BrowserWire uses a vision-capable LLM to understand what’s on the page as you explore a site. Without a configured provider, discovery will not run.
Supported providers
| Provider | Default model | Requires API key |
|---|
openai | gpt-4o | Yes |
anthropic | claude-sonnet-4-20250514 | Yes |
gemini | gemini-2.5-flash | Yes |
ollama | llama3 | No |
Set your provider
You can configure the LLM through environment variables, a .env file, or a config file. Environment variables and .env take precedence over the config file.
Environment variables
Config file
Set these before starting the server:export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=openai
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_API_KEY=sk-...
.env file in your working directory — BrowserWire loads it automatically on startup. Create or edit ~/.browserwire/config.json:{
"llmProvider": "openai",
"llmApiKey": "sk-...",
"llmModel": "gpt-4o"
}
Per-provider setup
OpenAI
Anthropic
Gemini
Ollama
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=openai
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_API_KEY=sk-...
gpt-4o. You can override it with BROWSERWIRE_LLM_MODEL.export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
claude-sonnet-4-20250514.export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=gemini
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_API_KEY=AIza...
gemini-2.5-flash.export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=ollama
http://localhost:11434 by default. The default model is llama3.Make sure Ollama is running and the model you want to use is already pulled (ollama pull llama3) before starting BrowserWire.
Override the model
To use a model other than the provider’s default, set BROWSERWIRE_LLM_MODEL:
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=openai
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_API_KEY=sk-...
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini
~/.browserwire/config.json:
{
"llmProvider": "openai",
"llmApiKey": "sk-...",
"llmModel": "gpt-4o-mini"
}
BrowserWire requires a model with vision capabilities. Using a text-only model will cause discovery to fail.
Use a custom base URL
BROWSERWIRE_LLM_BASE_URL overrides the API endpoint for the selected provider. This is useful for Ollama with a non-default address, or when routing through a proxy:
# Ollama on a different host or port
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=ollama
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_BASE_URL=http://192.168.1.50:11434
# OpenAI-compatible proxy
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_PROVIDER=openai
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_API_KEY=sk-...
export BROWSERWIRE_LLM_BASE_URL=https://my-proxy.example.com/v1
