Updating Discourse AI Default LLM Presets

Overview

Discourse AI ships a curated set of LLM model presets in plugins/discourse-ai/lib/completions/llm_presets.rb so admins can create new LLM configurations with one click. This skill keeps them current — refreshing model IDs, pricing, context windows, and vision flags as providers evolve.

When to Use

• A user asks to "update", "refresh", or "bump" the default LLM model presets in Discourse AI.
• A new flagship model has been released by a major provider (e.g. new GPT, Claude, or Gemini version).
• Pricing on a provider has changed and the shipped presets are stale.

Files Involved

Out of scope for this skill:

• plugins/discourse-ai/config/eval-llms.yml — internal evaluation suite. May reference older models intentionally; do not auto-update.
• Other locale files (client.de.yml, client.es.yml, …) — translations are managed via Crowdin. Only update client.en.yml; stale keys in other locales clean up automatically.
• Existing LlmModel DB rows. Preset changes only affect new one-click creations; previously-configured models keep working under their original names.

Data Sources

Two primary sources, cross-reference both:

1. https://www.llm-prices.com/current-v1.json — curated pricing for first-party APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, etc.). Has input, output, and input_cached per 1M tokens.
2. https://catwalk.charm.land/v2/providers — broader catalog with context windows, max output tokens, vision flags, cached pricing, and provider defaults (default_large_model_id, default_small_model_id). Use for context windows and vision support that llm-prices omits.

For the OpenRouter provider list specifically, also use:

3. OpenRouter top-weekly — fetch via the frontend API since the HTML page is JS-rendered:
   Copy

   curl -s "https://openrouter.ai/api/frontend/models/find?order=top-weekly&limit=30"
   

   The user's reference URL is https://openrouter.ai/models?fmt=cards&order=top-weekly&output_modalities=text but WebFetch cannot read it — go straight to the API.

Provider Preset Structure

Each preset block is a hash with id, models (array), tokenizer, endpoint, and provider. Each model entry uses the model(...) helper:

model(
  name: "claude-sonnet-4-6",       # API model name — also the lookup key
  tokens: 1_000_000,                # context window in tokens
  display_name: "Claude Sonnet 4.6",
  max_output_tokens: 64_000,
  input_cost: 3.0,                  # USD per 1M input tokens
  cached_input_cost: 0.30,          # USD per 1M cached input tokens
  cache_write_cost: 3.75,           # Anthropic-specific
  output_cost: 15.0,
  vision_enabled: true,
  endpoint: "...",                  # only when the model needs a different endpoint than the provider default
)

Notes:

• cache_write_cost is currently only set on Anthropic models (Anthropic has a separate write price).
• vision_enabled defaults to false and is only added when true. Trust catwalk's supports_attachments flag — it has been wrong in the file before (e.g. minimax-m2.7 and glm-5.1 were marked vision-capable but are text-only).
• Google models override endpoint per model because the API path encodes the model name.
• The OpenAI provider-level endpoint: is chat/completions but every model overrides it with /responses — leave the provider-level value alone.

Selection Rules

Anthropic, Google, OpenAI

• Ship a small tiered set: flagship / standard / small. Anthropic ships 3 (Opus / Sonnet / Haiku); OpenAI follows the same 3-tier pattern (e.g. GPT-5.5 / GPT-5.4 / GPT-5.4-nano). Google ships 2 (Pro / Flash).
• Avoid mid-tier overlap (e.g. shipping both gpt-5.4 and gpt-5.4-mini is redundant when gpt-5.4-nano already covers the cheap end).
• Prefer the catwalk default_large_model_id and default_small_model_id as a hint for what the provider currently considers canonical.

OpenRouter

• Pick the top ~5–6 paid models by weekly usage from the OpenRouter top-weekly list.
• Skip :free variants — they rotate out of OpenRouter within weeks and break presets.
• Skip router/~latest aliases (slug starts with ~, e.g. ~anthropic/claude-sonnet-latest) — those redirect and the underlying model can change.
• Skip first-party Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI models — they belong in their own provider blocks. The OpenRouter preset is for everything else (DeepSeek, Moonshot, MiniMax, Z.AI, xAI, Qwen, Arcee, etc.).
• Prefer models with vision and a sane cached-input price when ranking is close.

i18n Keys

Every preset model needs a one-line description in config/locales/client.en.yml under discourse_ai.llms.model_description. The key format is:

<provider_id>-<model_name>

…with ., /, and : all replaced by - (handled in JS by llm.id.replace(/[.:\/]/g, "-") in ai-llms-list-editor.gjs).

Examples:

Whenever a model is added, renamed, or removed in llm_presets.rb, the matching key must be added/renamed/removed in client.en.yml. Missing keys silently fall through to an empty description (I18n.lookup(..., { ignoreMissing: true })).

Steps

1. Fetch source data in parallel:

   bashCopy

   curl -s https://www.llm-prices.com/current-v1.json -o /tmp/llm_prices.json
   curl -s https://catwalk.charm.land/v2/providers -o /tmp/catwalk.json
   curl -s "https://openrouter.ai/api/frontend/models/find?order=top-weekly&limit=30" -o /tmp/or_top.json
   

2. Read the current presets file at plugins/discourse-ai/lib/completions/llm_presets.rb.

3. For each first-party provider block (Anthropic / Google / OpenAI): cross-reference each model's tokens, max_output_tokens, all *_cost fields, and vision_enabled against catwalk + llm-prices. Catwalk wins on context windows and vision flags; llm-prices wins on first-party API pricing.

4. For the OpenRouter block: parse /tmp/or_top.json, filter out :free, slugs starting with ~, and first-party Anthropic/Google/OpenAI models. Take the top 5–6 remaining as the new list. Pricing comes from each entry's endpoint.pricing (multiply by 1_000_000 for per-1M tokens).

5. Apply edits to llm_presets.rb — prefer targeted Edit calls per model rather than rewriting whole blocks.

6. Update client.en.yml — add/rename/remove model_description keys to exactly match the new model set. Diff the model name list before/after to make sure no key is left orphaned.

7. Validate:

   bashCopy

   bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion plugins/discourse-ai/lib/completions/llm_presets.rb
   ruby -ryaml -e "YAML.load_file('plugins/discourse-ai/config/locales/client.en.yml'); puts 'YAML OK'"
   

   Also grep for orphaned references to any removed model names elsewhere in the plugin:

   bashCopy

   grep -rn "<old-model-name>" plugins/discourse-ai --include="*.rb" --include="*.js" --include="*.gjs" --include="*.yml" \
     | grep -v lib/completions/llm_presets.rb
   

8. Summarise the diff to the user grouped by provider, calling out any pricing corrections (these are usually the most consequential — e.g. a model whose price had drifted vs. the provider's current price).

Common Pitfalls

• Forgetting the i18n keys. Easy to miss because nothing breaks at runtime — the descriptions just go blank in the admin UI. Always update client.en.yml in the same commit.
• Trusting OpenRouter pricing for first-party models. OpenRouter aggregates many backends; for Anthropic / OpenAI / Google, prefer llm-prices or catwalk's first-party listing.
• Inheriting wrong vision flags. vision_enabled has been incorrect in the past — verify against catwalk every refresh.
• Renaming a model without checking specs. spec/system/llms/ai_llm_spec.rb and lib/completions/endpoints/aws_bedrock.rb reference Anthropic model names by string. Grep before renaming.
• Picking unstable OpenRouter slugs. :free and ~latest alias slugs both churn faster than the release cycle of this file. Always skip them.