⌁ Guides

Cursor

Point Cursor's custom OpenAI model at Gondola and chat with any Venice model, paid per request in USDC on Base.

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 Cursor at Gondola

Open Cursor Settings and go to the Models section. Turn on the option to use your own OpenAI API key, paste your gnd_ key, enable the custom base URL override, and set the base URL to the Gondola gateway. Then add each model you want by its exact id using Cursor's custom-model option (Cursor does not read the model list automatically, so you add ids by hand).

values to paste

Base URL:  https://api.gondola-ai.com/v1
API key:   gnd_live_xxxx
Model id:  claude-sonnet-5   (or any id from /v1/models)

Base URL gotcha

Set the base URL to api.gondola-ai.com/v1 and nothing more. Cursor appends /chat/completions itself, so do not add it yourself.

Pick a model

Gondola serves the full Venice catalog. Model ids must be typed exactly as the catalog lists them, so pull the live list before you add them in Cursor:

shell

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

Cursor is a partial fit, so set expectations honestly:

Chat only

A custom OpenAI key powers Cursor's chat. Tab and autocomplete always use Cursor's own built-in models and cannot be routed through Gondola.

Test agent mode

Agent mode over a custom base URL has been flaky in Cursor through 2026. If you rely on the agent, run a real multi-step task to confirm it works before switching your workflow over.

Do not trust a connection-check button alone. Confirm the setup with a real chat message, or from the terminal:

verify with curl

curl https://api.gondola-ai.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer gnd_live_xxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"claude-sonnet-5","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}'

If a request returns insufficient balance, top up at /wallet.

Keep going

All setup guides →Cline guide →Continue guide →Live prices →