Custom Providers

Create custom provider configurations with specific request type restrictions, custom naming, and controlled access patterns.

What Are Custom Providers?

Custom providers allow you to create multiple instances of the same base provider, each with different configurations and access patterns. The key feature is request type control, which enables you to restrict what operations each custom provider instance can perform.

Think of custom providers as “multiple views” of the same underlying provider - you can create several custom configurations for OpenAI, Anthropic, or any other provider, each optimized for different use cases while sharing the same API keys and base infrastructure.

Key Benefits

• Multiple Provider Instances: Create several configurations of the same base provider (e.g., multiple OpenAI configurations)
• Request Type Control: Restrict which operations (chat, embeddings, speech, etc.) each custom provider can perform
• Custom Naming: Use descriptive names like “openai-production” or “openai-staging”
• Provider Reuse: Maximize the value of your existing provider accounts

How to Configure

Custom providers are configured using the custom_provider_config field, which extends the standard provider configuration. The main purpose is to create multiple instances of the same base provider, each with different request type restrictions.

Important: The allowed_requests field follows a specific behavior:

• Omitted entirely: All operations are allowed (default behavior)
• Partially specified: Only explicitly set fields are allowed, others default to false
• Fully specified: Only the operations you explicitly enable are allowed
• Present but empty object ({}): All fields are set to false

Using Web UI

1. Go to http://localhost:8080
2. Navigate to “Providers” in the sidebar
3. Click “Add New Provider”
4. Choose a unique provider name (e.g., “openai-custom”)
5. Select the base provider type (e.g., “openai”)
6. Configure which request types are allowed
7. Save configuration

Using API

# Create a chat-only custom provider
curl --location 'http://localhost:8080/api/providers' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "provider": "openai-custom",
    "keys": [
        {
            "name": "openai-custom-key-1",
            "value": "env.OPENAI_API_KEY",
            "models": ["*"],
            "weight": 1.0
        }
    ],
    "custom_provider_config": {
        "base_provider_type": "openai",
        "allowed_requests": {
            "list_models": false,
            "text_completion": false,
            "text_completion_stream": false,
            "chat_completion": true,
            "chat_completion_stream": true,
            "responses": false,
            "responses_stream": false,
            "embedding": false,
            "speech": false,
            "speech_stream": false,
            "transcription": false,
            "transcription_stream": false
        },
        "request_path_overrides": {
            "chat_completion": "/v1/chat/completions"
        }
    }
}'

Using config.json

{
    "providers": {
        "openai-custom": {
            "keys": [
                {
                    "name": "openai-custom-key-1",
                    "value": "env.OPENAI_API_KEY",
                    "models": ["*"],
                    "weight": 1.0
                }
            ],
            "custom_provider_config": {
                "base_provider_type": "openai",
                "allowed_requests": {
                    "list_models": false,
                    "text_completion": false,
                    "text_completion_stream": false,
                    "chat_completion": true,
                    "chat_completion_stream": true,
                    "responses": false,
                    "responses_stream": false,
                    "embedding": false,
                    "speech": false,
                    "speech_stream": false,
                    "transcription": false,
                    "transcription_stream": false
                },
                "request_path_overrides": {
                    "chat_completion": "/v1/chat/completions"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Go SDK

Create a custom provider using the Go SDK by implementing the Account interface with custom provider configuration:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "time"

    "github.com/maximhq/bifrost/core/schemas"
)

// Define custom provider name
const ProviderOpenAICustom = schemas.ModelProvider("openai-custom")

type MyAccount struct{}

func (a *MyAccount) GetConfiguredProviders() ([]schemas.ModelProvider, error) {
    return []schemas.ModelProvider{
        schemas.OpenAI,
        ProviderOpenAICustom, // Include your custom provider
    }, nil
}

func (a *MyAccount) GetKeysForProvider(ctx context.Context, provider schemas.ModelProvider) ([]schemas.Key, error) {
    switch provider {
    case schemas.OpenAI:
        return []schemas.Key{{
            Value:  os.Getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
            Models: []string{},
            Weight: 1.0,
        }}, nil
    case ProviderOpenAICustom:
        return []schemas.Key{{
            Value:  os.Getenv("OPENAI_CUSTOM_API_KEY"), // API key for OpenAI-compatible endpoint
            Models: []string{},
            Weight: 1.0,
        }}, nil
    }
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("provider %s not supported", provider)
}

