Problem Background

When you migrate from one AI API gateway to another—whether switching from OpenAI's direct endpoint to HolySheep or moving between proxy providers—the base_url configuration is the single most critical setting to update. A misconfigured base_url results in authentication failures, routing errors, or your requests hitting the wrong endpoint entirely. Most "connection refused" and "401 Unauthorized" errors in AI API integrations trace back to an outdated or incorrectly formatted base URL.

HolySheep provides OpenAI-compatible endpoints at https://api.holysheep.ai/v1. This compatibility layer means you can use official OpenAI SDKs with minimal configuration changes, but only if your base_url is set correctly.

Applicable Scenarios

You need this checklist when:

- Migrating from OpenAI's direct API to HolySheep - Switching from another API proxy to HolySheep - Deploying code across environments with different endpoint configurations - Updating SDK versions that changed default endpoint behavior - Adding fallback routing between multiple AI providers

Configuration Steps

Step 1: Identify Current Base URL

Locate where your application stores the base URL configuration:

Common environment variable names
echo $OPENAI_BASE_URL
echo $AI_BASE_URL
echo $API_BASE_URL
echo $BASE_URL

Step 2: Update to HolySheep Endpoint

Replace your existing base URL with HolySheep's OpenAI-compatible endpoint:

https://api.holysheep.ai/v1

Note the trailing /v1—this is required for OpenAI SDK compatibility.

Step 3: Verify API Key Format

HolySheep uses its own API keys, distinct from OpenAI keys. Obtain your key from the HolySheep dashboard and ensure it's passed via the Authorization header as Bearer .

Step 4: Test Connectivity

Send a simple models list request to validate the configuration before making production requests.

Code Examples

Python (OpenAI SDK)

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your-holysheep-api-key",
    base_url="https://api.holysheep.ai/v1"
)
Verify connection by listing available models
models = client.models.list()
for model in models.data:
    print(model.id)
Make a completion request
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o-mini",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, world!"}]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Node.js (OpenAI SDK)

```javascript import OpenAI from 'openai';

const client = new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env.HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY, baseURL: 'https://