LobeChat

LobeChat is a web-based chat client with a plugin system and strong model switching. Because it reads the OpenAI schema, CAPI works as a custom provider with no code changes.

Prerequisites

• LobeChat running locally or deployed.
• A CAPI API key.

Configure in the UI

1. Open Settings → Language Model.
2. Under OpenAI, set:

1. Save, then enable the models you want visible in the chat picker.

Configure with environment variables

For a deployment, set these on the container:

docker run -d \
  -p 3210:3210 \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY="capi_sk_live_..." \
  -e OPENAI_PROXY_URL="https://capi.ai/api/v1" \
  -e OPENAI_MODEL_LIST="gpt-5.6,claude-opus-5,gemini-3.1-pro" \
  -e ENABLED_OPENAI="1" \
  lobehub/lobe-chat

OPENAI_MODEL_LIST accepts + and - prefixes to add or hide entries, which is the quickest way to trim the default list.

Background model

LobeChat runs helper tasks — topic naming, summaries — on a background model. Pin it to something cheap so it does not inflate spend:

-e OPENAI_MODEL_LIST="gpt-5.6,-all,+gpt-5-mini"

Set the topic-naming model explicitly under Settings → Service Model, choosing gpt-5-mini or deepseek-v4-flash.

Streaming and proxies

If you deploy behind a reverse proxy, disable response buffering for the chat route. An Nginx default of proxy_buffering on collects the whole SSE stream before forwarding, which makes token streaming appear to hang and then arrive at once:

location /api/chat {
    proxy_pass http://lobe-chat:3210;
    proxy_buffering off;
    proxy_read_timeout 300s;
}

Plugins

LobeChat's function-calling plugins work with CAPI models that support tool use. If a plugin silently fails, switch to a model with stronger function calling — gpt-5.6 and claude-opus-5 are the most reliable in the catalog.

Troubleshooting

Models do not appear. The proxy address is missing /v1. LobeChat concatenates the path itself.

Topic names are nonsense. The background model is a weak or mismatched one. Pin it explicitly as above.

429 under load. Per-key rate limits apply. Issue a second key and split traffic, or raise limits on a Team plan.

Next steps

• NextChat
• LLM API quickstart