Connecting DocsGPT to Cloud LLM Providers
DocsGPT is designed to seamlessly integrate with a variety of Cloud Large Language Model (LLM) providers, giving you access to state-of-the-art AI models for document question answering.
Configuration via .env file
The primary method for configuring your LLM provider in DocsGPT is through the .env file. For a comprehensive understanding of all available settings, please refer to the detailed DocsGPT Settings Guide.
To connect to a cloud LLM provider, you will typically need to configure the following basic settings in your .env file:
- LLM_PROVIDER: This setting is essential and identifies the specific cloud provider you wish to use (e.g.,- openai,- google,- anthropic).
- LLM_NAME: Specifies the exact model you want to utilize from your chosen provider (e.g.,- gpt-4o,- gemini-2.0-flash,- claude-3-5-sonnet-latest). Refer to your provider's documentation for a list of available models.
- API_KEY: Almost all cloud LLM providers require an API key for authentication. Obtain your API key from your chosen provider's platform and securely store it in your- .envfile.
Explicitly Supported Cloud Providers
DocsGPT offers direct, streamlined support for the following cloud LLM providers, making configuration straightforward.  The table below outlines the LLM_PROVIDER and example LLM_NAME values to use for each provider in your .env file.
| Provider | LLM_PROVIDER | Example LLM_NAME | 
|---|---|---|
| DocsGPT Public API | docsgpt | None | 
| OpenAI | openai | gpt-4o | 
| Google (Vertex AI, Gemini) | google | gemini-2.0-flash | 
| Anthropic (Claude) | anthropic | claude-3-5-sonnet-latest | 
| Groq | groq | llama-3.1-8b-instant | 
| HuggingFace Inference API | huggingface | meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | 
| Azure OpenAI | azure_openai | gpt-4o | 
Connecting to OpenAI-Compatible Cloud APIs
DocsGPT's flexible architecture allows you to connect to any cloud provider that offers an API compatible with the OpenAI API standard. This opens up a vast ecosystem of LLM services.
To connect to an OpenAI-compatible cloud provider, you will still use LLM_PROVIDER=openai in your .env file.  However, you will also need to specify the API endpoint of your chosen provider using the OPENAI_BASE_URL setting.  You will also likely need to provide an API_KEY and LLM_NAME as required by that provider.
Example for DeepSeek (OpenAI-Compatible API):
To connect to DeepSeek, which offers an OpenAI-compatible API, your .env file could be configured as follows:
LLM_PROVIDER=openai
API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY # Your DeepSeek API key
LLM_NAME=deepseek-chat # Or your desired DeepSeek model name
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.deepseek.com/v1 # DeepSeek's OpenAI API URLRemember to consult the documentation of your chosen OpenAI-compatible cloud provider for their specific API endpoint, required model names, and authentication methods.
Adding Support for Other Cloud Providers
If you wish to connect to a cloud provider that is not explicitly listed above or doesn't offer OpenAI API compatibility, you can extend DocsGPT to support it. Within the DocsGPT repository, navigate to the application/llm directory. Here, you will find Python files defining the existing LLM integrations.  You can use these files as examples to create a new module for your desired cloud provider.  After creating your new LLM module, you will need to register it within the llm_creator.py file. This process involves some coding, but it allows for virtually unlimited extensibility to connect to any cloud-based LLM service with an accessible API.