Configuration

The CLI resolves settings from multiple sources with strict precedence:

CLI flags (highest priority)
Environment variables
Config file (~/.openmodelsrc)
Built-in defaults (lowest priority)

Config File

Create a ~/.openmodelsrc file with your default settings in JSON format:


{
  "api_url": "https://api.openmodels.run",
  "api_key": "om_your_api_key_here",
  "format": "table",
  "no_color": false
}

All fields are optional. Only include the ones you want to override.

Field	Type	Description
`api_url`	`string`	Base URL for the OpenModels API
`api_key`	`string`	API key for authenticated requests
`format`	`"table" \| "json" \| "yaml"`	Default output format
`no_color`	`boolean`	Disable colored output

If the file contains invalid JSON, the CLI prints a warning to stderr and falls back to defaults.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
`OPENMODELS_API_URL`	API base URL (overrides config file `api_url`)
`OPENMODELS_API_KEY`	API key (overrides config file `api_key`)

Example:


export OPENMODELS_API_URL=https://api.openmodels.run
export OPENMODELS_API_KEY=om_your_api_key_here

CLI Flags

Flags always take the highest priority:


# Override API URL for a single command
openmodels models list --api-url http://localhost:3001
 
# Force JSON output regardless of config
openmodels compare gpt-4o --format json
 
# Disable colors (useful for piping)
openmodels models list --no-color

Precedence Example

Given:

~/.openmodelsrc sets "format": "yaml"
OPENMODELS_API_URL is set to https://staging.api.openmodels.run
You run: openmodels models list --format json

The resolved config will be:

format → json (CLI flag wins)
api_url → https://staging.api.openmodels.run (env var wins over config file)
api_key → value from ~/.openmodelsrc (no higher-priority source)

Non-TTY Environments

When running in non-interactive environments (CI/CD pipelines, piped output), the CLI automatically:

Disables spinner animations
Uses plain text output without ANSI escape codes when stdout is not a TTY

For explicit control, use --no-color and --format json in scripts:


# CI-friendly usage
openmodels models list --format json --no-color | jq '.[] | .id'