Migrate from OpenAI

Electron speaks the OpenAI Chat Completions wire format. To migrate an existing OpenAI integration, change exactly two strings:

1. base_url → https://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1
2. api_key → your Smallest AI key
3. model → "electron"

That’s it. Streaming, tool calling, JSON mode, multi-turn — all work identically because Electron implements the same protocol.

Side-by-side: Python

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import os
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from openai import OpenAI
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client = OpenAI(
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    api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"],
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)
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response = client.chat.completions.create(
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    model="gpt-4o",
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    messages=[
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        {"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"},
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    ],
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)
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print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Side-by-side: JavaScript

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import OpenAI from "openai";
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const client = new OpenAI({
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  apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY,
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});
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const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
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  model: "gpt-4o",
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  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello!" }],
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});
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console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);

What works identically

• Messages — same system, user, assistant, tool role conventions.
• Streaming — same SSE format, same [DONE] marker, same delta chunks. With stream_options.include_usage: true, you get the final usage chunk just like OpenAI.
• Tool calling — same tools array, same tool_calls in response, same multi-turn pattern. (Electron adds a voice-friendly filler in content alongside tool_calls — see Tool Calling.)
• Error envelope — {"error": {"message", "type", "details", "request_id"}}. (Electron uses details: [{code, message, path}] for validation errors where OpenAI uses param; otherwise the envelope shape is the same.)
• OpenAI SDKs — Python, JavaScript, Go, Java, Ruby, etc. All work without code changes beyond the two strings above.

Differences to be aware of

Common migration questions

Reverse compatibility

Some teams want to keep the option to fall back to OpenAI. Because Electron uses the same SDK, you can wire both clients with a simple factory and select per-request:

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import os
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from openai import OpenAI
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CLIENTS = {
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    "electron": OpenAI(
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        base_url="https://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1",
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        api_key=os.environ["SMALLEST_API_KEY"],
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    ),
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    "openai": OpenAI(
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        api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"],
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    ),
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}
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def chat(provider: str, **kwargs):
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    return CLIENTS[provider].chat.completions.create(**kwargs)
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# usage:
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chat("electron", model="electron", messages=[...])
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chat("openai", model="gpt-4o", messages=[...])