Setup

Installation

Install this tool using pip:

pip install llm

Or using pipx:

pipx install llm

Or using Homebrew:

brew install simonw/llm/llm

Upgrading to the latest version

If you installed using pip:

pip install -U llm

For pipx:

pipx upgrade llm

For Homebrew:

brew tap --repair simonw/llm
brew upgrade simonw/llm/llm

Authentication

Many LLM models require an API key. These API keys can be provided to this tool using several different mechanisms.

You can obtain an API key for OpenAI's language models from the API keys page on their site.

Saving and using stored keys

The easiest way to store an API key is to use the llm keys set command:

llm keys set openai

You will be prompted to enter the key like this:

% llm keys set openai
Enter key:

Once stored, this key will be automatically used for subsequent calls to the API:

llm "Five ludicrous names for a pet lobster"

Keys that are stored in this way live in a file called keys.json. This file is located at the path shown when you run the following command:

llm keys path

On macOS this will be ~/Library/Application Support/io.datasette.llm/keys.json. On Linux it may be something like ~/.config/io.datasette.llm/keys.json.

Passing keys using the --key option

Keys can be passed directly using the --key option, like this:

llm "Five names for pet weasels" --key sk-my-key-goes-here

You can also pass the alias of a key stored in the keys.json file. For example, if you want to maintain a personal API key you could add that like this:

llm keys set personal

And then use it for prompts like so:

llm "Five friendly names for a pet skunk" --key personal

Keys in environment variables

Keys can also be set using an environment variable. These are different for different models.

For OpenAI models the key will be read from the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.

The environment variable will be used only if no --key option is passed to the command.

If no environment variable is found, the tool will fall back to checking keys.json.

You can force the tool to use the key from keys.json even if an environment variable has also been set using llm "prompt" --key openai.

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