() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.GOOGLE, "https://gener
             // Set the content:
             request.Content = new StringContent(embeddingRequest, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
             
-            using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
+            using var response = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
             var responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(token);
         
             if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
@@ -139,80 +138,64 @@ public class ProviderGoogle() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.GOOGLE, "https://gener
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model =>
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models =
+            [
+                ..result.Models.Where(model =>
                         model.Id.StartsWith("gemini-", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                         !this.IsEmbeddingModel(model.Id))
-            .Select(this.WithDisplayNameFallback);
+                    .Select(this.WithDisplayNameFallback)
+            ]
+        };
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model => this.IsEmbeddingModel(model.Id))
-            .Select(this.WithDisplayNameFallback);
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models =
+            [
+                ..result.Models.Where(model => this.IsEmbeddingModel(model.Id))
+                    .Select(this.WithDisplayNameFallback)
+            ]
+        };
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IReadOnlyList<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(secretKey))
-            return [];
-
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-        
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-        {
-            LOGGER.LogError("Failed to load models with status code {ResponseStatusCode} and body: '{ResponseBody}'.", response.StatusCode, await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(token));
-            return [];
-        }
-
-        try
-        {
-            var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-            if (modelResponse == default || modelResponse.Data.Count is 0)
-            {
-                LOGGER.LogError("Google model list response did not contain a valid data array.");
-                return [];
-            }
-
-            return modelResponse.Data
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data
                 .Where(model => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(model.Id))
-                .Select(model => new Model(this.NormalizeModelId(model.Id), model.DisplayName))
-                .ToArray();
-        }
-        catch (Exception e)
+                .Select(model => new Model(this.NormalizeModelId(model.Id), model.DisplayName)),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional,
+            failureReasonSelector: (response, _) => response.StatusCode switch
             {
-            LOGGER.LogError("Failed to parse Google model list response: '{Message}'.", e.Message);
-            return [];
-        }
+                System.Net.HttpStatusCode.Forbidden => ModelLoadFailureReason.AUTHENTICATION_OR_PERMISSION_ERROR,
+                System.Net.HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized => ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY,
+                _ => ModelLoadFailureReason.PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE,
+            });
     }
 
     private bool IsEmbeddingModel(string modelId)

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/Groq/ProviderGroq.cs

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 
 using AIStudio.Chat;
@@ -74,57 +73,41 @@ public class ProviderGroq() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.GROQ, "https://api.groq.
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         return this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>([]);
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-        
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return modelResponse.Data.Where(n =>
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data.Where(n =>
                 !n.Id.StartsWith("whisper-", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                 !n.Id.StartsWith("distil-", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
-            !n.Id.Contains("-tts", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
+                !n.Id.Contains("-tts", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/Helmholtz/ProviderHelmholtz.cs

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using System.Net.Http.Headers;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
+using System.Text.Json;
 
 using AIStudio.Chat;
 using AIStudio.Provider.OpenAI;
@@ -71,60 +72,81 @@ public sealed class ProviderHelmholtz() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.HELMHOLTZ, "
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model => !model.Id.StartsWith("text-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) &&
-                                     !model.Id.StartsWith("alias-embedding", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models =
+            [
+                ..result.Models.Where(model => !model.Id.StartsWith("text-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) &&
+                                               !model.Id.Contains("-embedding", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)
+                                               )
+            ]
+        };
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model => 
-            model.Id.StartsWith("alias-embedding", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) ||
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models =
+            [
+                ..result.Models.Where(model =>
+                    model.Id.Contains("-embedding", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) ||
                     model.Id.StartsWith("text-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) ||
-            model.Id.Contains("gritlm", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
+                    model.Id.Contains("gritlm", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
+            ]
+        };
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private async Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
+        var secretKey = await this.GetModelLoadingSecretKey(storeType, apiKeyProvisional);
+        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(secretKey))
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY, "No API key available for model loading.");
 
         using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
         request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
 
