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PHP API Reference

PHP API Reference v1.4.0-rc.27

Functions

createClient()

Create a new LLM client with simple scalar configuration.

This is the primary binding entry-point. All parameters except api_key are optional — omitting them uses the same defaults as ClientConfigBuilder.

Errors:

Returns LiterLlmError if the underlying HTTP client cannot be constructed, or if the resolved provider configuration is invalid.

Signature:

public static function createClient(string $apiKey, ?string $baseUrl = null, ?int $timeoutSecs = null, ?int $maxRetries = null, ?string $modelHint = null): DefaultClient

Parameters:

Name Type Required Description
apiKey string Yes The api key
baseUrl ?string No The base url
timeoutSecs ?int No The timeout secs
maxRetries ?int No The max retries
modelHint ?string No The model hint

Returns: DefaultClient

Errors: Throws Error.


createClientFromJson()

Create a new LLM client from a JSON string.

The JSON object accepts the same fields as liter-llm.toml (snake_case).

Errors:

Returns LiterLlmError::BadRequest if json is not valid JSON or contains unknown fields.

Signature:

public static function createClientFromJson(string $json): DefaultClient

Parameters:

Name Type Required Description
json string Yes The json

Returns: DefaultClient

Errors: Throws Error.


registerCustomProvider()

Register a custom provider in the global runtime registry.

The provider will be checked before all built-in providers during model detection. If a provider with the same name already exists it is replaced.

Errors:

Returns an error if the config is invalid (empty name, empty base_url, or no model prefixes).

Signature:

public static function registerCustomProvider(CustomProviderConfig $config): void

Parameters:

Name Type Required Description
config CustomProviderConfig Yes The configuration options

Returns: void

Errors: Throws Error.


unregisterCustomProvider()

Remove a previously registered custom provider by name.

Returns true if a provider with the given name was found and removed, false if no such provider existed.

Errors:

Returns an error only if the internal lock is poisoned.

Signature:

public static function unregisterCustomProvider(string $name): bool

Parameters:

Name Type Required Description
name string Yes The name

Returns: bool

Errors: Throws Error.


Types

AssistantMessage

Field Type Default Description
content ?string null The extracted text content
name ?string null The name
toolCalls ?array<ToolCall> [] Tool calls
refusal ?string null Refusal
functionCall ?FunctionCall null Deprecated legacy function_call field; retained for API compatibility.

AudioContent

Field Type Default Description
data string Base64-encoded audio data.
format string Audio format (e.g., "wav", "mp3", "ogg").

ChatCompletionChunk

Field Type Default Description
id string Unique identifier
object string Always "chat.completion.chunk" from OpenAI-compatible APIs. Stored as a plain String so non-standard provider values do not fail parsing.
created int Created
model string Model
choices array<StreamChoice> [] Choices
usage ?Usage null Usage (usage)
systemFingerprint ?string null System fingerprint
serviceTier ?string null Service tier

ChatCompletionRequest

Field Type Default Description
model string Model
messages array<Message> [] Messages
temperature ?float null Temperature
topP ?float null Top p
n ?int null N
stream ?bool null Whether to stream the response. Managed by the client layer — do not set directly.
stop ?StopSequence null Stop (stop sequence)
maxTokens ?int null Maximum tokens
presencePenalty ?float null Presence penalty
frequencyPenalty ?float null Frequency penalty
logitBias ?array<string, float> {} Token bias map. Uses BTreeMap (sorted keys) for deterministic serialization order — important when hashing or signing requests.
user ?string null User
tools ?array<ChatCompletionTool> [] Tools
toolChoice ?ToolChoice null Tool choice (tool choice)
parallelToolCalls ?bool null Parallel tool calls
responseFormat ?ResponseFormat null Response format (response format)
streamOptions ?StreamOptions null Stream options (stream options)
seed ?int null Seed
reasoningEffort ?ReasoningEffort null Reasoning effort (reasoning effort)
extraBody ?mixed null Provider-specific extra parameters merged into the request body. Use for guardrails, safety settings, grounding config, etc.

