Query an OpenAI-compatible LLM API with the official OpenAI Python SDK using a custom base_url (vLLM, Ollama, OpenRouter)
domain: OpenAI-compatible · 4 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Install the client: `pip install openai`.
Instantiate with the target base: `client = OpenAI(base_url="http://localhost:8000/v1", api_key="…")` (vLLM port 8000; Ollama http://localhost:11434/v1 any api_key; OpenRouter https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 real key).
Read the reply from `response.choices[0].message.content`.
Known gotchas
Key semantics differ: vLLM enforces a key only if started with --api-key; Ollama requires the param but ignores its value; OpenRouter needs a valid key.
OpenRouter attribution via `extra_headers={"HTTP-Referer": "<url>", "X-OpenRouter-Title": "<name>"}`.
Server-only sampling params (e.g. vLLM top_k) go in `extra_body={"top_k": 50}`.
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