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
+        using var response = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
+        var body = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(token);
         if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(GetDefaultModelLoadFailureReason(response), $"Status={(int)response.StatusCode} {response.ReasonPhrase}; Body='{body}'");
 
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return modelResponse.Data;
+        try
+        {
+            var modelResponse = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<ModelsResponse>(body, JSON_SERIALIZER_OPTIONS);
+            return SuccessfulModelLoadResult(modelResponse.Data);
+        }
+        catch (JsonException e)
+        {
+            if (body.Contains("API key", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
+                return FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY, body);
+            
+            LOGGER.LogError(e, "Unexpected error while parsing models from Helmholtz API response. Status Code: {StatusCode}. Reason: {ReasonPhrase}. Response Body: '{ResponseBody}'", response.StatusCode, response.ReasonPhrase, body);
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_RESPONSE, body);
+        }
+        catch (Exception e)
+        {
+            LOGGER.LogError(e, "Unexpected error while loading models from Helmholtz API. Status Code: {StatusCode}. Reason: {ReasonPhrase}", response.StatusCode, response.ReasonPhrase);
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(ModelLoadFailureReason.UNKNOWN, e.Message);
+        }
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/HuggingFace/ProviderHuggingFace.cs

@@ -74,27 +74,27 @@ public sealed class ProviderHuggingFace : BaseProvider
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     #endregion

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/IProvider.cs

@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ public interface IProvider
     /// <param name="apiKeyProvisional">The provisional API key to use. Useful when the user is adding a new provider. When null, the stored API key is used.</param>
     /// <param name="token">The cancellation token.</param>
     /// <returns>The list of text models.</returns>
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Load all possible image models that can be used with this provider.
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ public interface IProvider
     /// <param name="apiKeyProvisional">The provisional API key to use. Useful when the user is adding a new provider. When null, the stored API key is used.</param>
     /// <param name="token">The cancellation token.</param>
     /// <returns>The list of image models.</returns>
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Load all possible embedding models that can be used with this provider.
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ public interface IProvider
     /// <param name="apiKeyProvisional">The provisional API key to use. Useful when the user is adding a new provider. When null, the stored API key is used.</param>
     /// <param name="token">The cancellation token.</param>
     /// <returns>The list of embedding models.</returns>
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
     
     /// <summary>
     /// Load all possible transcription models that can be used with this provider.
@@ -100,5 +100,5 @@ public interface IProvider
     /// <param name="apiKeyProvisional">The provisional API key to use. Useful when the user is adding a new provider. When null, the stored API key is used.</param>
     /// <param name="token">>The cancellation token.</param>
     /// <returns>>The list of transcription models.</returns>
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default);
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/Mistral/ProviderMistral.cs

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 
 using AIStudio.Chat;
@@ -77,72 +76,62 @@ public sealed class ProviderMistral() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.MISTRAL, "http
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         var modelResponse = await this.LoadModelList(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, apiKeyProvisional, token);
-        if(modelResponse == default)
-            return [];
+        if(!modelResponse.Success)
+            return modelResponse;
         
-        return modelResponse.Data.Where(n => 
+        return modelResponse with
+        {
+            Models =
+            [
+                ..modelResponse.Models.Where(n =>
                     !n.Id.StartsWith("code", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                     !n.Id.Contains("embed", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                     !n.Id.Contains("moderation", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
-            .Select(n => new Provider.Model(n.Id, null));
+            ]
+        };
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         var modelResponse = await this.LoadModelList(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, apiKeyProvisional, token);
-        if(modelResponse == default)
-            return [];
+        if(!modelResponse.Success)
+            return modelResponse;
         