func (a *MyAccount) GetConfigForProvider(provider schemas.ModelProvider) (*schemas.ProviderConfig, error) {
    switch provider {
    case schemas.OpenAI:
        return &schemas.ProviderConfig{
            NetworkConfig:            schemas.DefaultNetworkConfig,
            ConcurrencyAndBufferSize: schemas.DefaultConcurrencyAndBufferSize,
        }, nil
    case ProviderOpenAICustom:
        return &schemas.ProviderConfig{
            NetworkConfig: schemas.NetworkConfig{
                BaseURL:                        "https://your-openai-compatible-endpoint.com", // Custom base URL
                DefaultRequestTimeoutInSeconds: 60,
                MaxRetries:                     1,
                RetryBackoffInitial:            100 * time.Millisecond,
                RetryBackoffMax:                2 * time.Second,
            },
            ConcurrencyAndBufferSize: schemas.ConcurrencyAndBufferSize{
                Concurrency: 3,
                BufferSize:  10,
            },
            CustomProviderConfig: &schemas.CustomProviderConfig{
                BaseProviderType: schemas.OpenAI, // Use OpenAI protocol
                AllowedRequests: &schemas.AllowedRequests{
                    TextCompletion:       false,
                    TextCompletionStream: false,
                    ChatCompletion:       true,  // Enable chat completion
                    ChatCompletionStream: true,  // Enable streaming
                    Responses:            false,
                    ResponsesStream:      false,
                    Embedding:            false,
                    Speech:               false,
                    SpeechStream:         false,
                    Transcription:        false,
                    TranscriptionStream:  false,
                },
                RequestPathOverrides: map[schemas.RequestType]string{
                    schemas.ChatCompletionRequest:       "/v1/chat/completions",
                    schemas.ChatCompletionStreamRequest: "/v1/chat/completions",
                },
            },
        }, nil
    }
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("provider %s not supported", provider)
}

Configuration Options

Allowed Request Types

Control which operations your custom provider can perform. The behavior is:

• If allowed_requests is not specified: All operations are allowed by default
• If allowed_requests is specified: Only the fields set to true are allowed, all others default to false

Available operations:

• text_completion: Legacy text completion requests
• text_completion_stream: Streaming text completion requests
• chat_completion: Standard chat completion requests
• chat_completion_stream: Streaming chat responses
• responses: Standard responses requests
• responses_stream: Streaming responses requests
• embedding: Text embedding generation
• speech: Text-to-speech conversion
• speech_stream: Streaming text-to-speech
• transcription: Speech-to-text conversion
• transcription_stream: Streaming speech-to-text
• rerank: Document reranking via /v1/rerank (OpenAI-compatible base only)

Base Provider Types

Custom providers can be built on these supported providers:

• openai - OpenAI API
• anthropic - Anthropic Claude
• bedrock - AWS Bedrock
• cohere - Cohere
• gemini - Gemini
• replicate - Replicate

Request Path Overrides

The request_path_overrides field allows you to override the default API endpoint paths for specific request types. This is useful when:

• Connecting to custom or self-hosted model providers
• Integrating with proxies that expect specific URL patterns
• Using provider forks with modified API paths

Not Supported: request_path_overrides is not supported for gemini and bedrock base provider types due to their specialized API implementations.

The field accepts a mapping of request types to either custom paths or full URLs:

Using Paths (relative to base_url):

{
    "request_path_overrides": {
        "chat_completion": "/v1/chat/completions",
        "chat_completion_stream": "/v1/chat/completions",
        "embedding": "/v1/embeddings",
        "text_completion": "/v1/completions"
    }
}

Using Full URLs (bypasses base_url):

{
    "request_path_overrides": {
        "chat_completion": "https://specific-endpoint.com/chat",
        "embedding": "http://another-service:8080/embeddings"
    }
}

When a full URL (with scheme and host) is provided in request_path_overrides, Bifrost will use that URL directly and ignore the base_url from network_config for that specific request type. This allows you to route different request types to completely different endpoints.

