Extensions and Thinking

Add reasoning_effort to your request. Auriko translates it into each provider’s native format. Use extensions keyed by provider name to pass through provider-specific parameters like Anthropic’s metadata or Google’s safety_settings.

Prerequisites

An Auriko API key
Python 3.10+ with the OpenAI SDK (pip install openai) or the auriko SDK (pip install auriko)
- OR Node.js 18+ with the OpenAI SDK (npm install openai) or @auriko/sdk (npm install @auriko/sdk)
A model that supports reasoning (see provider support table)

Enable thinking

Pass reasoning_effort in your request to control extended reasoning:

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["AURIKO_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://api.auriko.ai/v1"
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Solve this step by step: what is 23! / 20!?"}],
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"}
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Check provider support

Auriko translates reasoning_effort for each provider:

Provider	Models	Behavior
Anthropic	Claude 4.6 (Opus, Sonnet)	Adaptive thinking with effort control
Anthropic	Claude 4.5 Opus	Thinking budget + effort control
Anthropic	Claude 4.5 Sonnet/Haiku	Thinking budget derived from effort level
OpenAI	o3, o4-mini, GPT-5	Native `reasoning_effort` (dropped when `tools` present on GPT-5.4+)
Google	Gemini 3.x	Thinking level (`low`/`medium`/`high`)
Google	Gemini 2.5 Flash/Pro	Thinking budget derived from effort level
DeepSeek	V4 Flash, V4 Pro	Thinking budget derived from effort level
xAI	Grok 3 mini, Grok 4.3	Native `reasoning_effort` (`low`/`high` on Grok 3 mini, `low`/`medium`/`high` on Grok 4.3)
MiniMax	M2 series	Built-in reasoning; `reasoning_effort` dropped
Moonshot	Kimi K2.5, Kimi K2.6	Native `reasoning_effort`

Non-reasoning models (e.g. GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, Llama) reject reasoning_effort with 400 reasoning_not_supported. The one exception is GPT-5.4+ with tools: Auriko drops reasoning_effort to prevent an upstream 400.

deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner are aliases of deepseek-v4-flash — they select the same model, not a thinking vs. non-thinking mode. Through Auriko, thinking behavior follows the serving provider’s default and may differ from DeepSeek’s direct API. Set reasoning_effort to control it explicitly — use "off" for non-thinking output.

Read thinking output

Some providers surface the model’s reasoning in the reasoning_content field on the response message:

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Solve step by step: what is 23! / 20!?"}],
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"}
)

msg = response.choices[0].message
reasoning = getattr(msg, "reasoning_content", None)
if reasoning:
    print(f"Reasoning: {reasoning}")
print(f"Answer: {msg.content}")

Not all reasoning models populate reasoning_content, so check before accessing. OpenAI keeps reasoning internal, and other providers vary by model.

Preserve reasoning across turns

Some providers return reasoning context you echo back for multi-turn continuity. Anthropic and Google use structured reasoning blocks with cryptographic signatures, while DeepSeek uses a plain-text reasoning_content field. Include the relevant fields from the assistant response in your next request to preserve context.

Read structured reasoning

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Analyze this problem step by step."}],
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"}
)

msg = response.choices[0].message
reasoning = getattr(msg, "reasoning", None)
if reasoning:
    for block in reasoning:
        if block.get("type") == "thinking":
            print(f"Thinking: {block['thinking'][:80]}...")
            print(f"Signature: {block['signature'][:20]}...")
        elif block.get("type") == "redacted":
            print("Redacted block (encrypted)")

Each block has a type:

thinking: contains thinking (the reasoning text) and signature (cryptographic signature)
redacted: contains data (encrypted, opaque to the client)

Round-trip reasoning

To continue a multi-turn conversation with reasoning context, include the full assistant message (with reasoning) in your next request:

messages = [
    {"role": "user", "content": "What are the trade-offs of microservices vs monoliths?"},
]

first = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6", messages=messages,
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"}
)

assistant_msg = first.choices[0].message
messages.append(assistant_msg.model_dump(exclude_none=True))
messages.append({"role": "user", "content": "Now apply that analysis to a 5-person startup."})

second = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6", messages=messages,
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"}
)

DeepSeek reasoning content

DeepSeek models return reasoning as a plain reasoning_content string instead of structured reasoning blocks. For multi-turn conversations with DeepSeek, include reasoning_content on assistant messages you send back. To preserve it, serialize the full message object:

first = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-v4-flash",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum entanglement step by step."}],
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"}
)

msg = first.choices[0].message
messages = [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum entanglement step by step."},
    msg.model_dump(exclude_none=True),  # preserves reasoning_content
    {"role": "user", "content": "Now explain it to a five-year-old."},
]

second = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-v4-flash", messages=messages,
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"}
)

If you construct assistant messages manually and omit reasoning_content, Auriko sets it to an empty string. Echo back the original value from the response.

Stream reasoning fields

When streaming with extended thinking, two additional delta fields carry reasoning block data:

delta.reasoning_signature: cryptographic signature for the current thinking block
delta.reasoning_redacted_data: encrypted data for a redacted thinking block (complete in one event)

These appear alongside delta.reasoning_content (the incremental reasoning text).