-        return modelResponse.Data.Where(n => n.Id.Contains("embed", StringComparison.InvariantCulture))
-            .Select(n => new Provider.Model(n.Id, null));
-    }
-    
-    /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+        return modelResponse with
         {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Provider.Model>());
+            Models = [..modelResponse.Models.Where(n => n.Id.Contains("embed", StringComparison.InvariantCulture))]
+        };
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    {
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
+    }
+    
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         // Source: https://docs.mistral.ai/capabilities/audio_transcription
-        return Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>>(
-            new List<Provider.Model>
-            {
-                new("voxtral-mini-latest", "Voxtral Mini Latest"),
-            });
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels(
+        [
+            new Provider.Model("voxtral-mini-latest", "Voxtral Mini Latest"),
+        ]));
     }
     
     #endregion
     
-    private async Task<ModelsResponse> LoadModelList(SecretStoreType storeType, string? apiKeyProvisional, CancellationToken token)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModelList(SecretStoreType storeType, string? apiKeyProvisional, CancellationToken token)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return default;
-        
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return default;
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return modelResponse;
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data.Select(n => new Provider.Model(n.Id, null)),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/ModelLoadFailureReason.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+namespace AIStudio.Provider;
+
+public enum ModelLoadFailureReason
+{
+    NONE,
+    INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY,
+    AUTHENTICATION_OR_PERMISSION_ERROR,
+    PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE,
+    INVALID_RESPONSE,
+    UNKNOWN,
+}

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/ModelLoadFailureReasonExtensions.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+using AIStudio.Tools.PluginSystem;
+
+namespace AIStudio.Provider;
+
+public static class ModelLoadFailureReasonExtensions
+{
+    private static string TB(string fallbackEN) => I18N.I.T(fallbackEN, typeof(ModelLoadFailureReasonExtensions).Namespace, nameof(ModelLoadFailureReasonExtensions));
+
+    public static string ToUserMessage(this ModelLoadFailureReason failureReason, string providerName) => failureReason switch
+    {
+        ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_OR_MISSING_API_KEY => string.Format(TB("We could not load models from '{0}'. The API key is probably missing, invalid, or expired."), providerName),
+        ModelLoadFailureReason.AUTHENTICATION_OR_PERMISSION_ERROR => string.Format(TB("We could not load models from '{0}'. The account or API key does not have the required permissions."), providerName),
+        ModelLoadFailureReason.PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE => string.Format(TB("We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider is currently unavailable or could not be reached."), providerName),
+        ModelLoadFailureReason.INVALID_RESPONSE => string.Format(TB("We could not load models from '{0}' because the provider returned an unexpected response."), providerName),
+        ModelLoadFailureReason.UNKNOWN => string.Format(TB("We could not load models from '{0}' due to an unknown error."), providerName),
+        
+        _ => string.Empty,
+    };
+}

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/ModelLoadResult.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+namespace AIStudio.Provider;
+
+public sealed record ModelLoadResult(
+    IReadOnlyList<Model> Models,
+    ModelLoadFailureReason FailureReason = ModelLoadFailureReason.NONE,
+    string? TechnicalDetails = null)
+{
+    public bool Success => this.FailureReason is ModelLoadFailureReason.NONE;
+
+    public static ModelLoadResult FromModels(IEnumerable<Model> models)
+    {
+        return new([..models]);
+    }
+
+    public static ModelLoadResult Failure(ModelLoadFailureReason failureReason, string? technicalDetails = null)
+    {
+        return new([], failureReason, technicalDetails);
+    }
+}

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/NoProvider.cs

@@ -18,13 +18,13 @@ public class NoProvider : IProvider
     /// <inheritdoc />
     public string AdditionalJsonApiParameters { get; init; } = string.Empty;
 
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>([]);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
 
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>([]);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>([]);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     
-    public Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>([]);
+    public Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default) => Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
 
     public async IAsyncEnumerable<ContentStreamChunk> StreamChatCompletion(Model chatModel, ChatThread chatChatThread, SettingsManager settingsManager, [EnumeratorCancellation] CancellationToken token = default)
     {

