The .env Pattern¶

Every AIBHS project that talks to Navigator uses a local .env file to hold the base URL and API key. The file is git-ignored (per Keeping Secrets Out of Git) and lives at the project root, alongside the tool that reads it.

The File¶

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<your-navigator-key>
LITELLM_BASE_URL=https://api.ai.it.ufl.edu

Paste the Navigator key after the =. No quotes, no spaces around the =. Save the file.

Security check. .env contains a live credential. Before your first commit, confirm .env is in your .gitignore. If you accidentally commit it, rotate the key with UF IT immediately — deleting the commit or force-pushing is not enough. The key must be considered compromised.

Verifying the Key and Picking a Model¶

Before configuring any tool, do these two curl calls. The first lists the models your key can access; the second confirms the chat endpoint works.

List available models:

source .env

curl "$LITELLM_BASE_URL/v1/models" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"

Pick the model ID you want to use from the response. Set an environment variable for convenience:

export NAV_MODEL="<the-id-you-picked>"

Send a test chat completion:

curl "$LITELLM_BASE_URL/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"model\":\"$NAV_MODEL\",\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"say hi\"}]}"

Expected: a JSON response with content and token usage. If your model is thinking-mode, you may also see a reasoning_content field. If the response comes back cleanly, the proxy is working end-to-end and any tool failure from here is a tool-side issue.

Test Failure With a Thinking-Mode Model¶

If your model ID indicates thinking mode and the curl above fails with a BedrockException about temperature, add temperature to the request body:

-d "{\"model\":\"$NAV_MODEL\",\"temperature\":1,\"messages\":[...]}"

Many tools do not send a temperature field by default. If curl succeeds without it, the model's default (1) is being used. If it fails without and works with, tool integrations will need explicit temperature=1 configuration.