gh-jamesrochabrun-skills/skills/llm-router/references/providers.md

LLM Provider Reference

This document provides detailed information about supported LLM providers, their configurations, models, and capabilities.

Supported Providers

OpenAI (Default)

Provider ID: openai (or empty string) Base URL: Default OpenAI endpoint Environment Variable: OPENAI_API_KEY

Popular Models

• GPT-5 (gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, gpt-5-nano) - Latest generation with advanced reasoning
  • gpt-5: Complex reasoning, broad world knowledge, code-heavy tasks
  • gpt-5-mini: Cost-optimized reasoning and chat
  • gpt-5-nano: High-throughput, simple instruction-following
• GPT-4 (gpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini) - Multimodal, balanced performance
• GPT-3.5 (gpt-3.5-turbo) - Fast and economical

Configuration Example

swiftopenai config set provider ""
swiftopenai config set base-url ""
swiftopenai config set api-key sk-...
swiftopenai config set default-model gpt-5-mini

Agent Mode

Supports full agent mode with MCP tools, session management, and auto-compaction.

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xAI (Grok)

Provider ID: xai Base URL: https://api.x.ai/v1 Environment Variable: XAI_API_KEY

Popular Models

• Grok-4 (grok-4-0709) - Latest Grok model with enhanced reasoning
• Grok-3 (grok-3) - General purpose language model
• Grok Code Fast (grok-code-fast-1) - Optimized for code generation

Configuration Example

swiftopenai config set provider xai
swiftopenai config set base-url https://api.x.ai/v1
swiftopenai config set api-key xai-...
swiftopenai config set default-model grok-4-0709

Agent Mode

Fully supported with agent mode capabilities.

---

Groq

Provider ID: groq Base URL: https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 Environment Variable: GROQ_API_KEY

Popular Models

• Llama 3.3 (llama-3.3-70b-versatile) - Versatile open-source model
• Mixtral (mixtral-8x7b-32768) - Mixture of experts architecture
• Various other open-source models with ultra-fast inference

Configuration Example

swiftopenai config set provider groq
swiftopenai config set base-url https://api.groq.com/openai/v1
swiftopenai config set api-key gsk_...
swiftopenai config set default-model llama-3.3-70b-versatile

Agent Mode

Supported with agent mode capabilities.

---

DeepSeek

Provider ID: deepseek Base URL: https://api.deepseek.com Environment Variable: DEEPSEEK_API_KEY

Popular Models

• DeepSeek Chat (deepseek-chat) - General purpose conversational model
• DeepSeek Coder (deepseek-coder) - Specialized for coding tasks
• DeepSeek Reasoner (deepseek-reasoner) - Advanced reasoning capabilities

Configuration Example

swiftopenai config set provider deepseek
swiftopenai config set base-url https://api.deepseek.com
swiftopenai config set api-key sk-...
swiftopenai config set default-model deepseek-reasoner

Agent Mode

Supported with agent mode capabilities.

---

OpenRouter

Provider ID: openrouter Base URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 Environment Variable: OPENROUTER_API_KEY

Popular Models

OpenRouter provides access to 300+ models from various providers:

• Anthropic: anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet, anthropic/claude-3.5-haiku
• OpenAI: openai/gpt-4, openai/gpt-4-turbo
• Google: google/gemini-pro, google/gemini-pro-vision
• Meta: meta-llama/llama-3.1-405b
• And many more...

Configuration Example

swiftopenai config set provider openrouter
swiftopenai config set base-url https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
swiftopenai config set api-key sk-or-v1-...
swiftopenai config set default-model anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet

Agent Mode

Supported with agent mode capabilities.

---

Agent Mode Features

SwiftOpenAI-CLI's agent mode provides:

• MCP Integration - Connect to external tools via Model Context Protocol
• Conversation Memory - Maintains context within sessions
• Auto-Compaction - Automatically summarizes long conversations
• Session Management - Continue conversations with --session-id
• Tool Calling - Execute built-in and MCP tools
• Multiple Output Formats - plain, json, stream-json

Agent Mode Usage

# Simple agent command
swiftopenai agent "Calculate 25 * 37 and tell me today's date"

# With specific model
swiftopenai agent "Explain quantum computing" --model gpt-5

# Interactive mode
swiftopenai agent --interactive

# With MCP tools
swiftopenai agent "Read config.json" \
  --mcp-servers filesystem \
  --allowed-tools "mcp__filesystem__*"

Common Configuration Commands

View Current Configuration

swiftopenai config list

Get Specific Setting

swiftopenai config get default-model
swiftopenai config get provider

Set Configuration Values

swiftopenai config set <key> <value>

Interactive Configuration Setup

swiftopenai config setup

Temperature and Parameters

Control response randomness and behavior:

# Set default temperature (0.0-2.0)
swiftopenai config set temperature 0.7

# Override per command
swiftopenai chat "Write a poem" --temperature 1.5

# Set max tokens
swiftopenai config set max-tokens 2000

Managing Multiple Provider API Keys

Best Practice: Use Provider-Specific Environment Variables

To seamlessly use multiple providers without constantly reconfiguring API keys, set all provider keys as environment variables in your shell profile.

Add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:

# API Keys for LLM Providers
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export XAI_API_KEY=xai-...
export GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_...
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-...
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...

Benefits:

• ✅ All keys available at once
• ✅ Automatic key selection based on provider
• ✅ No need to reconfigure when switching providers
• ✅ Keys persist across terminal sessions
• ✅ More secure than storing in config file

After adding, reload your shell:

source ~/.zshrc  # or source ~/.bashrc

How SwiftOpenAI-CLI Selects API Keys

When you configure a provider, SwiftOpenAI-CLI uses this priority:

1. Provider-specific environment variable (e.g., XAI_API_KEY for Grok)
2. Config file api-key setting (if set)
3. Generic OPENAI_API_KEY fallback (for OpenAI provider only)

Example Flow:

# Configure for Grok
swiftopenai config set provider xai

# CLI automatically uses XAI_API_KEY environment variable
swiftopenai agent "Hello, world!"

# Switch to OpenAI
swiftopenai config set provider ""

# CLI automatically uses OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable
swiftopenai agent "Hello, world!"

Config File Limitation

The config file (~/.swiftopenai/config.json) only stores ONE api-key value. If you use swiftopenai config set api-key <key>, it will be used for all providers (unless overridden by a provider-specific env var).

This is why environment variables are recommended for multiple providers.

Debug Mode

Enable debug mode to see HTTP details:

swiftopenai config set debug true

Shows:

• HTTP status codes and headers
• Full API requests (when built in debug mode)
• Response details

Troubleshooting

Authentication Errors

• Verify API key is set correctly
• Check environment variable is exported
• Ensure provider configuration matches your API key

Model Not Available

• Verify model name is correct for the provider
• Use swiftopenai models to list available models
• Check provider documentation for model availability

Connection Issues

• Verify base URL is correct
• Check network connectivity
• Ensure API service is operational