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/OpenAI/ProviderOpenAI.cs

@@ -233,61 +233,57 @@ public sealed class ProviderOpenAI() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.OPEN_AI, "https
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, ["chatgpt-", "gpt-", "o1-", "o3-", "o4-"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model => !model.Id.Contains("image", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, ["chatgpt-", "gpt-", "o1-", "o3-", "o4-"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models =
+            [
+                ..result.Models.Where(model => !model.Id.Contains("image", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                                                !model.Id.Contains("realtime", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                                                !model.Id.Contains("audio", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                                                !model.Id.Contains("tts", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
-                                     !model.Id.Contains("transcribe", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
+                                               !model.Id.Contains("transcribe", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
+            ]
+        };
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         return this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.IMAGE_PROVIDER, ["dall-e-", "gpt-image"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         return this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, ["text-embedding-"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.TRANSCRIPTION_PROVIDER, ["whisper-", "gpt-"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(model => model.Id.StartsWith("whisper-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) ||
-                                     model.Id.Contains("-transcribe", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.TRANSCRIPTION_PROVIDER, ["whisper-", "gpt-"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models =
+            [
+                ..result.Models.Where(model => model.Id.StartsWith("whisper-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) ||
+                                               model.Id.Contains("-transcribe", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
+            ]
+        };
     }
     
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, string[] prefixes, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, string[] prefixes, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-        
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return modelResponse.Data.Where(model => prefixes.Any(prefix => model.Id.StartsWith(prefix, StringComparison.InvariantCulture)));
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data.Where(model => prefixes.Any(prefix => model.Id.StartsWith(prefix, StringComparison.InvariantCulture))),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/OpenRouter/ProviderOpenRouter.cs

@@ -81,61 +81,37 @@ public sealed class ProviderOpenRouter() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.OPEN_ROUTER
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         return this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, token, apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         return this.LoadEmbeddingModels(token, apiKeyProvisional);
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-        
-        // Set custom headers for project identification:
-        request.Headers.Add("HTTP-Referer", PROJECT_WEBSITE);
-        request.Headers.Add("X-Title", PROJECT_NAME);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<OpenRouterModelsResponse>(token);
-
-        // Filter out non-text models (image, audio, embedding models) and convert to Model
-        return modelResponse.Data
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<OpenRouterModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data
                 .Where(n =>
                     !n.Id.Contains("whisper", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                     !n.Id.Contains("dall-e", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
@@ -145,38 +121,30 @@ public sealed class ProviderOpenRouter() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.OPEN_ROUTER
                     !n.Id.Contains("stable-diffusion", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                     !n.Id.Contains("flux", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
                     !n.Id.Contains("midjourney", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
-            .Select(n => new Model(n.Id, n.Name));
-    }
-
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadEmbeddingModels(CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+                .Select(n => new Model(n.Id, n.Name)),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional,
+            requestConfigurator: (request, secretKey) =>
             {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "embeddings/models");
                 request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-        
-        // Set custom headers for project identification:
                 request.Headers.Add("HTTP-Referer", PROJECT_WEBSITE);
                 request.Headers.Add("X-Title", PROJECT_NAME);
+            });
+    }
 
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<OpenRouterModelsResponse>(token);
-
-        // Convert all embedding models to Model
-        return modelResponse.Data.Select(n => new Model(n.Id, n.Name));
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadEmbeddingModels(CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    {
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<OpenRouterModelsResponse>(
+            SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER,
+            "embeddings/models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data.Select(n => new Model(n.Id, n.Name)),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional,
+            requestConfigurator: (request, secretKey) =>
+            {
+                request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
+                request.Headers.Add("HTTP-Referer", PROJECT_WEBSITE);
+                request.Headers.Add("X-Title", PROJECT_NAME);
+            });
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/Perplexity/ProviderPerplexity.cs

@@ -77,30 +77,30 @@ public sealed class ProviderPerplexity() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.PERPLEXITY,
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         return this.LoadModels();
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     #endregion
 
