Connect your application

An application’s Connect tab shows a working snippet for the dialect and strategy you configured. Everything below is what that snippet is made of, so you can reason about it when it is not the exact shape you need.

Two values

Value	Where
LLM Gateway URL plus the application slug	Settings → General, or the Connect tab. On a Private deployment it is your data plane’s public URL.
The application’s key	Issued once, from the application. It is the only secret your client holds.

The provider’s credential is not one of them. It stays on the registry entry, and rotating either never touches the other.

Point a stock SDK at it

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://<llm-host>/<application-slug>/v1", api_key="ag_…")
client.chat.completions.create(model="auto", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}])

import OpenAI from "openai"
const client = new OpenAI({ baseURL: "https://<llm-host>/<application-slug>/v1", apiKey: "ag_…" })
await client.chat.completions.create({ model: "auto", messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello" }] })

curl -X POST "https://<llm-host>/<application-slug>/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "X-AG-API-Key: ag_…" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "auto", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]}'

The key travels as X-AG-API-Key, x-api-key, x-goog-api-key or Authorization: Bearer — a bearer that starts with ag_ is recognised as an application key — so the OpenAI, Anthropic and Google SDKs work unchanged with their own api_key parameter.

Which dialect

The path after the slug is the dialect your client speaks, not the provider that answers. Anthropic’s SDK talks to /v1/messages, OpenAI’s to /v1/chat/completions or /v1/responses, Cohere’s to /v2/chat, Gemini’s to /v1beta/models/…. Any of them can be routed to any provider; the gateway translates. Chat has the full list and the honest limits of translation.

What goes in `model`

This is the one thing that depends on how the application is configured:

Application uses	Send
Load balancing or smart routing	`"auto"` — the gateway picks.
One registry	The model name, or nothing if a default is set.
Several registries, no load balancing	A model name, always. Nothing else breaks the tie.

@provider/model pins a provider when the application reaches several. The Connect tab already shows the right form; Routing explains why.

Private deployments

Add X-AG-Gateway-Slug: <gateway-slug> when several gateways share one data plane host. SaaS never needs it, and the Connect tab includes it only when it applies.

Reading the answer

Every response carries X-Selected-Provider and X-Selected-Model. When a request landed somewhere you did not expect, read those before anything else. Refusals come back in your client’s dialect. A model outside the application’s allowed set is refused before any provider is called; a policy refusal names the policy; a rate limit carries Retry-After.

Same key, from the TrustGate SDK

If your code also uses the MCP Gateway through the TrustGate SDK, the key alone configures the model client, base URL included. That is the one value no client can work out on its own, because the LLM plane lives on a different host from the MCP one.

from openai import OpenAI
from trustgate import TrustGate

llm = TrustGate(api_key="ag_…").llm()
openai = OpenAI(base_url=llm.base_url, api_key=llm.api_key)

import OpenAI from "openai"
import { TrustGate } from "@neuraltrust/trustgate"

const llm = await new TrustGate({ apiKey: "ag_…" }).llm()
const openai = new OpenAI({ baseURL: llm.baseUrl, apiKey: llm.apiKey })

Nothing is wrapped: streaming and every provider option keep working as the provider’s own client implements them. Models covers Anthropic’s client, the other fields llm() returns, and naming the user.

Start here

Concepts

LLM Gateway

MCP Gateway

Policies

Operate

Two values

Point a stock SDK at it

Which dialect

What goes in `model`

Private deployments

Reading the answer

Same key, from the TrustGate SDK

​Two values

​Point a stock SDK at it

​Which dialect

​What goes in model

​Private deployments

​Reading the answer

​Same key, from the TrustGate SDK

Two values

Point a stock SDK at it

Which dialect

What goes in `model`

Private deployments

Reading the answer

Same key, from the TrustGate SDK