ChatCompletionResponse

Field Type Default Description
id string Unique identifier
object string Always "chat.completion" from OpenAI-compatible APIs. Stored as a plain String so non-standard provider values do not break deserialization.
created int Created
model string Model
choices array<Choice> [] Choices
usage ?Usage null Usage (usage)
systemFingerprint ?string null System fingerprint
serviceTier ?string null Service tier

ChatCompletionTool

Field Type Default Description
toolType ToolType Tool type (tool type)
function FunctionDefinition Function (function definition)

Choice

Field Type Default Description
index int Index
message AssistantMessage Message (assistant message)
finishReason ?FinishReason null Finish reason (finish reason)

CreateImageRequest

Request to create images from a text prompt.

Field Type Default Description
prompt string Prompt
model ?string null Model
n ?int null N
size ?string null Size in bytes
quality ?string null Quality
style ?string null Style
responseFormat ?string null Response format
user ?string null User

CreateSpeechRequest

Request to generate speech audio from text.

Field Type Default Description
model string Model
input string Input
voice string Voice
responseFormat ?string null Response format
speed ?float null Speed

CreateTranscriptionRequest

Request to transcribe audio into text.

Field Type Default Description
model string Model
file string Base64-encoded audio file data.
language ?string null Language
prompt ?string null Prompt
responseFormat ?string null Response format
temperature ?float null Temperature

CustomProviderConfig

Configuration for registering a custom LLM provider at runtime.

Field Type Default Description
name string Unique name for this provider (e.g., "my-provider").
baseUrl string Base URL for the provider's API (e.g., "https://api.my-provider.com/v1").
authHeader AuthHeaderFormat Authentication header format.
modelPrefixes array<string> Model name prefixes that route to this provider (e.g., ["my-"]).

DefaultClient

Default client implementation backed by reqwest.

The provider is resolved at construction time from model_hint (or defaults to OpenAI). However, individual requests can override the provider when their model string contains a prefix that clearly identifies a different provider (e.g. "anthropic/claude-3" will route to Anthropic even if the client was built without a hint).

When the model prefix does not match any known provider, the construction-time provider is used as the fallback.

The provider is stored behind an Arc so it can be shared cheaply into async closures and streaming tasks that must be 'static.

Methods
chat()

Signature:

public function chat(ChatCompletionRequest $req): ChatCompletionResponse
chatStream()

Signature:

public function chatStream(ChatCompletionRequest $req): string
embed()

Signature:

public function embed(EmbeddingRequest $req): EmbeddingResponse
listModels()

Signature:

public function listModels(): ModelsListResponse
imageGenerate()

Signature:

public function imageGenerate(CreateImageRequest $req): ImagesResponse
speech()

Signature:

public function speech(CreateSpeechRequest $req): string
transcribe()

Signature:

public function transcribe(CreateTranscriptionRequest $req): TranscriptionResponse
moderate()

Signature:

public function moderate(ModerationRequest $req): ModerationResponse
rerank()

Signature:

public function rerank(RerankRequest $req): RerankResponse

Signature:

public function search(SearchRequest $req): SearchResponse
ocr()

Signature:

public function ocr(OcrRequest $req): OcrResponse
createFile()

Signature:

public function createFile(string $req): string
retrieveFile()

Signature:

public function retrieveFile(string $fileId): string
deleteFile()

Signature:

public function deleteFile(string $fileId): string
listFiles()

Signature:

public function listFiles(string $query): string
fileContent()

Signature:

public function fileContent(string $fileId): string
createBatch()

Signature:

public function createBatch(string $req): string
retrieveBatch()

Signature:

public function retrieveBatch(string $batchId): string
listBatches()

Signature:

public function listBatches(string $query): string
cancelBatch()

Signature:

public function cancelBatch(string $batchId): string
createResponse()

Signature:

public function createResponse(string $req): string
retrieveResponse()

Signature:

public function retrieveResponse(string $id): string
cancelResponse()

Signature:

public function cancelResponse(string $id): string

DeveloperMessage

Field Type Default Description
content string The extracted text content
name ?string null The name

DocumentContent

Field Type Default Description
data string Base64-encoded document data or URL.
mediaType string MIME type (e.g., "application/pdf", "text/csv").

