Using Open WebUI

Compatibility: works. Open WebUI is built around the OpenAI Chat Completions protocol, and it can find models through GET /v1/models. luv13 serves both. Features that need other endpoints, such as OpenAI-based embeddings for RAG, image generation and audio, won't work through luv13.

Before you start

You need:

• A running Open WebUI and an admin account. These steps follow Open WebUI's "OpenAI-Compatible" guide, read on 2026-09-30. The open-webui repo's package.json on main showed version 0.11.4 that day.
• A luv13 API key. The Quickstart shows how to get one.
• The model id luv13/glm-5.3-flash, from the live list at https://api.luv13.ai/v1/models. See GLM-5.3 Flash for details on the model.

Facts about luv13 that affect this setup:

• luv13 serves one generation endpoint, POST /v1/chat/completions, plus GET /v1/models. /v1/responses, /v1/messages, /v1/completions and /v1/embeddings return 404 (checked 2026-09-30). See Endpoints.
• Every model costs a flat $0.33 per 1M tokens, input the same as output. See Pricing.
• The model list at https://api.luv13.ai/v1/models doesn't report context length, so luv13 publishes no per-model limits. See the model list.

Test your key and model first

Run these two checks in a terminal before you touch the tool. They take a few seconds and rule out key and model problems.

1. The model id exists. This call needs no key:

curl -s https://api.luv13.ai/v1/models

The list should include "id":"luv13/glm-5.3-flash".

2. Your key works for chat. Set the key in your shell first (export LUV13_API_KEY="your luv13 key"), then run:

curl -s https://api.luv13.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LUV13_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "luv13/glm-5.3-flash",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Reply with the word ready."}],
    "max_tokens": 20
  }'

With a valid key you should get back a JSON chat completion whose choices[0].message.content holds the reply, plus a usage block. If you see {"error":{"code":401,"message":"unauthorized","type":"invalid_auth"}} instead, the key is missing or wrong, and no tool setting will fix that.

Set up the connection in the admin panel

1. Open Open WebUI in your browser and sign in as an admin.
2. Go to Settings > Admin > Connections and find the Manage OpenAI API Connections list.
3. Click Add Connection (the ➕ button).
4. Fill in:

5. Click Save. Make sure the connection's toggle switch is on.
6. Start a new chat, pick luv13/glm-5.3-flash in the model selector, and send "Reply with the word ready."

Open WebUI's docs note that saving a connection doesn't test it. Step 6 is the real test.

Or set it with environment variables

Open WebUI's docs say it's configured through environment variables, and that the same values can be set in the admin panel. The core connection uses:

OPENAI_API_BASE_URL=https://api.luv13.ai/v1
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-luv13-key

With Docker, Open WebUI's quick start runs the container with docker run. Add the two variables as -e flags, and read the key from your shell instead of typing it into the command:

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 \
  --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway \
  -v open-webui:/app/backend/data \
  -e WEBUI_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key \
  -e OPENAI_API_BASE_URL=https://api.luv13.ai/v1 \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY="$LUV13_API_KEY" \
  --name open-webui --restart always \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Replace your-secret-key with your own random value, as in Open WebUI's quick start. Open WebUI's docs also list TASK_MODEL_EXTERNAL for the model used by background tasks such as title generation. You can set it to luv13/glm-5.3-flash so those tasks use luv13 too, and they're billed like any other request.

Which Open WebUI features use luv13

Open WebUI's docs list the endpoints a provider should serve:

So don't point RAG_OPENAI_API_BASE_URL, IMAGES_OPENAI_API_BASE_URL or the audio base URL settings at luv13.

Open WebUI's docs also say it passes standard parameters such as temperature, top_p, max_tokens, stop and seed, and tools when the server supports tools and tool_choice. Which of these luv13 honors isn't confirmed per model. See Request Parameters and Tool Calling on luv13.

Common errors

General tip: admin connections are made from the Open WebUI server, not your browser. If the server has no internet access, luv13 won't be reachable even though curl works on your laptop.

Sources

• Open WebUI docs, "OpenAI-Compatible" (read 2026-09-30). Covers the connection steps, Verify Connection, Model IDs, the Provider setting, required endpoints and supported parameters.
• Open WebUI docs, "Quick Start" (the docker run command, read 2026-09-30)
• Open WebUI docs, "Connection Errors" (blank tool replies, streaming behind nginx, backend and frontend connections) (read 2026-09-30)
• Open WebUI source, package.json on main (version 0.11.4 on 2026-09-30)
• luv13 endpoints checked live with curl on 2026-09-30, including /v1/models returning 200 with an invalid key.

Related: Using Cursor, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Streaming.