These docs track the main branch and may describe unreleased features. The stable documentation lives at docs.docker.com.

OpenAI

Use GPT-5.6, GPT-4o, GPT-5, GPT-5-mini, and other OpenAI models with docker-agent.

Setup

# Set your API key
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
Tip

No API key? A ChatGPT Plus/Pro/Business subscription can be used instead through the chatgpt provider: sign in once with docker agent setup (pick chatgpt).

Configuration

Inline

agents:
  root:
    model: openai/gpt-5.6

Named Model

models:
  gpt:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-5.6
    max_tokens: 4000

Available Models

Model Best For
gpt-5.6 Alias for gpt-5.6-sol; tracks the flagship model
gpt-5.6-sol Frontier model, most capable, complex reasoning
gpt-5.6-terra Everyday workhorse; successor to the -mini tier
gpt-5.6-luna High-volume, cost-efficient; successor to -nano tier
gpt-5 Previous-generation flagship
gpt-5-mini Previous-generation fast, cost-effective model
gpt-4o Multimodal, balanced performance
gpt-4o-mini Cheapest, fast for simple tasks

Starting with GPT-5.6, OpenAI renamed the -mini/-nano size tiers to -terra/-luna (with -sol denoting the frontier tier previously left unsuffixed).

Find more model names at modelnames.ai or in the official OpenAI docs.

Thinking Budget

OpenAI reasoning models (o-series, gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, gpt-5.6 family) support extended thinking through the reasoning_effort API parameter. Set thinking_budget to control the effort level:

models:
  gpt-thinker:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-5.6
    thinking_budget: high   # none | minimal | low | medium | high | xhigh | max

Effort levels:

Level Description
none No reasoning. On gpt-5.6+ this is a real API value that is sent as-is; on older models it just disables the local thinking_budget (the API's own default still applies).
minimal Fastest; lightest reasoning pass. Not accepted on gpt-5.6+ (dropped from the API).
low Quick reasoning for straightforward tasks.
medium Balanced default.
high More thorough; recommended for complex tasks.
xhigh Near-maximum effort; slower but most accurate. Requires gpt-5.2+.
max Maximum effort. Requires gpt-5.6+ (Sol/Terra/Luna).

Token counts, adaptive, and adaptive/<effort> are rejected with a configuration error at request time. Older models (o1, o3-mini) only accept low/medium/high; xhigh requires gpt-5.2+; none and max require gpt-5.6+; minimal is not accepted on gpt-5.6+.

Hidden reasoning tokens

OpenAI reasoning models always produce hidden reasoning tokens that count against max_tokens — even with thinking_budget: none on older models. docker-agent automatically raises the output-token floor for its internal low-effort calls so reasoning cannot starve visible text output.

See the Thinking / Reasoning guide for a cross-provider overview.

Custom endpoints

Use base_url for proxies and OpenAI-compatible services. See Custom Providers for full setup.

Custom Endpoint

Use base_url to connect to OpenAI-compatible APIs:

models:
  custom:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-5-mini
    base_url: https://your-proxy.example.com/v1

WebSocket Transport

For OpenAI Responses API models (gpt-4.1+, o-series, gpt-5), you can use WebSocket streaming instead of the default SSE (Server-Sent Events):

models:
  fast-gpt:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-4.1
    provider_opts:
      transport: websocket  # Use WebSocket instead of SSE

Benefits

Requirements

Example

See examples/websocket_transport.yaml for a complete example.

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