EmbeddingObject

Field Type Default Description
object string Always "embedding" from OpenAI-compatible APIs. Stored as a plain String so non-standard provider values do not break deserialization.
embedding array<float> Embedding
index int Index

EmbeddingRequest

Field Type Default Description
model string Model
input EmbeddingInput Input (embedding input)
encodingFormat ?EmbeddingFormat null Encoding format (embedding format)
dimensions ?int null Dimensions
user ?string null User

EmbeddingResponse

Field Type Default Description
object string Always "list" from OpenAI-compatible APIs. Stored as a plain String so non-standard provider values do not break deserialization.
data array<EmbeddingObject> Data
model string Model
usage ?Usage null Usage (usage)

FunctionCall

Field Type Default Description
name string The name
arguments string Arguments

FunctionDefinition

Field Type Default Description
name string The name
description ?string null Human-readable description
parameters ?mixed null Parameters
strict ?bool null Strict

FunctionMessage

Deprecated legacy function-role message body.

Field Type Default Description
content string The extracted text content
name string The name

Image

A single generated image, returned as either a URL or base64 data.

Field Type Default Description
url ?string null Url
b64Json ?string null B64 json
revisedPrompt ?string null Revised prompt

ImageUrl

Field Type Default Description
url string Url
detail ?ImageDetail null Detail (image detail)

ImagesResponse

Response containing generated images.

Field Type Default Description
created int Created
data array<Image> [] Data

JsonSchemaFormat

Field Type Default Description
name string The name
description ?string null Human-readable description
schema mixed Schema
strict ?bool null Strict

ModelObject

Field Type Default Description
id string Unique identifier
object string Always "model" from OpenAI-compatible APIs. Stored as a plain String so non-standard provider values do not break deserialization.
created int Created
ownedBy string Owned by

ModelsListResponse

Field Type Default Description
object string Always "list" from OpenAI-compatible APIs. Stored as a plain String so non-standard provider values do not break deserialization.
data array<ModelObject> [] Data

ModerationCategories

Boolean flags for each moderation category.

Field Type Default Description
sexual bool Sexual
hate bool Hate
harassment bool Harassment
selfHarm bool Self harm
sexualMinors bool Sexual minors
hateThreatening bool Hate threatening
violenceGraphic bool Violence graphic
selfHarmIntent bool Self harm intent
selfHarmInstructions bool Self harm instructions
harassmentThreatening bool Harassment threatening
violence bool Violence

ModerationCategoryScores

Confidence scores for each moderation category.

Field Type Default Description
sexual float Sexual
hate float Hate
harassment float Harassment
selfHarm float Self harm
sexualMinors float Sexual minors
hateThreatening float Hate threatening
violenceGraphic float Violence graphic
selfHarmIntent float Self harm intent
selfHarmInstructions float Self harm instructions
harassmentThreatening float Harassment threatening
violence float Violence

ModerationRequest

Request to classify content for policy violations.

Field Type Default Description
input ModerationInput Input (moderation input)
model ?string null Model

ModerationResponse

Response from the moderation endpoint.

Field Type Default Description
id string Unique identifier
model string Model
results array<ModerationResult> Results

ModerationResult

A single moderation classification result.

Field Type Default Description
flagged bool Flagged
categories ModerationCategories Categories (moderation categories)
categoryScores ModerationCategoryScores Category scores (moderation category scores)

OcrImage

An image extracted from an OCR page.

Field Type Default Description
id string Unique image identifier.
imageBase64 ?string null Base64-encoded image data.

OcrPage

A single page of OCR output.

Field Type Default Description
index int Page index (0-based).
markdown string Extracted content as Markdown.
images ?array<OcrImage> null Extracted images, if include_image_base64 was set.
dimensions ?PageDimensions null Page dimensions in pixels, if available.

OcrRequest

An OCR request.

Field Type Default Description
model string The model/provider to use (e.g. "mistral/mistral-ocr-latest").
document OcrDocument The document to process.
pages ?array<int> null Specific pages to process (1-indexed). null means all pages.
includeImageBase64 ?bool null Whether to include base64-encoded images of each page.

OcrResponse

An OCR response.

Field Type Default Description
pages array<OcrPage> Extracted pages.
model string The model used.
usage ?Usage null Token usage, if reported by the provider.

PageDimensions

Page dimensions in pixels.

