> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developer.watson-orchestrate.ibm.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Choosing your LLM

When you create an agent, your choice of LLM plays a major role in whether the agent can successfully complete your workflow.

```
orchestrate models list
```

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/ibm-2e3153bf/8yOdepHuZbGe23cf/assets/llm/models-list.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=8yOdepHuZbGe23cf&q=85&s=18b41cd75e2b12dc0bde87c0a3757e64" alt="models-list" width="1746" height="560" data-path="assets/llm/models-list.jpg" />

## watsonx.ai Models

The SaaS and Developer Edition variants of watsonx Orchestrate platform comes out of the box with all LLM
chat models available within watsonx.ai. These models come with your entitlement **\[1]**.

While all models are available only a small number of models are marked as preferred. These appear with a ★ next to their name when you run the orchestrate models list command. Only preferred models appear as supported in the Manage Agents page in the UI.

Preferred models are models which have undergone evaluation and have been determined to work well
with the watsonx Orchestrate platform. On-premises models hosted via watsonx.ai Inference Frameworks Manager (IFM) within
watsonx Orchestrate will also show up in this list.

## AI Gateway

### virtual-models

The watsonx Orchestrate platform includes the AI Gateway, which lets you expose models from your preferred provider to watsonx Orchestrate.

These models can be added to watsonx Orchestrate via the ADK and will be automatically made available to all users of the
watsonx Orchestrate platform. **\[2]**

While it may be possible to add any model in this way, only models which support tool calling will work with watsonx Orchestrate.

Models added via the AI gateway are not validated for compatibility with watsonx Orchestrate, unlike the preferred models
from watsonx.ai.

\**Using a virtual model may occur additional cost from the upstream provider.*

### virtual-policies

In addition to adding models, it is possible to configure complex routing rules with you LLMs. Use virtual-policies to
establish pseudo-LLM names which can **load balance** traffic between models or establish **fallback policies** for when a
provider is experiences an outage.

<Note>
  **\[1]** **In the Developer Edition of watsonx Orchestrate**, when a `WO_INSTANCE` and `WO_API_KEY` is provided in
  the users .env file, if that instance is a SaaS instance, all LLM requests will be proxied through
  watsonx Orchestrate without the user needing an additional watsonx.ai entitlement.

  If the instance is CPD, and a `WO_INSTANCE` AND `WO_API_KEY` is provided, only models deployed via
  IFM will be available via the watsonx/ prefix.

  If neither of the above apply, either provide a `WATSONX_SPACE_ID` and `WATSONX_APIKEY` to a watsonx.ai account
  hosted in us-south, or add a model to the AI gateway running within your local Developer Edition server.

  **\[2]** virtual-models and virtual-policies added to a SaaS or CPD instance of watsonx Orchestrate will not automatically
  be available within the Developer Edition. They will need to be manually added by the user.
</Note>

## Next steps

<CardGroup>
  <Card title="Managing the AI gateway" href="./managing_llm#cli-reference" icon="terminal">
    Learn how to manage your AI Gateway LLMs by using the ADK's CLI.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Model policies" href="./model_policies" icon="building-shield">
    Learn how to create and manage model policies for complex LLM routing and fallback.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Examples with supported providers" href="./managing_llm#examples-using-the-supported-providers" icon="notebook">
    See how to add OpenAI, Azure, AWS Bedrock, Ollama, and many more models from different providers.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Integrate the Developer Edition with SaaS" href="./watsonx_models" icon="gears">
    Learn how to integrate the watsonx Orchestrate Developer Edition with your watsonx Orchestrate SaaS tenant for LLM inferencing.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>
