Access models from OpenAI, Groq, local Ollama, and other providers by setting LLM-router as the base URL in Cursor.
LLM-router is a reverse proxy that routes chat/completions
API requests to various OpenAI-compatible backends based on the model's prefix.
Cursor lacks support for local models and the flexibility to switch between multiple LLM providers efficiently. There's clear demand in the community, evidenced by months of unanswered requests for such features on Cursor's GitHub and Discord channels.
The specific challenges with Cursor include:
- The
Override OpenAI Base URL
setting requires a URL that is publicly accessible and secured withhttps
, complicating the use of local models. - The platform allows configuration for only one LLM provider at a time, which makes it cumbersome to switch between service providers.
LLM-router overcomes these limitations, allowing seamless switching between locally served models like Ollama and external services such as OpenAI and Groq.
llm-router-cursor-preview-web.mp4
- Launch LLM-router to manage API requests across multiple backends:
OPENAI_API_KEY=<YOUR_OPENAI_KEY> ./llm-router-darwin-arm64
- Launch ngrok to create a public HTTPS endpoint for your LLM-router:
ngrok http 11411
Configure the Override OpenAI Base URL
in Cursor's model settings to point to your ngrok address appended with /v1
:
https://xxxx.ngrok-free.app/v1
Define your preferred models:
ollama/phi3
ollama/llama3:70b
Routes chat/completions
API requests to any OpenAI-compatible LLM backend based on the model's prefix. Streaming is supported.
LLM-router can be set up to use individual API keys for each backend, or no key for services like local Ollama.
By default, requests to LLM-router are secured with your OPENAI_API_KEY
as Cursor already includes this with every request.
Here is an example of how to configure Groq, Ollama, and OpenAI backends in config.json
:
{
"listening_port": 11411,
"backends": [
{
"name": "openai",
"base_url": "https://api.openai.com",
"prefix": "openai/",
"default": true,
"require_api_key": true
},
{
"name": "ollama",
"base_url": "https://localhost:11434",
"prefix": "ollama/"
},
{
"name": "groq",
"base_url": "https://api.groq.com/openai",
"prefix": "groq/",
"require_api_key": true,
"key_env_var": "GROQ_API_KEY"
}
]
}
In this configuration, OpenAI serves as the default backend, allowing you to use model identifiers like openai/gpt-4-turbo
or simply gpt-4-turbo
. Models on Ollama and Groq, however, must be prefixed with ollama/
and groq/
respectively.
Provide the necessary API keys via environment variables:
OPENAI_API_KEY=<YOUR_OPENAI_KEY> GROQ_API_KEY=<YOUR_GROQ_KEY> ./llm-router-darwin-arm64
When attempting to run LLM-router on MacOS, you may encounter permissions errors due to MacOS's Gatekeeper security feature. Here are several methods to resolve these issues and successfully launch the application.
If you receive a warning about permissions after downloading the release binary, change the file's permissions to make it executable:
chmod +x llm-router-darwin-arm64
./llm-router-darwin-arm64
If the above does not resolve the issue and you still face security pop-ups:
-
Add the application to the allowed list using:
sudo spctl --add llm-router-darwin-arm64
-
Attempt to run the application again:
./llm-router-darwin-arm64
For issues persisting beyond previous steps:
- Find
llm-router-darwin-arm64
in Finder. - Control-click on the app icon and select 'Open' from the context menu.
- In the dialog that appears, click 'Open'. Admin users may need to authenticate.
This step should register the application as a trusted entity on your Mac, bypassing Gatekeeper on subsequent launches.
Should the above methods fail:
- Open System Preferences and navigate to Security & Privacy.
- Under the 'General' tab, you may see an 'Allow Anyway' button next to a message about LLM-router.
- Click 'Allow Anyway' and try running the application again.
If none of the above methods work, consider building the application from source:
- Download the source code.
- Ensure you have a current version of Go installed.
- Build the application:
make ./build/llm-router-local
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