# Litelm: LiteLLM Without the Bloat

> Source: <https://github.com/kennethwolters/litelm>
> Published: 2026-09-11 18:10:20+00:00

litellm's routing + translation in ~2,900 lines and 2 dependencies (`openai`, `httpx`).

litellm routes LLM calls across providers and translates between message formats. That core is buried under 100k+ LOC of proxy servers, caching layers, cost tracking, and dozens of features most users never touch. litelm extracts just the call path — model routing, message translation, streaming, tool use, embeddings — and nothing else. No Router class, no proxy, no caching.

```
pip install litelm                # openai + httpx
pip install litelm[anthropic]     # + anthropic SDK
pip install litelm[bedrock]       # + boto3
pip install litelm[all]           # everything
python
import litelm

# Basic completion
response = litelm.completion("openai/gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}])
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

# Streaming
for chunk in litelm.completion("groq/llama-3.1-70b-versatile", messages=[...], stream=True):
    print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content or "", end="")

# Embeddings
response = litelm.embedding("openai/text-embedding-3-small", input=["hello world"])
```

Every function has an async variant: `acompletion`, `aembedding`, `aresponses`, `atext_completion`.

The API mirrors litellm — same function names, same arguments, same response types. If you're using litellm today, switching is `s/litellm/litelm/` in your imports.

|  | litellm | litelm | 
|---|---|---|
| Model routing ( `provider/model` → right endpoint) | ✓ | ✓ | 
| Message translation (Anthropic, Bedrock, Cloudflare, Mistral) | ✓ | ✓ | 
| Streaming + `stream_chunk_builder` | ✓ | ✓ | 
| Tool use (function calling) | ✓ | ✓ | 
| Embeddings | ✓ | ✓ | 
| Text completions | ✓ | ✓ | 
| OpenAI Responses API | ✓ | ✓ | 
| Mock responses | ✓ | ✓ | 
| Router (load balancing, fallbacks) | ✓ | ✗ | 
| Proxy server | ✓ | ✗ | 
| Caching / budgeting / cost tracking | ✓ | ✗ | 
| Token counting | ✓ | ✗ | 
| Image gen, audio, OCR, fine-tuning | ✓ | ✗ | 
| Agents, guardrails, scheduler | ✓ | ✗ | 

Routes to 19 providers via `"provider/model-name"` syntax. Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint works via `api_base`.

| Provider | Env Var | Handler | Verified | 
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | `OPENAI_API_KEY` | OpenAI SDK | Yes | 
| Anthropic | `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` | Custom | Yes | 
| Groq | `GROQ_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | Yes | 
| Mistral | `MISTRAL_API_KEY` | Custom | Yes | 
| xAI | `XAI_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | Yes | 
| OpenRouter | `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | Yes | 
| Azure | `AZURE_API_KEY` | OpenAI SDK (Azure) | Yes | 
| Bedrock | `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` | Custom | No | 
| Cloudflare | `CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN` | Custom | No | 
| Together | `TOGETHERAI_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| Fireworks | `FIREWORKS_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| DeepSeek | `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| Perplexity | `PERPLEXITYAI_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| DeepInfra | `DEEPINFRA_API_TOKEN` | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| Gemini | `GEMINI_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| Cohere | `COHERE_API_KEY` | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| Ollama | — | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| vLLM | — | OpenAI-compat | No | 
| LM Studio | — | OpenAI-compat | No | 

Set the environment variable for your provider:

```
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
```

Or pass directly:

```
litelm.completion("openai/gpt-4o", messages=[...], api_key="sk-...")
litelm.completion("openai/gpt-4o", messages=[...], api_base="http://localhost:8000/v1")
```

All provider errors are mapped to litelm's exception hierarchy:

``` python
from litelm import ContextWindowExceededError, RateLimitError, AuthenticationError

try:
    response = litelm.completion("openai/gpt-4o", messages=messages)
except ContextWindowExceededError:
    # prompt too long — truncate and retry
    pass
except RateLimitError:
    # back off
    pass
except AuthenticationError:
    # bad API key
    pass
tools = [{"type": "function", "function": {
    "name": "get_weather",
    "parameters": {"type": "object", "properties": {"city": {"type": "string"}}},
}}]

response = litelm.completion(
    "openai/gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Weather in Paris?"}],
    tools=tools, tool_choice="required",
)
tool_call = response.choices[0].message.tool_calls[0]
print(tool_call.function.name, tool_call.function.arguments)
```

Any OpenAI-compatible server works via `api_base`:

```
# vLLM
litelm.completion("openai/my-model", messages=[...], api_base="http://localhost:8000/v1")

# Ollama
litelm.completion("ollama/llama3", messages=[...], api_base="http://localhost:11434/v1")

# LM Studio
litelm.completion("openai/local-model", messages=[...], api_base="http://localhost:1234/v1")
```

litelm is human-directed, AI-assisted software. Much of the code was written with Claude Code using Claude Opus 4.6/4.7. Code written from 2026-05-14 onward is written through Pi using GPT-5.5. Compatibility claims are based on tests and maintainer review, not AI authorship.

Maintainer attestation, 2026-09-11: LiteLLM's routing/formatting changes were reviewed from `649eb2d` through `9a715df2`. The audit triaged 360 core-path commits, inspected upstream tests for potentially relevant behavior, and fixed the resulting compatibility gaps test-first. Local scoped tests: `262 passed, 55 skipped`; all 45 available-provider live tests and all 10 DSPy smoke tests also passed with the current dependency lock.

This attests litelm's declared routing/formatting/DSPy surface only, not full litellm compatibility.

**Alpha.** 262 own tests passing. The current scoped LiteLLM `9a715df2` baseline has 75 passing ported tests and no remaining actionable assertion/runtime failures.

[DSPy](https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy) drop-in verified — all 7 execution paths proven live (Predict, CoT, typed signatures, streaming, embeddings, tool use, multi-output).

```
uv run --extra all pytest tests/ -x --ignore=tests/ported --timeout=10  # 262 non-live tests
bash scripts/ported_contract.sh                                        # 49 fast upstream contract tests
uv run --extra all pytest tests/test_live.py -m live --timeout=30       # 45 live provider tests
uv run pytest tests/test_dspy_smoke.py -m live --timeout=60             # 10 DSPy integration tests
```

Live tests require API keys in `.env.test`. Skipped by default; run with `-m live`.