Field Type Default Description
width int Width in pixels.
height int Height in pixels.

PromptTokensDetails

Breakdown of tokens used in the prompt portion of a request.

cached_tokens is included in Usage::prompt_tokens — it is not an additional charge on top of the prompt token count. When pricing supports a cache_read_input_token_cost, the cached portion is billed at the discounted rate and the remainder at the regular input rate.

Field Type Default Description
cachedTokens int Cached tokens present in the prompt. Defaults to 0 when absent.
audioTokens int Audio input tokens present in the prompt. Defaults to 0 when absent.

RerankRequest

Request to rerank documents by relevance to a query.

Field Type Default Description
model string Model
query string Query
documents array<RerankDocument> Documents
topN ?int null Top n
returnDocuments ?bool null Return documents

RerankResponse

Response from the rerank endpoint.

Field Type Default Description
id ?string null Unique identifier
results array<RerankResult> Results
meta ?mixed null Meta

RerankResult

A single reranked document with its relevance score.

Field Type Default Description
index int Index
relevanceScore float Relevance score
document ?RerankResultDocument null Document (rerank result document)

RerankResultDocument

The text content of a reranked document, returned when return_documents is true.

Field Type Default Description
text string Text

SearchRequest

A search request.

Field Type Default Description
model string The model/provider to use (e.g. "brave/web-search", "tavily/search").
query string The search query.
maxResults ?int null Maximum number of results to return.
searchDomainFilter ?array<string> [] Domain filter — restrict results to specific domains.
country ?string null Country code for localized results (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).

SearchResponse

A search response.

Field Type Default Description
results array<SearchResult> The search results.
model string The model used.

SearchResult

An individual search result.

Field Type Default Description
title string Title of the result.
url string URL of the result.
snippet string Text snippet / excerpt.
date ?string null Publication or last-updated date, if available.

SpecificFunction

Field Type Default Description
name string The name

SpecificToolChoice

Field Type Default Description
choiceType ToolType ToolType::Function Choice type (tool type)
function SpecificFunction Function (specific function)

StreamChoice

Field Type Default Description
index int Index
delta StreamDelta Delta (stream delta)
finishReason ?FinishReason null Finish reason (finish reason)

StreamDelta

Field Type Default Description
role ?string null Role
content ?string null The extracted text content
toolCalls ?array<StreamToolCall> [] Tool calls
functionCall ?StreamFunctionCall null Deprecated legacy function_call delta; retained for API compatibility.
refusal ?string null Refusal

StreamFunctionCall

Field Type Default Description
name ?string null The name
arguments ?string null Arguments

StreamOptions

Field Type Default Description
includeUsage ?bool null Include usage

StreamToolCall

Field Type Default Description
index int Index
id ?string null Unique identifier
callType ?ToolType null Call type (tool type)
function ?StreamFunctionCall null Function (stream function call)

SystemMessage

Field Type Default Description
content string The extracted text content
name ?string null The name

ToolCall

Field Type Default Description
id string Unique identifier
callType ToolType Call type (tool type)
function FunctionCall Function (function call)

ToolMessage

Field Type Default Description
content string The extracted text content
toolCallId string Tool call id
name ?string null The name

TranscriptionResponse

Response from a transcription request.

Field Type Default Description
text string Text
language ?string null Language
duration ?float null Duration
segments ?array<TranscriptionSegment> [] Segments

TranscriptionSegment

A segment of transcribed audio with timing information.

Field Type Default Description
id int Unique identifier
start float Start
end float End
text string Text

Usage

Field Type Default Description
promptTokens int Prompt tokens used. Defaults to 0 when absent (some providers omit this).
completionTokens int Completion tokens used. Defaults to 0 when absent (e.g. embedding responses).
totalTokens int Total tokens used. Defaults to 0 when absent (some providers omit this).
promptTokensDetails ?PromptTokensDetails null Breakdown of tokens used in the prompt, including cached tokens served at the provider's discounted cache-read rate. Absent when the provider does not return prompt-token details.

UserMessage

Field Type Default Description
content UserContent UserContent::Text The extracted text content
name ?string null The name

Enums

Message

A chat message in a conversation.

