With LINQPad 9 introducing excellent AI integration, I would like to suggest adding Google Vertex AI as a native AI Provider. While some models are accessible via OpenRouter, many enterprise users are restricted to using models hosted directly on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for compliance and billing reasons.

PROPOSED FEATURES:

• Native Support for Vertex AI Models: Support for Google's Gemini family (Pro, Flash) and Anthropic Claude models hosted on Vertex AI.
• Authentication Methods:
• Support for Vertex AI API Keys (for quick setup).

• Support for Service Account JSON (file path or raw JSON) for enterprise IAM-based security.

• Regional Endpoints: Ability to specify the GCP region (e.g., us-central1) since Vertex AI endpoints are region-specific.

WHY THIS IS VALUABLE:

1. Enterprise Compliance: Many organizations only allow AI usage through approved cloud providers like GCP to ensure data residency and security agreements are met.
2. Unified Billing: Users already on GCP can keep their AI costs under their existing cloud subscription and quotas.
3. Security: Supporting Service Accounts allows for more secure, role-based access control (IAM) compared to static API keys.
4. Model Variety: Vertex AI provides a robust hub for both Google-native and third-party models (like Claude), making it a powerful "one-stop shop" for developers using LINQPad's AI Agent and Chat features.

Adding Vertex AI to the "Add a New AI Provider" dialog would be a huge benefit for developers working within the Google Cloud ecosystem.