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use-byok-models.md

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title Using your own LLM models in GitHub Copilot CLI
shortTitle Use your own model provider
intro Use a model from an external provider of your choice in {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_short %} by supplying your own API key.
allowTitleToDifferFromFilename true
versions
feature
copilot
contentType how-tos
category
Configure Copilot
Configure Copilot CLI
docsTeamMetrics
copilot-cli

You can configure {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %} to use your own LLM provider, also called BYOK (Bring Your Own Key), instead of {% data variables.product.github %}-hosted models. This lets you connect to OpenAI-compatible endpoints, Azure OpenAI, or Anthropic, including locally running models such as Ollama.

Note

This article is for users who want to configure their own LLM provider API key on their local machine. To set up custom models for users in an enterprise, see AUTOTITLE.

Prerequisites

  • {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %} is installed. See AUTOTITLE.
  • You have an API key from a supported LLM provider, or you have a local model running (such as Ollama).

Supported providers

{% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %} supports three provider types:

Provider type Compatible services
openai OpenAI, Ollama, vLLM, Foundry Local, and any other OpenAI Chat Completions API-compatible endpoint. This is the default provider type.
azure Azure OpenAI Service.
anthropic Anthropic (Claude models).

For additional examples, run copilot help providers in your terminal.

Model requirements

Models must support tool calling (also called function calling) and streaming. If a model does not support either capability, {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %} returns an error. For best results, use a model with a context window of at least 128k tokens.

Configuring your provider

You configure your model provider by setting environment variables before starting {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %}.

Environment variable Required Description
COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL Yes The base URL of your model provider's API endpoint.
COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE No The provider type: openai (default), azure, or anthropic.
COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY No Your API key for the provider. Not required for providers that do not use authentication, such as a local Ollama instance.
COPILOT_MODEL Yes The model identifier to use. You can also set this with the --model command-line flag.

Connecting to an OpenAI-compatible endpoint

Use the following steps if you are connecting to OpenAI, Ollama, vLLM, Foundry Local, or any other endpoint that is compatible with the OpenAI Chat Completions API.

  1. Set environment variables for your provider. For example, for a local Ollama instance:

    export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434
export COPILOT_MODEL=YOUR-MODEL-NAME

    Replace YOUR-MODEL-NAME with the name of the model you have pulled in Ollama (for example, llama3.2).

  2. For a remote OpenAI endpoint, also set your API key.

    export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY=YOUR-OPENAI-API-KEY
export COPILOT_MODEL=YOUR-MODEL-NAME

    Replace YOUR-OPENAI-API-KEY with your OpenAI API key and YOUR-MODEL-NAME with the model you want to use (for example, gpt-4o).

{% data reusables.copilot.copilot-cli.start-cli %}

Connecting to Azure OpenAI

  1. Set the environment variables for Azure OpenAI.

    export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://YOUR-RESOURCE-NAME.openai.azure.com/openai/deployments/YOUR-DEPLOYMENT-NAME
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE=azure
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY=YOUR-AZURE-API-KEY
export COPILOT_MODEL=YOUR-DEPLOYMENT-NAME

    Replace the following placeholders:

    • YOUR-RESOURCE-NAME: your Azure OpenAI resource name
    • YOUR-DEPLOYMENT-NAME: the name of your model deployment
    • YOUR-AZURE-API-KEY: your Azure OpenAI API key

{% data reusables.copilot.copilot-cli.start-cli %}

Connecting to Anthropic

  1. Set the environment variables for Anthropic:

    export COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE=anthropic
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://api.anthropic.com
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY=YOUR-ANTHROPIC-API-KEY
export COPILOT_MODEL=YOUR-MODEL-NAME

    Replace YOUR-ANTHROPIC-API-KEY with your Anthropic API key and YOUR-MODEL-NAME with the Claude model you want to use (for example, claude-opus-4-5).

{% data reusables.copilot.copilot-cli.start-cli %}

Running in offline mode

You can run {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %} in offline mode to prevent it from contacting {% data variables.product.github %}'s servers. This is designed for isolated environments where the CLI should communicate only with your local or on-premises model provider.

Important

Offline mode only guarantees full network isolation if your provider is also local or within the same isolated environment. If COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL points to a remote endpoint, your prompts and code context are still sent over the network to that provider.

  1. Configure your provider environment variables as described in Configuring your provider.

  2. Set the offline mode environment variable:

    export COPILOT_OFFLINE=true

{% data reusables.copilot.copilot-cli.start-cli %}