Discourse AI - Large Language Model (LLM) settings page

:bookmark: This guide covers the LLM settings page which is part of the Discourse AI plugin.

:person_raising_hand: Required user level: Administrator

The dedicated settings page is designed to have everything related to Large Language Models (LLMs) used for Discourse AI features in one place.

:raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed: Depending on the Discourse AI feature enabled, an LLM might be needed. Please check each Discourse AI feature to know if an LLM is a pre-requisite.


Features

  • Add new models, with prepopulated information
  • Add custom models not mentioned
  • Configure LLM settings
  • Allow specific LLM use for AI Bot
    • See the AI Bot username
  • Enable vision support (model dependent)
  • Test connections
  • Save settings
  • Delete connections

Adding LLM connections

  1. Go to Admin ā†’ Plugins ā†’ AI
  2. Go to the LLMs tab
  3. Add a new connection, pick your model
  4. Add in the API key (depending on the model, you might have more fields to input manually) and save
  5. (Optional) Test your connection to make sure itā€™s working

Supported LLMs

:person_tipping_hand: You can always add a custom option if you donā€™t see your model listed. Supported models are continually added.

  • Grok-2
  • Deepseek-R1
  • Nova Pro
  • Nova Lite
  • Nova Micro
  • GPT-4o
  • GPT-4o mini
  • OpenAI o1 Preview
  • OpenAI o1 mini Preview
  • Claude Sonnet 3.7
  • Claude Sonnet 3.5
  • Claude Haiku 3.5
  • Gemini Pro 1.5
  • Gemini Flash 1.5
  • Gemini Flash 2.0
  • Llama 3.1
  • Llama 3.3
  • Mistral large
  • Pixtral large
  • Qwen 2.5 Coder

Additionally, hosted customers can use the following pre-configured LLMs in the settings page. These are open-weights LLMs hosted by Discourse, ready for use to power AI features.

  • CDCK Hosted Large LLM: Llama 3.3
  • CDCK Hosted Small LLM: Qwen 2.5
  • CDCK Hosted Vision LLM: Qwen 2-VL

Configurations fields

:information_source: You will only see the fields relevant to your selected LLM provider. Please double-check any of the pre-populated fields with the appropriate provider, such as Model name

  • Name to display
  • Model name
  • Service hosting the model
  • URL of the service hosting the model
  • API Key of the service hosting the model
  • AWS Bedrock Access key ID
  • AWS Bedrock Region
  • Optional OpenAI Organization ID
  • Tokenizer
  • Number of tokens for the prompt

Technical FAQ

What is tokenizer?

  • The tokenizer translates strings into tokens, which is what a model uses to understand the input.

What number should I use for Number of tokens for the prompt ?

  • A good rule of thumb is 50% of the model context window, which is the sum of how many tokens you send and how many tokens they generate. If the prompt gets too big, the request will fail. That number is used to trim the prompt and prevent that from happening

Caveats

  • Sometimes you may not see the model you wanted to use listed. While you can add them manually, we will support popular models as they come out.

Last edited by @Saif 2025-03-26T15:52:29Z

Check documentPerform check on document:
8 Likes

Itā€™s too difficult, I donā€™t know how to do it at all. I hope to update specific tutorials on various AIs, such as Google login settings.

We improved the UI a lot in the past week, can you try it out again?

2 Likes

When Gemini 2.0 will be supported ?

Been supported for quite a while.

4 Likes

I seem to have an issue where I cannot Select a LLM even though I have the CDCK hosted ones configuredā€¦

is this normal?

2 Likes

A lot to unwrap here, which llm are you trying to choose for what?

The CDCK LLMs are only available for very specific features, to see which you need to head to /admin/whats-new on your instance and click ā€œonly show experimental featuresā€, you will need to enable them to unlock the CDCK LLM on specific features.

Any LLM you define outside of CDCK LLMs is available to all features.

3 Likes

Is there also a topic that provides a general rundown of the best cost/quality balance? Or even which LLM can be used for free for a small community and basic functionality? I can dive into the details and play around. But Iā€™m a bit short in terms of time.

For example, I only care about spam detection and a profanity filter. I had this for free, but those plugins are deprecated or soon to be. It would be nice if I can retain this functionality without having to pay for an LLM.

3 Likes

We do have this topic, that might be what you are looking for.

2 Likes

Done! It was indeed pretty easy. But maybe for a non techie it may still be a bit hard to setup. For example, the model name was automatically set in the settings, but wasnā€™t the correct one. Luckily I recognized the model name in a curl example for Claude on the API page and then it worked :tada:

Estimated costs are maybe 30 euro cents per month for spam control (I donā€™t have a huge forum). So thatā€™s manageable! Iā€™ve set a limit of 5 euros in the API console, just in case.

1 Like

Which one did you pick for Claude? What was the incorrect name shown, and what did you correct it to?

1 Like

I use Claude 3.5, the model ID is by default claude-3-5-haiku, but I had to change it to claude-3-5-haiku-20241022, otherwise I got an error.

1 Like

Good to note, yeah sometimes there might be a disconnect. The auto-populated info should act as guidance, which tends to work most of the time, but does fall short in certain cases such as yours (given all the different models and provider configs)

I have updated the OP of this guide

1 Like