-    private Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels() => Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>(KNOWN_MODELS);
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels() => Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels(KNOWN_MODELS));
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/SelfHosted/ProviderSelfHosted.cs

@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ public sealed class ProviderSelfHosted(Host host, string hostname) : BaseProvide
         return await this.PerformStandardTextEmbeddingRequest(requestedSecret, embeddingModel, host, token: token, texts: texts);
     }
     
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         try
         {
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ public sealed class ProviderSelfHosted(Host host, string hostname) : BaseProvide
                 case Host.LLAMA_CPP:
                     // Right now, llama.cpp only supports one model.
                     // There is no API to list the model(s).
-                    return [ new Provider.Model("as configured by llama.cpp", null) ];
+                    return ModelLoadResult.FromModels([ new Provider.Model("as configured by llama.cpp", null) ]);
             
                 case Host.LM_STUDIO:
                 case Host.OLLAMA:
@@ -98,22 +98,22 @@ public sealed class ProviderSelfHosted(Host host, string hostname) : BaseProvide
                     return await this.LoadModels( SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, ["embed"], [], token, apiKeyProvisional);
             }
 
-            return [];
+            return ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]);
         }
         catch(Exception e)
         {
             LOGGER.LogError($"Failed to load text models from self-hosted provider: {e.Message}");
-            return [];
+            return ModelLoadResult.Failure(ModelLoadFailureReason.UNKNOWN, e.Message);
         }
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Provider.Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
 
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         try
         {
@@ -125,69 +125,61 @@ public sealed class ProviderSelfHosted(Host host, string hostname) : BaseProvide
                     return await this.LoadModels( SecretStoreType.EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, [], ["embed"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
             }
 
-            return [];
+            return ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]);
         }
         catch(Exception e)
         {
             LOGGER.LogError($"Failed to load text models from self-hosted provider: {e.Message}");
-            return [];
+            return ModelLoadResult.Failure(ModelLoadFailureReason.UNKNOWN, e.Message);
         }
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
         try
         {
             switch (host)
             {
                 case Host.WHISPER_CPP:
-                    return new List<Provider.Model>
-                    {
-                        new("loaded-model", TB("Model as configured by whisper.cpp")),
-                    };
+                    return ModelLoadResult.FromModels(
+                    [
+                        new Provider.Model("loaded-model", TB("Model as configured by whisper.cpp")),
+                    ]);
                 
                 case Host.OLLAMA:
                 case Host.VLLM:
                     return await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.TRANSCRIPTION_PROVIDER, [], [], token, apiKeyProvisional);
                 
                 default:
-                    return [];
+                    return ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]);
             }
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
             LOGGER.LogError($"Failed to load transcription models from self-hosted provider: {e.Message}");
-            return [];
+            return ModelLoadResult.Failure(ModelLoadFailureReason.UNKNOWN, e.Message);
         }
     }
     
     #endregion
 
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Provider.Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, string[] ignorePhrases, string[] filterPhrases, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private async Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, string[] ignorePhrases, string[] filterPhrases, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType, isTrying: true) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
+        var secretKey = await this.GetModelLoadingSecretKey(storeType, apiKeyProvisional, true);
                     
         using var lmStudioRequest = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
         if(secretKey is not null)
-            lmStudioRequest.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", apiKeyProvisional);
+            lmStudioRequest.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
                     
-        using var lmStudioResponse = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(lmStudioRequest, token);
+        using var lmStudioResponse = await this.HttpClient.SendAsync(lmStudioRequest, token);
         if(!lmStudioResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
+            return FailedModelLoadResult(GetDefaultModelLoadFailureReason(lmStudioResponse), $"Status={(int)lmStudioResponse.StatusCode} {lmStudioResponse.ReasonPhrase}");
 
         var lmStudioModelResponse = await lmStudioResponse.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        return lmStudioModelResponse.Data.
+        return SuccessfulModelLoadResult(lmStudioModelResponse.Data.
             Where(model => !ignorePhrases.Any(ignorePhrase => model.Id.Contains(ignorePhrase, StringComparison.InvariantCulture)) &&
                            filterPhrases.All( filter => model.Id.Contains(filter, StringComparison.InvariantCulture)))
-            .Select(n => new Provider.Model(n.Id, null));
+            .Select(n => new Provider.Model(n.Id, null)));
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/Provider/X/ProviderX.cs

