Type Alias SmolConfig

The given model determines both

• what client is used
• what strategy is executed.

1. Specifying a model directly

The simplest case is to specify the name of a model from lib/models.ts. Example:

  model: "claude-sonnet-4-6"
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2. Specifying a model config (letting Smoltalk pick the model)

You can instead also choose to let Smoltalk pick the model that it thinks will be best for certain parameters. For example:

  model: {
    // find the fastest model
    optimizeFor: ["speed"],

    // from either Anthropic or Google, whichever is faster
    providers: ["anthropic", "google"],
    limit: {
      // 1 mil input tokens + 1 mil output tokens together
      // should cost less than $10 for the models being considered
      cost: 10,
    },
  }
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This can be a good option because as better models come out, you won't need to update your code. You can just update Smoltalk and it will pick the best model automatically.

3. Specifying a strategy

Finally, you can instead specify a strategy to execute. For example:

  model: {
    type: "race",
    params: {
      strategies: ["gemini-2.5-flash-lite", "gemini-2.5-pro"],
    },
  }
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In this case, Smoltalk will run your request over using both LLMs simultaneously, and take the response that finishes first.

You can also choose to specify fallbacks in case the first model returns an error for some reason. This can be a good way to try something with a fast model and then use a slower but more powerful model if the first one fails.

  model: {
    type: "fallback",
    params: {
      primaryStrategy: "gemini-2.5-flash-lite",
      config: {
        error: ["gemini-2.5-pro"],
      },
    },
  }
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You can of course combine strategies together to create more complex behavior:

  const geminiLiteWithFallback = {
    type: "fallback",
    params: {
      primaryStrategy: "gemini-2.5-flash-lite",
      config: {
        error: ["gemini-2.5-pro"],
      },
    },
  };

  model: {
    type: "race",
    params: {
      strategies: ["gemini-2.5-pro", geminiLiteWithFallback],
    },
  }
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