Recipe: OpenAI

The OpenAI API runs OpenAI’s models in the cloud. It needs an account with API billing, and it bills by tokens: your text, the answer and Tagent’s prompt, on every request.

Not tested with Tagent yet. The values below come from OpenAI’s documentation; if they don’t work for you, please open an issue.

1. Get a key and pick a model

1. Create an API key in your OpenAI account’s API settings.
2. Pick a model from OpenAI’s model list. A small, inexpensive one is enough for translation, for example gpt-5.4-mini. Model names change often; use one the list currently shows.

The API is at https://api.openai.com/v1.

2. Add the profile

tagent-cli

[provider]
translate_provider = "openai"

[provider_options.openai]
endpoint = "https://api.openai.com/v1"
model = "gpt-5.4-mini"

and set the key in the environment rather than in the file:

export TAGENT_OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

(api_key = "sk-..." in the table works too; see API keys and environment variables.)

Here the built-in name openai is the profile, so no type is needed. To keep OpenAI next to a local model, give each its own profile instead (type = "openai").

tagent-gui

1. Settings (⚙) > Providers > Options… on the openai (built-in) row: endpoint, model, and the key in api_key. Click Test: it translates a short text and looks up a word, which costs a few tokens.
2. OK, then pick openai in Translation, and OK in the dialog.

Notes

• temperature isn’t sent unless you set it. If the server rejects it for your model, leave it unset.
• OpenAI supports response_format = "json_schema" for structured outputs, which keeps dictionary answers in shape.
• A spent balance or budget shows a quota error, which Tagent doesn’t retry.