Use DigitalOcean Inference with OpenHands

Use DigitalOcean Inference when you want to run OpenHands on models hosted by DigitalOcean Serverless Inference and billed to your DigitalOcean account. One DigitalOcean key gives you access to Anthropic, OpenAI, and open-weight models. This pairs well with DigitalOcean Managed Agents, so both your sandboxes and your model usage stay on DigitalOcean. It works with any backend.

Create a Model Access Key

In the DigitalOcean control panel, open Model Access Keys.
Select Create model access key and enter an Access Key Name.
On the Foundation models tab, choose All models, or Select models to limit the key to the models you plan to use.
Select Continue. Under VPC Network, choose No VPC network.
Select Add model access key, then copy the secret key. DigitalOcean shows it only once.

Do not restrict the key to a VPC network. OpenHands calls the public inference endpoint, and VPC-scoped keys are not supported from DigitalOcean Managed Agents sandboxes.

Configure Agent Canvas

Open Settings > LLM.
In the Basic tab, select digitalocean as the provider.
Select a model, enter your model access key, and save the profile.
Start a new conversation and send a short message to verify the model responds.

You do not need to set a base URL. OpenHands sends digitalocean/ models to https://inference.do-ai.run/v1 automatically. To reuse the key across several models, create a digitalocean Provider Connection and select it in each profile.

Verified Models

These models are verified for tool calling with OpenHands. Enter the model string as shown when you use the Advanced tab or the SDK.

Model	Model string
Claude Opus 5.5	`digitalocean/anthropic-claude-opus-5.5`
Claude Opus 5	`digitalocean/anthropic-claude-opus-5`
Claude Sonnet 5.5	`digitalocean/anthropic-claude-sonnet-5.5`
Claude Sonnet 5	`digitalocean/anthropic-claude-5-sonnet`
GPT-5.6 Sol	`digitalocean/openai-gpt-5.6-sol`
GPT-5.6 Terra	`digitalocean/openai-gpt-5.6-terra`
GPT-5.6 Luna	`digitalocean/openai-gpt-5.6-luna`
DeepSeek V4 Pro	`digitalocean/deepseek-v4-pro`
GLM 5.3	`digitalocean/glm-5.3`
GLM 5.2	`digitalocean/glm-5.2`
Kimi K3	`digitalocean/kimi-k3`
Qwen 3.8 Max	`digitalocean/qwen3.8-max`

To use a model that is not listed, use the Advanced tab and add the digitalocean/ prefix to its DigitalOcean model ID. Get current IDs from DigitalOcean’s available models or from GET https://inference.do-ai.run/v1/models. For example:

digitalocean/glm-5.3

OpenHands needs tool calling through the Chat Completions API. Models that support tools only through the Responses API, such as the GPT-6 line, do not work through this provider yet.

Use It With the SDK

from pydantic import SecretStr
from openhands.sdk import LLM

llm = LLM(
    model="digitalocean/anthropic-claude-sonnet-5.5",
    api_key=SecretStr("<your-model-access-key>"),
    usage_id="agent",
)

The SDK fills in the DigitalOcean endpoint for you. Pass base_url only to override it.

Costs

DigitalOcean bills inference to your Inference and Agents balance, then your account prepayment balance. See Serverless Inference pricing for per-model rates. Third-party models, such as Anthropic and OpenAI models, are not discounted by Agent Droplets plans.

Fix Common Problems

Problem	Check	Next step
Authentication fails	The model access key	Copy the key again, or regenerate it in Model Access Keys, then save the profile.
Model is not found or not allowed	The model ID and the key’s model scope	Use an exact ID from the model list with the `digitalocean/` prefix, and check the key covers that model.
Requests fail with a tools or function-calling error	Whether the model supports tool calling over Chat Completions	Choose a model from Verified Models.
Requests fail from a DigitalOcean sandbox	The key’s VPC setting	Create a key with No VPC network.
Requests stop working	Your DigitalOcean balance	Add funds to your Inference and Agents balance.

For the broader configuration decision and recovery paths, see Configure a Model.

Get Started

Essential Guidelines

Use Cases

Product Guides

Additional Documentation

Deprecated Projects

OpenHands Community

Use DigitalOcean Inference with OpenHands

Create a Model Access Key

Configure Agent Canvas

Verified Models

Use It With the SDK

Costs

Fix Common Problems

​Create a Model Access Key

​Configure Agent Canvas

​Verified Models

​Use It With the SDK

​Costs

​Fix Common Problems

Create a Model Access Key

Configure Agent Canvas

Verified Models

Use It With the SDK

Costs

Fix Common Problems