OpenAI-Compatible Endpoints

Point PraisonAI at any OpenAI-compatible /v1 host by setting base_url and api_key on the Agent — bare catalog model ids are fine, no provider/ prefix required.

Quick Start

Simplest form

Pass base_url and api_key at the top level with a bare model id.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant",
    llm="deepseek-v4-flash",
    base_url="https://api.pzero.studio/v1",
    api_key="your-key-or-empty-if-public",
)
agent.start("Explain what an OpenAI-compatible endpoint is in one paragraph.")

Environment-variable variant

Set the host once with environment variables, then keep the code clean.

export OPENAI_API_BASE=https://api.pzero.studio/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant",
    llm="deepseek-v4-flash",
)
agent.start("Hi")

Dict form (equivalent)

The dict form does the same thing when you prefer to bundle connection settings inside llm.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant",
    llm={
        "model": "deepseek-v4-flash",
        "api_base": "https://api.pzero.studio/v1",
        "api_key": "",
    },
)
agent.start("Hello")

How It Works

PraisonAI routes a bare model id plus a base_url through the OpenAI-compatible client.

Situation	What happens
Bare model + `base_url` set	Routed as `openai/<model>` to `<base_url>`
Prefixed model (e.g. `anthropic/…`, `ollama/…`, `openai/…`)	Passed through unchanged
Bare model with no `base_url` and no `OPENAI_API_BASE`	Uses OpenAI default (`api.openai.com/v1`)

Configuration Options

Set these top-level Agent parameters for any OpenAI-compatible host.

Option	Type	Default	Description
`llm`	`str` \| `dict`	required	Catalog model id (e.g. `"deepseek-v4-flash"`) or a full dict `{model, api_base, api_key}`
`base_url`	`str`	`None`	OpenAI-compatible `/v1` root, e.g. `https://api.pzero.studio/v1`
`api_key`	`str`	`None`	API key for the host (may be empty for public catalogs)

Agent SDK Reference

Full parameter surface for the Agent class.

Common Patterns

Every host uses the same 5-line pattern — only base_url and the catalog id change.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    llm="deepseek-v4-flash",
    base_url="https://api.pzero.studio/v1",
    api_key="",
)
agent.start("Hello")

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    llm="meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3-8B-Instruct",
    base_url="https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai",
    api_key="your-deepinfra-key",
)
agent.start("Hello")

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    llm="accounts/fireworks/models/llama-v3-8b-instruct",
    base_url="https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1",
    api_key="your-fireworks-key",
)
agent.start("Hello")

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    llm="meta-llama/Llama-3-8b-chat-hf",
    base_url="https://api.together.xyz/v1",
    api_key="your-together-key",
)
agent.start("Hello")

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    llm="meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3-8B-Instruct",
    base_url="http://localhost:8000/v1",
    api_key="not-needed",
)
agent.start("Hello")

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    llm="local-model",
    base_url="http://localhost:1234/v1",
    api_key="not-needed",
)
agent.start("Hello")

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    llm="your-catalog-id",
    base_url="https://gateway.company.internal/v1",
    api_key="your-key",
)
agent.start("Hello")

Choosing Which Style to Use

Pick the routing style that matches what you connect to.

Best Practices

Use base_url at the top level for one-off hosts

The top-level base_url is cleaner than the dict form for single-agent scripts. Reach for the dict form only when you want connection settings bundled inside llm.

Use env vars when the host is fixed

Set OPENAI_API_BASE and OPENAI_API_KEY when the host stays the same across runs. This keeps code portable across environments.

Keep embeddings on their own provider

Most OpenAI-compatible chat hosts don’t serve embeddings. Configure embeddings separately — see the Embeddings docs.

Don't add openai/ yourself

PraisonAI adds the openai/ prefix internally when base_url is set. Adding it manually is harmless but unnecessary.

Don't mix base_url with Anthropic, Gemini, or Ollama models

Those keep their native adapters. Use base_url only for OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions hosts.

OpenAI

First-party OpenAI models.

LiteLLM Proxy

Route through a self-hosted LiteLLM proxy gateway.

Ollama

Local Ollama models.

Getting Started

Install

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Knowledge

RAG

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Configuration

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Getting Started (No Code)

OpenAI-Compatible Endpoints

Quick Start

How It Works

Configuration Options

Agent SDK Reference

Common Patterns

Choosing Which Style to Use

Best Practices

OpenAI

LiteLLM Proxy

Ollama

Custom Provider

​Quick Start

​How It Works

​Configuration Options

Agent SDK Reference

​Common Patterns

​Choosing Which Style to Use

​Best Practices

​Related

OpenAI

LiteLLM Proxy

Ollama

Custom Provider

Quick Start

How It Works

Configuration Options

Common Patterns

Choosing Which Style to Use

Best Practices

Related