Value Description
System System — Fields: 0: SystemMessage
User User — Fields: 0: UserMessage
Assistant Assistant — Fields: 0: AssistantMessage
Tool Tool — Fields: 0: ToolMessage
Developer Developer — Fields: 0: DeveloperMessage
Function Deprecated legacy function-role message; retained for API compatibility. — Fields: 0: FunctionMessage

UserContent

Value Description
Text Text format — Fields: 0: string
Parts Parts — Fields: 0: array<ContentPart>

ContentPart

Value Description
Text Text format — Fields: text: string
ImageUrl Image url — Fields: imageUrl: ImageUrl
Document Document — Fields: document: DocumentContent
InputAudio Input audio — Fields: inputAudio: AudioContent

ImageDetail

Value Description
Low Low
High High
Auto Auto

ToolType

The type discriminator for tool/tool-call objects.

Per the OpenAI spec this is always "function". Using an enum enforces that constraint at the type level and rejects any other value on deserialization.

Value Description
Function Function

ToolChoice

Value Description
Mode Mode — Fields: 0: ToolChoiceMode
Specific Specific — Fields: 0: SpecificToolChoice

ToolChoiceMode

Value Description
Auto Auto
Required Required
None None

ResponseFormat

Value Description
Text Text format
JsonObject Json object
JsonSchema Json schema — Fields: jsonSchema: JsonSchemaFormat

StopSequence

Value Description
Single Single — Fields: 0: string
Multiple Multiple — Fields: 0: array<string>

FinishReason

Why a choice stopped generating tokens.

Value Description
Stop Stop
Length Length
ToolCalls Tool calls
ContentFilter Content filter
FunctionCall Deprecated legacy finish reason; retained for API compatibility.
Other Catch-all for unknown finish reasons returned by non-OpenAI providers. Note: this intentionally does not carry the original string (e.g. Other(String)). Using #[serde(other)] requires a unit variant, and switching to #[serde(untagged)] would change deserialization semantics for all variants. The original value can be recovered by inspecting the raw JSON if needed.

ReasoningEffort

Controls how much reasoning effort the model should use.

Value Description
Low Low
Medium Medium
High High

EmbeddingFormat

The format in which the embedding vectors are returned.

Value Description
Float 32-bit floating-point numbers (default).
Base64 Base64-encoded string representation of the floats.

EmbeddingInput

Value Description
Single Single — Fields: 0: string
Multiple Multiple — Fields: 0: array<string>

ModerationInput

Input to the moderation endpoint — a single string or multiple strings.

Value Description
Single Single — Fields: 0: string
Multiple Multiple — Fields: 0: array<string>

RerankDocument

A document to be reranked — either a plain string or an object with a text field.

Value Description
Text Text format — Fields: 0: string
Object Object — Fields: text: string

OcrDocument

Document input for OCR — either a URL or inline base64 data.

Value Description
Url A publicly accessible document URL. — Fields: url: string
Base64 Inline base64-encoded document data. — Fields: data: string, mediaType: string

AuthHeaderFormat

How the API key is sent in the HTTP request.

Value Description
Bearer Bearer token: Authorization: Bearer <key>
ApiKey Custom header: e.g., X-Api-Key: <key> — Fields: 0: string
None No authentication required.

Errors

LiterLlmError

All errors that can occur when using liter-llm.

Variant Description
Authentication authentication failed:
RateLimited rate limited:
BadRequest bad request:
ContextWindowExceeded context window exceeded:
ContentPolicy content policy violation:
NotFound not found:
ServerError server error:
ServiceUnavailable service unavailable:
Timeout request timeout
Streaming A catch-all for errors that occur during streaming response processing. This variant covers multiple sub-conditions including UTF-8 decoding failures, CRC/checksum mismatches (AWS EventStream), JSON parse errors in individual SSE chunks, and buffer overflow conditions. The message field contains a human-readable description of the specific failure.
EndpointNotSupported provider {provider} does not support {endpoint}
InvalidHeader invalid header {name:?}: {reason}
Serialization serialization error:
BudgetExceeded budget exceeded:
HookRejected hook rejected:
InternalError An internal logic error (e.g. unexpected Tower response variant). This should never surface in normal operation — if it does, it indicates a bug in the library.