# Spice Cloud Platform

Instructions for using language models served by the Spice Cloud Platform with Spice.

To use a large language model served by the Spice Cloud AI gateway (or by another Spice runtime), specify the `spice.ai` path in the `from` field and the associated `spiceai_api_key` parameter.

| Param | Description | Default |
| - | - | - |
| `spiceai_api_key` | The API key for Spice Cloud, or for the Spice runtime serving the model. **Required** when the endpoint is Spice Cloud. | - |
| `spiceai_endpoint` | The endpoint serving the model: Spice Cloud, or another Spice runtime. | `https://data.spiceai.io` |

Example:

```yaml
models:
  - from: spice.ai:openai/gpt-4o
    name: cloud_llm
    params:
      spiceai_api_key: ${secrets:SPICEAI_API_KEY}
```

## `from` Format

The `from` field is the source prefix (`spice.ai` or `spiceai`) followed by a `:` or `/` separator and the model identifier:

- `spice.ai:openai/gpt-4o`
- `spice.ai/openai/gpt-4o`
- `spiceai:openai/gpt-4o`
- `spiceai/openai/gpt-4o`

All four forms resolve to the same model identifier, `openai/gpt-4o`. Both spellings of the prefix are accepted so that a `from` reads the same whether it names a model or a [dataset](https://spice.ai/docs/building-blocks/data-connectors/spiceai).

Model identifiers take the form `<provider>/<model>` (for example `openai/gpt-4o` or `anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet`); the identifiers available depend on what the endpoint serves. A `from` that names only the prefix (e.g. `from: spice.ai` or `from: spice.ai:`) carries no model identifier and fails to load.

## Connecting to Another Spice Runtime

Because the model is reached over an OpenAI-compatible HTTP API, `spiceai_endpoint` can point at another Spice runtime instead of the Cloud Platform. The endpoint is the root of the deployment: the OpenAI-compatible API is served under `/v1`, and an endpoint that already names `/v1` is used as-is.

```yaml
models:
  - from: spice.ai:openai/gpt-4o
    name: upstream_llm
    params:
      spiceai_endpoint: http://localhost:8090
```

An API key is optional for a self-hosted Spice runtime, which may not have authentication enabled. Spice Cloud always authenticates, so omitting `spiceai_api_key` when the endpoint resolves to the Cloud Platform is rejected at load time.

> **Note**
>
> The `spice.ai` model source serves large language models only. Support for loading and serving traditional machine learning (ONNX) models was removed in v2.2: see [Machine Learning Models](https://spiceai.org/docs/features/machine-learning-models).