Configuration¶

LLM Council can be configured through environment variables or YAML configuration files.

Configuration Priority¶

Environment variables (highest priority)
YAML configuration file
Default values

YAML Configuration¶

Create llm_council.yaml in your project root or ~/.config/llm-council/:

council:
  tiers:
    default: high
    pools:
      quick:
        models:
          - openai/gpt-4o-mini
          - anthropic/claude-3-5-haiku-20241022
        timeout_seconds: 30
      balanced:
        models:
          - openai/gpt-4o
          - anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022
        timeout_seconds: 90
      high:
        models:
          - openai/gpt-4o
          - anthropic/claude-opus-4-7
          - google/gemini-3-pro
        timeout_seconds: 180

  gateways:
    default: openrouter
    # Per-provider overrides and per-gateway model-id translation
    providers:
      requesty:
        enabled: true
        base_url: https://router.requesty.ai/v1/chat/completions
    model_name_map:
      requesty:
        "some/model:free": "some/model"  # Requesty rejects OpenRouter's ":free" suffix

Environment Variables¶

Essential¶

Variable	Description
`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`	OpenRouter API key
`LLM_COUNCIL_MODELS`	Comma-separated model list
`LLM_COUNCIL_CHAIRMAN`	Chairman model
`LLM_COUNCIL_CHAIRMAN_DISABLED`	Skip chairman synthesis, return top-ranked response directly. Never enable for `council-verify`/`council-gate` — see Verification guide.

Feature Flags¶

Variable	Default	Description
`LLM_COUNCIL_RUBRIC_SCORING`	`false`	Multi-dimensional scoring
`LLM_COUNCIL_BIAS_AUDIT`	`false`	Bias detection
`LLM_COUNCIL_SAFETY_GATE`	`false`	Content safety checks

Modes¶

Variable	Options	Description
`LLM_COUNCIL_MODE`	`consensus`, `debate`	Synthesis mode
`LLM_COUNCIL_VERDICT_TYPE`	`synthesis`, `binary`	Verdict format

Gateway Options¶

LLM Council supports multiple gateways:

Gateway	Best For	Setup
OpenRouter	Easy setup	`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`
Direct	Control	Provider API keys
Requesty	Analytics	`REQUESTY_API_KEY`
Ollama	Local/Air-gapped	No key needed

Model IDs sometimes differ across gateways (e.g. Requesty rejects OpenRouter's :free suffix); use gateways.model_name_map in the YAML config above to translate a canonical model ID per gateway.

Note: gateways.default (above) is the config that actually routes live traffic today. The class-based GatewayRouter/circuit-breaker abstraction described in the ADR-023 spec is not currently reachable via configuration — see #524.

See README for complete configuration reference.