llmenu

Pick an LLM from your LiteLLM gateway — by price, context and benchmarks — and use it in Claude Code, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, pi and opencode.

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llmenu (pronounced L-L-menu) is for teams that reach their models through a LiteLLM gateway: dozens of models from several providers, aliases like claude-opus-latest, different prices and context sizes — and a coding tool that wants all of that configured in its own way. llmenu reads the model list from the gateway, lets you compare the models, and does the wiring for you.

_{Recorded against a fake gateway with sample prices and scores (mise run demo).}

Pick a model, press Enter, and Claude Code starts against your gateway with that model.

Why llmenu

• Choose, don't guess. Which of the gateway's models is the best for coding — and what does it cost? The menu shows context size, input and output prices and benchmark scores side by side, sortable by quality or price.
• Zero configuration. Without llmenu you export a gateway URL, a key and one model variable per slot, in a different format for each tool. With it: llmenu claude. Your ~/.claude, ~/.codex and ~/.copilot stay untouched.
• See what you spend. The menu and Claude Code's status line show the budget of the key you are using — yours or the project's — and how much of it is gone.
• One gateway, five tools. Claude Code, Codex CLI and Copilot CLI are started with the chosen model; pi and opencode get the gateway's models, limits and prices written into their configs. When the gateway changes, llmenu sync brings every tool up to date.

Requires a LiteLLM gateway (URL and API key). llmenu does not talk to model providers directly. The budget display also needs the gateway to let keys read /key/info; without it, everything else works as before.

Details

• Benchmarks from Artificial Analysis (Intelligence Index and output speed with a free key, plus Terminal-Bench and Long Context Reasoning with a Pro key); aliases are folded together, the same model at several providers (e.g. aws/ and gcp/) stays selectable. Nothing is hard-coded: the suggestions for Claude Code's opus/sonnet/haiku slots come from the gateway's model list.
• Safe config edits: in pi and opencode only llmenu's own provider entry changes; comments and other providers stay, and a backup is kept.
• Keys stay in the OS keyring (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Secret Service), never in config files or process arguments, and are only sent to the gateway they were stored for. See SECURITY.md.
• Projects: one gateway key per project or cost center, switched with llmenu project.
• Scriptable: llmenu list --json, strix --model "$(llmenu)"; without a terminal nothing ever waits for input.
• Single binary for macOS, Linux and Windows on amd64 and arm64.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS, Linux)

brew install --cask schowave/tap/llmenu

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add schowave https://github.com/schowave/scoop-bucket
scoop install llmenu

Go (1.27.4 or later)

go install github.com/schowave/llmenu/cmd/llmenu@latest

Or download an archive from the releases page. Archives come with signed build provenance; check one with gh attestation verify <archive> --repo schowave/llmenu.

Shell completion

Tab completes commands, settings, key names and model names. Homebrew sets it up automatically; with Scoop or go install, set it up once for your shell:

llmenu completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_llmenu"                                       # zsh
llmenu completion bash > ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/llmenu          # bash
llmenu completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/llmenu.fish                     # fish

Add-Content $PROFILE 'llmenu completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression'   # PowerShell

Quick start

llmenu setup     # gateway URL and key (checked right away), your tools, default models
llmenu claude    # pick a model and start Claude Code
llmenu           # the same with your default tool, see below
llmenu bench     # optional: benchmark scores, so the menu can sort by quality

llmenu without a command opens the menu and then starts your default tool, so you need not type llmenu claude every time. The setup asks for the default (or llmenu asks once); change it with llmenu default, e.g. llmenu default codex, or llmenu default --none to only print the model name. Captured as in "$(llmenu)", it always prints only the name.

setup can be run again any time: it asks what to change (everything, or e.g. only Claude Code's models), and Enter keeps the current value. If you skip it, the first command offers it. The benchmark key is free; the setup asks for it, and afterwards llmenu refreshes the scores every two weeks.

Using llmenu with your tools

llmenu integrates each tool the way that tool works best: some are started by llmenu with the chosen model, others get the gateway's models written into their configuration and then work on their own.

Tool	What llmenu does	You run
Claude Code	starts it with the chosen model	llmenu claude
Codex CLI	starts it with the chosen model	llmenu codex
GitHub Copilot CLI	starts it with the chosen model	llmenu copilot
opencode	writes the models into its config; starts it with the key	llmenu sync, then llmenu opencode
pi	writes the models into its config	llmenu sync, then pi
anything else	prints the chosen model name	tool --model "$(llmenu)"

llmenu claude                      # menu with the cursor on your default, then Claude Code starts
llmenu claude --model sonnet -c    # no menu; every argument goes to claude unchanged
llmenu claude -p "explain this" > answer.md   # no terminal: default model, no menu
llmenu codex exec "fix the failing test"
llmenu copilot -p "fix the failing test"

Details per tool, /model in Claude Code and llmenu sync: docs/tools.md.

Documentation

• Using llmenu with your tools: Claude Code, Codex CLI, Copilot CLI, opencode, pi
• Projects: one gateway key per project or cost center
• Budget and spend: in the menu and in Claude Code's status line
• Models and benchmarks: llmenu list, sorting, how models are matched
• Configuration: settings, keys, environment variables
• Troubleshooting
• Updating and uninstalling
• Changelog
• Design decisions

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! CONTRIBUTING.md covers the development setup, the local sandbox, tests and releases. Please follow the Code of Conduct. To report a security issue, see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT © David Schowalter