Kilo Code

Kilo Code is an open-source coding agent with a VS Code extension and a terminal CLI, kilo. It takes custom OpenAI-compatible providers in both.

Verified against the kilo CLI 7.8.1. The config below is re-run against that release every week, including a tool call round trip.

Configure the CLI

Add LowRouter as a provider in ~/.config/kilo/kilo.jsonc:

{
  "provider": {
    "lowrouter": {
      "npm": "@ai-sdk/openai-compatible",
      "name": "LowRouter",
      "options": {
        "baseURL": "https://api.lowrouter.ai/v1",
        "apiKey": "{env:LOWROUTER_API_KEY}"
      },
      "models": {
        "auto/mistralai/mistral-large-2512": {
          "name": "Mistral Large (LowRouter)",
          "tool_call": true,
          "limit": { "context": 256000, "output": 16384 }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "model": "lowrouter/auto/mistralai/mistral-large-2512"
}

{env:LOWROUTER_API_KEY} is read from the environment:

export LOWROUTER_API_KEY=sk-lr-...
kilo run --auto "Summarise what this repository does"

kilo alone opens the terminal UI; kilo run runs one task and exits. --auto approves every tool call.

Details of this config:

• baseURL ends in /v1.
• limit matters. Without it Kilo treats the context window as unknown, turns off compaction, and asks for up to 32,000 output tokens, which a model with a lower output cap rejects with a 400. Take both numbers from the model browser.
• tool_call: true tells Kilo the model can use tools.
• {env:...} is only expanded in this global file. A kilo.jsonc inside a project does not expand it, so keep the key here.

Configure the extension

In the extension, open Settings → Providers, add a custom provider, and set:

• Provider API: OpenAI Compatible
• Base URL: https://api.lowrouter.ai/v1
• API key: your sk-lr-... token

The extension then loads the model list from LowRouter. It has no headless mode, so this path is not re-run by the weekly check.

Roo Code

Roo Code, the project Kilo Code started from, shut down in April 2026 and its repository is archived (last release 3.54.0). If you still run it, its OpenAI Compatible provider takes the same Base URL and key, plus a Model ID such as auto/mistralai/mistral-large-2512. Set Context Window and Max Output Tokens to the model’s limits. Roo Code’s own CLI cannot use an OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Picking a model

Kilo works through function calling, so pick a model with the function-calling tag. The model browser filtered to them lists every one.

The example uses auto/mistralai/mistral-large-2512, served from the EU. auto/qwen/qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct, a coding model served from the EU, has been through kilo run’s tool loop in our runs.

Troubleshooting

• 404 on every request: baseURL is missing /v1.
• 400 about output tokens: the model entry has no limit.output, or it is above the model’s output cap.
• 401: LOWROUTER_API_KEY is not exported, or the key is in a project kilo.jsonc where {env:...} is not expanded.