Use provider passthrough

For provider-specific features beyond reasoning effort, use provider-keyed extensions. Auriko forwards these to the provider:

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["AURIKO_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://api.auriko.ai/v1"
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
    extra_body={
        "reasoning_effort": "high",
        "extensions": {
            "anthropic": {
                "metadata": {"user_id": "user-123"}
            }
        }
    }
)

Auriko normalizes provider aliases. google, google_ai, googleai, and gemini are interchangeable.

Transform-controlled fields

If you set reasoning_effort, Auriko controls each provider’s thinking budget. Thinking-budget parameters in extensions are overwritten. If you don’t set reasoning_effort, your passthrough values are preserved.

Passthrough fields

Fields that aren’t transform-controlled pass through to the provider unchanged. Examples:

Anthropic: metadata
OpenAI: store, metadata
Google Gemini: safety_settings

Handle sampling constraints

On Anthropic models, temperature, top_p, and top_k are incompatible with active thinking. If you send reasoning_effort alongside these parameters, Auriko drops the incompatible values and returns a warning in routing_metadata.warnings:

{
  "type": "unsupported_parameter",
  "code": "temperature",
  "message": "temperature dropped — incompatible with thinking on anthropic (must be exactly 1 or unset)"
}

Anthropic’s constraints when thinking is active:

Parameter	Constraint
`temperature`	Must be exactly `1`, or omitted
`top_p`	Must be `>= 0.95`, or omitted
`top_k`	Must be omitted

Values within these bounds pass through unchanged. Other providers don’t enforce these constraints.

Check effort normalization

Some models support only a subset of reasoning_effort levels. If you request a level above the model’s maximum, Auriko normalizes it to the highest supported value and includes a warning in routing_metadata.warnings:

{
  "type": "unsupported_parameter",
  "code": "reasoning_effort",
  "message": "reasoning_effort adjusted to 'high' — exceeds model maximum on openai"
}

Provider	Models affected	`xhigh`/`max` normalized to
OpenAI	GPT-5, GPT-5 mini, o3-pro	`high`
Anthropic	Claude Opus 4.5	`high`
xAI	Grok 4.3	`high`
xAI	Grok 3 mini	`high`
Google	Gemini 3.x	`high`

Models not listed above accept xhigh and max without a warning. For the full provider support table, see Check provider support.

Handle `max_tokens` constraints

Anthropic models that use thinking budgets require max_tokens above 1024. If you send reasoning_effort with max_tokens at or below 1024, Auriko skips thinking and returns a warning in routing_metadata.warnings:

{
  "type": "unsupported_parameter",
  "code": "reasoning_effort",
  "message": "reasoning_effort dropped — max_tokens (200) is below the 1025 minimum required for thinking on anthropic"
}

Claude 4.6+ models use adaptive thinking rather than thinking budgets. For the full model list, see Check provider support.

Estimate cost and latency

The reasoning_effort level (low/medium/high/xhigh/max) determines the thinking budget per provider. Exact token budgets aren’t guaranteed; reasoning_effort="off" disables thinking on supported models. See Check reasoning token availability for which providers report a breakdown.

Check reasoning token availability

The completion_tokens_details.reasoning_tokens field reports how many tokens the model spent on reasoning. Auriko passes through what the upstream provider reports.

Provider	Model examples	`reasoning_tokens` reported?	Notes
OpenAI	o1, o3, o4-mini	Yes	Native field
DeepSeek	deepseek-v4-flash, deepseek-v4-pro	Yes	Native field
xAI	grok-4-fast-reasoning	Yes	Native field
Google	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Yes	Derived from provider token counts
Anthropic	All Claude models	No	Reports combined output tokens only
Moonshot	kimi-k2-thinking, kimi-k2-thinking-turbo	No	Token breakdown not reported
Fireworks	deepseek-v3.2	No	Token breakdown not reported for hosted models

When the provider doesn’t report a reasoning token breakdown, Auriko doesn’t include completion_tokens_details in the response. Check for the field before accessing it:

if response.usage.completion_tokens_details:
    print(f"Reasoning: {response.usage.completion_tokens_details.reasoning_tokens}")

When completion_tokens_details isn’t available, completion_tokens reflects the combined total of reasoning and content tokens. You can still use it for cost tracking.

​Prerequisites

​Enable thinking

​Check provider support

​Read thinking output

​Preserve reasoning across turns

​Read structured reasoning

​Round-trip reasoning

​DeepSeek reasoning content

​Stream reasoning fields

​Use provider passthrough

​Transform-controlled fields

​Passthrough fields

​Handle sampling constraints

​Check effort normalization

​Handle max_tokens constraints

​Estimate cost and latency

​Check reasoning token availability

Prerequisites

Enable thinking

Check provider support

Read thinking output

Preserve reasoning across turns

Read structured reasoning

Round-trip reasoning

DeepSeek reasoning content

Stream reasoning fields

Use provider passthrough

Transform-controlled fields

Passthrough fields

Handle sampling constraints

Check effort normalization

Handle `max_tokens` constraints

Estimate cost and latency

Check reasoning token availability