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-using System.Net.Http.Headers;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 
 using AIStudio.Chat;
@@ -71,67 +70,49 @@ public sealed class ProviderX() : BaseProvider(LLMProviders.X, "https://api.x.ai
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override async Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTextModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        var models = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, ["grok-"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
-        return models.Where(n => !n.Id.Contains("-image", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
+        var result = await this.LoadModels(SecretStoreType.LLM_PROVIDER, ["grok-"], token, apiKeyProvisional);
+        return result with
+        {
+            Models = [..result.Models.Where(n => !n.Id.Contains("-image", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))]
+        };
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetImageModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>([]);
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetEmbeddingModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult<IEnumerable<Model>>([]);
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public override Task<IEnumerable<Model>> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
+    public override Task<ModelLoadResult> GetTranscriptionModels(string? apiKeyProvisional = null, CancellationToken token = default)
     {
-        return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<Model>());
+        return Task.FromResult(ModelLoadResult.FromModels([]));
     }
     
     #endregion
     
-    private async Task<IEnumerable<Model>> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, string[] prefixes, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
+    private Task<ModelLoadResult> LoadModels(SecretStoreType storeType, string[] prefixes, CancellationToken token, string? apiKeyProvisional = null)
     {
-        var secretKey = apiKeyProvisional switch
-        {
-            not null => apiKeyProvisional,
-            _ => await RUST_SERVICE.GetAPIKey(this, storeType) switch
-            {
-                { Success: true } result => await result.Secret.Decrypt(ENCRYPTION),
-                _ => null,
-            }
-        };
-
-        if (secretKey is null)
-            return [];
-        
-        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "models");
-        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", secretKey);
-
-        using var response = await this.httpClient.SendAsync(request, token);
-        if(!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
-            return [];
-
-        var modelResponse = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ModelsResponse>(token);
-        
-        //
-        // The API does not return the alias model names, so we have to add them manually:
-        // Right now, the only alias to add is `grok-2-latest`.
-        //
-        return modelResponse.Data.Where(model => prefixes.Any(prefix => model.Id.StartsWith(prefix, StringComparison.InvariantCulture)))
+        return this.LoadModelsResponse<ModelsResponse>(
+            storeType,
+            "models",
+            modelResponse => modelResponse.Data.Where(model => prefixes.Any(prefix => model.Id.StartsWith(prefix, StringComparison.InvariantCulture)))
                 .Concat([
                     new Model
                     {
                         Id = "grok-2-latest",
                         DisplayName = "Grok 2.0 (latest)",
                     }
-            ]);
+                ]),
+            token,
+            apiKeyProvisional);
     }
 }

app/MindWork AI Studio/wwwroot/changelog/v26.3.1.md

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 - Improved the logbook reliability by significantly reducing duplicate log entries.
 - Improved file attachments in chats: configuration and project files such as `Dockerfile`, `Caddyfile`, `Makefile`, or `Jenkinsfile` are now included more reliably when you send them to the AI.
 - Improved the validation of additional API parameters in the advanced provider settings to help catch formatting mistakes earlier.
+- Improved the model checks and model list loading by showing clearer error messages when AI Studio cannot access a provider because the API key is missing, invalid, expired, or lacks the required permissions.
 - Improved the app startup resilience by allowing AI Studio to continue without Qdrant if it fails to initialize.
 - Improved the translation assistant by updating the system and user prompts.
 - Improved OpenAI-compatible providers by refactoring their streaming request handling to be more consistent and reliable.