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Connecting a self-hosted instance to an LLM

On a self-hosted Structural instance, before you can use Structural AI features, you must provide an API key for a supported LLM provider. The supported providers are:

  • Anthropic. We strongly recommend Anthropic, because Structural's AI features are optimized for Claude models.

  • OpenAI. Note that we are continuing to test OpenAI for the Structural Agent. Structural supports any OpenAI deployment that:

    • Supports API key authentication.

    • Supports the OpenAI Responses API.

    • Supports OpenAI proprietary models, such as GPT-4/5.x.

To configure the connection to the LLM provider, use the following environment settings. You can add these settings manually to the Environment Settings list on Structural Settings.

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Identifying the LLM provider

First, to identify a supported LLM provider to use for Structural AI features:

  • TONIC_LLM_PROVIDER - By default, this is not set, and the AI features are not available. The available values are:

    • Anthropic

    • OpenAI

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Providing connection details for Anthropic

When TONIC_LLM_PROVIDER is Anthropic, to provide the required connection information:

  • TONIC_ANTHROPIC_ENDPOINT - The Anthropic endpoint URL for generative AI services. Should include the endpoint base URL for the Anthropic API, without the version. Default: https://api.anthropic.com

  • TONIC_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY - The Anthropic API key for authentication. In production environments, make sure that this is kept secure and encrypted.

If you use a hosted Anthropic deployment, Structural requires the following models:

  • claude-opus-4-6

  • claude-sonnet-4-5

  • claude-haiku-4-5

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Providing connection details for OpenAI

When TONIC_LLM_PROVIDER is OpenAI, to provide the required connection information:

  • TONIC_OPENAI_ENDPOINT - The OpenAI endpoint URL to use for AI-enhanced features. Should include the endpoint base URL for the OpenAI API, without the version. Default: https://api.openai.com Example URL for Microsoft foundry: https://my-foundry-instance.ai.azure.com/openai

  • TONIC_OPENAI_API_KEY - The API key for OpenAI.

Note that if you use a hosted OpenAI deployment such as Microsoft Foundry, Structural requires the following model deployments. The deployment name must match the model name.

  • gpt-4.1-mini

  • gpt-4.1

  • gpt-5.2

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