# Kimchi

Source: https://docs.aicentos.com/en/clients/kimchi

Language: en

> Connect aicentos in Kimchi — change the inference address with llmEndpoint, plus a note on the limits

Kimchi is a terminal coding agent that also ships a VS Code extension and the Studio desktop app. Its configuration has an `llmEndpoint` field that defaults to `https://llm.kimchi.dev`; change it and inference requests go somewhere else.

One caveat up front: **the official docs describe `llmEndpoint` only as the inference address and do not promise that it can point at any third-party OpenAI-compatible gateway**. The approach below works in the community, but it is a case of configuring by field semantics, not an officially supported BYOK path, and it may break after an upgrade.

## Prerequisites

First create a dedicated key for Kimchi in the console (naming it `kimchi` is recommended), then install the CLI:

```bash
brew install getkimchi/tap/kimchi
```

Or use the install script:

```bash
curl -fsSL https://github.com/getkimchi/kimchi/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash
```

## Configuration to fill in

| Field         | Value                                              |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| `llmEndpoint` | `https://aicentos.com/v1`                          |
| `apiKey`      | The key created in the console                     |
| Model         | A model name from the Model Gallery in the console |

## Setup steps

The config file is at `~/.config/kimchi/config.json`, and a project-level `.kimchi/config.json` can also override it:

```json
{
  "apiKey": "sk-your-API-Key",
  "llmEndpoint": "https://aicentos.com/v1"
}
```

Custom models are registered in `models.json`, in the same format as self-hosted providers such as vLLM and LM Studio. The field spec is not fully public, so it is best to get the default model working first and only then consider adding custom entries.

Restart `kimchi` after the change.

## Test

After starting, send one prompt in the session. If you get a 401, first check that the key has no stray spaces; if you get a 404, check whether `llmEndpoint` stops at `/v1`.

Then check usage in the console — **this is the key step**: if usage does not grow, the requests are not going through `llmEndpoint` at all and are falling back to the default endpoint, in which case this route does not hold for the current version.

## Notes

* Kimchi requires signing in to its own account; the `apiKey` and the account sign-in state are two separate things, so do not do only half of it.
* External models are treated as the `standard` tier with `vision: false` by default, so multimodal models do not carry images here.
* The default model is picked automatically by its own harness, so you may not be able to name a specific aicentos model directly.
* The official docs do not cover this route, so it works but is not guaranteed; have a fallback ready for production.

## Related links

* [Kimchi CLI docs](https://docs.kimchi.dev/docs/kimchi-cli)
* [kimchi repository](https://github.com/getkimchi/kimchi)