Aider

Create an API key

Sign in with your Base wallet at /keys and mint a Gondola API key. Keys start with gnd_. It authenticates every request and each call is charged in USDC against your Gondola balance.

Top up USDC on Base once at /wallet. The same balance powers the browser chat and every tool you connect.

Point Aider at Gondola

Aider treats Gondola as an OpenAI-compatible provider. Export the base URL and key, then start Aider with the openai/ prefix on the model id:

export OPENAI_API_BASE=https://api.gondola-ai.com/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=gnd_live_xxxx

aider --model openai/claude-sonnet-5

The environment variable names differ across Aider versions, so the command-line flags are the most reliable path if the exports do not take:

aider \
  --openai-api-base https://api.gondola-ai.com/v1 \
  --openai-api-key gnd_live_xxxx \
  --model openai/claude-sonnet-5

Pick a model

Gondola serves the full Venice catalog. Model ids must be typed exactly as the catalog lists them (keep the openai/ prefix in front of the id). Pull the live list:

curl https://api.gondola-ai.com/v1/models

Each entry includes context_length and max_completion_tokens. Example ids today include claude-sonnet-5 and qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct-turbo, but always confirm against the live list, since the catalog changes.

Notes and troubleshooting

{
  "openai/claude-sonnet-5": {
    "max_input_tokens": 200000,
    "max_output_tokens": 8192,
    "litellm_provider": "openai",
    "mode": "chat"
  }
}

The openai/ prefix is required. Without it, Aider does not route the request through the OpenAI-compatible provider and the call fails. If a request returns insufficient balance, top up at /wallet.