Example: OpenAI-Compatible Endpoint with Custom Paths

{
    "custom-llm": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "custom-llm-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "network_config": {
            "base_url": "https://your-openai-compatible-endpoint.com"
        },
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": true
            },
            "request_path_overrides": {
                "chat_completion": "/api/v2/chat",
                "chat_completion_stream": "/api/v2/chat"
            }
        }
    }
}

In this example, instead of using OpenAI’s default /v1/chat/completions path, requests will be sent to https://custom-endpoint.example.com/api/v2/chat.

TLS for Self-Signed or Internal Certificates

When connecting to providers with HTTPS endpoints that use self-signed certificates or internal CAs (e.g., air-gapped environments, internal services), you can configure TLS in network_config:

Field	Type	Description
insecure_skip_verify	boolean	Disable TLS certificate verification. Use only for trusted internal environments. Not recommended for production.
ca_cert_pem	string	PEM-encoded CA certificate to trust for provider connections. Use when the endpoint uses a custom CA.

These options are mutually exclusive. Do not set insecure_skip_verify: true together with ca_cert_pem; provider config validation rejects that combination.

Option 1: Skip verification (air-gapped / self-signed)

{
    "my-air-gapped-provider": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "key-1", "value": "env.API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "network_config": {
            "base_url": "https://internal-llm.example.com",
            "insecure_skip_verify": true
        },
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": true
            }
        }
    }
}

Option 2: Custom CA certificate (preferred when you have the CA)

{
    "my-internal-provider": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "key-1", "value": "env.API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "network_config": {
            "base_url": "https://internal-llm.example.com",
            "ca_cert_pem": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n...\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----"
        },
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": true
            }
        }
    }
}

Using insecure_skip_verify disables all certificate verification and is insecure. Prefer ca_cert_pem when you have the CA certificate. Only use insecure_skip_verify in trusted, isolated environments (e.g., air-gapped networks).

Use Cases

1. Environment-Specific Configurations

Create different configurations for production, staging, and development environments:

{
    "openai-production": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-prod-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": true,
                "embedding": true,
                "speech": true,
                "speech_stream": true
            }
        }
    },
    "openai-staging": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-stage-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": true,
                "embedding": true,
                "speech": false,
                "speech_stream": false
            }
        }
    },
    "openai-dev": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-dev-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": false,
                "embedding": false,
                "speech": false,
                "speech_stream": false
            }
        }
    }
}

2. Role-Based Access Control

Restrict capabilities based on user roles or team permissions. You can then create virtual keys for better management of who can access which providers, providing granular control over team permissions and resource usage. This integrates seamlessly with Bifrost’s governance features for comprehensive access control and monitoring:

{
    "openai-developers": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-developers-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": true,
                "embedding": true,
                "text_completion": true
            }
        }
    },
    "openai-analysts": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-analysts-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "embedding": true
            }
        }
    },
    "openai-support": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-support-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": false
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Feature Testing and Rollouts

Test new features with limited user groups:

{
    "openai-beta-streaming": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-streaming-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": true,
                "embedding": false
            }
        }
    },
    "openai-stable": {
        "keys": [{ "name": "openai-stable-key-1", "value": "env.PROVIDER_API_KEY", "models": ["*"], "weight": 1.0 }],
        "custom_provider_config": {
            "base_provider_type": "openai",
            "allowed_requests": {
                "chat_completion": true,
                "chat_completion_stream": false,
                "embedding": true
            }
        }
    }
}

Making Requests

Use your custom provider name in requests:

# Request to custom provider
curl --location 'http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "model": "openai-custom/gpt-4o-mini",
    "messages": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}
    ]
}'

Relationship to Provider Configuration

Custom providers extend the standard provider configuration system. They inherit all the capabilities of their base provider while adding request type restrictions.

Learn more about provider configuration:

• Gateway Provider Configuration
• Go SDK Provider Configuration

Next Steps

• Fallbacks - Automatic failover between providers
• Load Balancing - Intelligent API key management with weighted load balancing
• Governance - Advanced access control and monitoring