How Liho products access models
Each product does it differently. Cowork works only through Liho LLM. In Liho IDE you can connect Liho LLM or your own provider keys, or use CLI agent subscriptions. Your apps call the Liho LLM API directly.
What supports what
| Liho LLM | Your own provider keys | CLI agent subscriptions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liho Cowork | Yes, the only source of models | No | No |
| The Liho agent in Liho IDE | Yes, signing in through the browser creates a connection | Yes: OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, compatible gateways | — |
| Claude Code, Codex, Kimi, Copilot in Liho IDE | Only if the CLI works with the Chat Completions protocol | Through the CLI’s own settings | Yes, each CLI’s own sign-in and plan |
| Your app | Yes, the /v1/chat/completions API | Not through Liho | — |
Liho Cowork
Signing in to Cowork means signing in to your Liho LLM account. You pick models from the Liho LLM catalog in the model menu, requests are paid from the account balance, and the cost of each response is shown in the chat. You cannot connect your own OpenAI or other provider key in Cowork. Liho Server gets its own key after you confirm it in the browser and spends the same balance.
Liho IDE
The Liho agent and automated actions work through “connections”. The Liho LLM connection is created by signing in through the browser; others use a key: OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI or any OpenAI-compatible gateway. Keys are kept in the OS secure storage. There is no built-in free model.
CLI agents in Liho IDE
Claude Code, Codex CLI, Kimi CLI and GitHub Copilot CLI use their own sign-in and plan by default. In the agent card you can choose a compatible IDE connection, but the IDE does not translate one protocol into another: the connection has to speak the CLI’s protocol. The Liho LLM API supports Chat Completions; the Anthropic Messages and OpenAI Responses protocols are not supported.
Your apps and tools
The Liho LLM API accepts requests in the Chat Completions format. With the OpenAI SDK, changing base_url and the key is enough. Third-party tools work if they can send requests in this format to a custom base_url.
What the single balance covers
Requests through Liho LLM, from Cowork, Liho Server, the Liho IDE agent and your apps, are charged to a single ruble balance on the account. To separate spending, create separate API keys with limits. Requests through your own provider keys and CLI subscriptions are paid to those providers.