Docs · Integrate

OpenAI SDK

Integrate with the official OpenAI SDKs (Python / Node.js) or plain HTTP. Existing OpenAI code only needs a new base URL and API key.

Install

pip install --upgrade openai

Create a client

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url=os.environ["OPENAI_BASE_URL"],   # https://<your-endpoint>/v1
    api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"],
    timeout=300,        # seconds; use streaming for long outputs
    max_retries=3,      # built-in exponential backoff (429 / 5xx / network)
)
The OpenAI SDK base URL must end with /v1, e.g. https://<your-endpoint>/v1. Without /v1 you will get 404s.

Use environment variables

Prefer not to put the address in code? Set these variables and initialize OpenAI() without arguments.

# Find your endpoint and API key in the console
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://<your-endpoint>/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

Plain HTTP

Any language can call the API over HTTPS. Request bodies are the same as OpenAI's:

curl https://<your-endpoint>/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4.1-mini",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
  }'

Frameworks and tools

Anything that accepts a custom OpenAI base URL works: LangChain (ChatOpenAI(base_url=..., api_key=...)), LlamaIndex, the Vercel AI SDK (createOpenAI({ baseURL })) and the many clients with an "OpenAI-compatible" setting. Use the console endpoint (with /v1) as the base URL and a model ID from the catalog as the model name.