Genesis Docs

Kilo Gateway

Kilo Gateway provides a unified API that routes requests to many models behind a single endpoint and API key. It is OpenAI-compatible, so most OpenAI SDKs work by switching the base URL.

Property Value
Provider kilocode
Auth KILOCODE_API_KEY
API OpenAI-compatible
Base URL https://api.kilo.ai/api/gateway/

Getting started

Create an account

Go to [app.kilo.ai](https://app.kilo.ai), sign in or create an account, then navigate to API Keys and generate a new key.

Run onboarding

```bash
genesis onboard --auth-choice kilocode-api-key
```

Or set the environment variable directly:

```bash
export KILOCODE_API_KEY="<your-kilocode-api-key>" # pragma: allowlist secret
```

Verify the model is available

```bash
genesis models list --provider kilocode
```

Default model

The default model is kilocode/kilo/auto, a provider-owned smart-routing model managed by Kilo Gateway.

Genesis treats `kilocode/kilo/auto` as the stable default ref, but does not publish a source-backed task-to-upstream-model mapping for that route. Exact upstream routing behind `kilocode/kilo/auto` is owned by Kilo Gateway, not hard-coded in Genesis.

Built-in catalog

Genesis dynamically discovers available models from the Kilo Gateway at startup. Use /models kilocode to see the full list of models available with your account.

Any model available on the gateway can be used with the kilocode/ prefix:

Model ref Notes
kilocode/kilo/auto Default — smart routing
kilocode/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4 Anthropic via Kilo
kilocode/openai/gpt-5.5 OpenAI via Kilo
kilocode/google/gemini-3-pro-preview Google via Kilo
...and many more Use /models kilocode to list all
At startup, Genesis queries `GET https://api.kilo.ai/api/gateway/models` and merges discovered models ahead of the static fallback catalog. The bundled fallback always includes `kilocode/kilo/auto` (`Kilo Auto`) with `input: ["text", "image"]`, `reasoning: true`, `contextWindow: 1000000`, and `maxTokens: 128000`.

Config example

{
  env: { KILOCODE_API_KEY: "<your-kilocode-api-key>" }, // pragma: allowlist secret
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "kilocode/kilo/auto" },
    },
  },
}

Transport and compatibility

Kilo Gateway is documented in source as OpenRouter-compatible, so it stays on
the proxy-style OpenAI-compatible path rather than native OpenAI request shaping.

- Gemini-backed Kilo refs stay on the proxy-Gemini path, so Genesis keeps
  Gemini thought-signature sanitation there without enabling native Gemini
  replay validation or bootstrap rewrites.
- Kilo Gateway uses a Bearer token with your API key under the hood.

Stream wrapper and reasoning

Kilo's shared stream wrapper adds the provider app header and normalizes
proxy reasoning payloads for supported concrete model refs.

<div class="callout warning">
`kilocode/kilo/auto` and other proxy-reasoning-unsupported hints skip reasoning
injection. If you need reasoning support, use a concrete model ref such as
`kilocode/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4`.
</div>

Troubleshooting

- If model discovery fails at startup, Genesis falls back to the bundled static catalog containing `kilocode/kilo/auto`.
- Confirm your API key is valid and that your Kilo account has the desired models enabled.
- When the Gateway runs as a daemon, ensure `KILOCODE_API_KEY` is available to that process (for example in `~/.genesis/.env` or via `env.shellEnv`).

Related