# Help understanding OpenRouter language models

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-understanding-openrouter-language-models/341663>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [December 10, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-understanding-openrouter-language-models/341663 "2024-12-10T18:20:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-understanding-openrouter-language-models/341663/1 "2024-12-10T18:20:36Z")

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I was going to reply but think that I’m not supposed to be able to reply there? (Or maybe it was something else that I once replied to taht wasn’t supposed to and perhaps I no longer have special powers).

Continuing the discussion from [Configuring OpenRouter language models](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-openrouter-language-models/341526):

> [@Configuring OpenRouter language models](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-openrouter-language-models/341526/1):
>
> Some models on open router do not support native tools, in those cases you should disable native tools so you can still get XML based tools. Additionally performance varies so you should test if XML or native tools give you better results for a model.

Sorry. I still don’t understand, and I know a lot more about at least Discourse than at least most people this is for (but likely know less about AI?). This is the first mention of “XML tools in this topic..”

The OpenRouter tools are XML tools? Normal People don’t care that XML is referring to some underlying details of how the API works, but I’m curious.

And “Native tools” refers to configuring API keys for Anthropic and OpenAI? On the `/admin/plugins/discourse-ai/ai-llms` page? And these XML tools, like the Native Tools both allow you to create personas that use some of these LLMs, right?

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-understanding-openrouter-language-models/341663)._