Tools Gateway

The Tools Gateway is BYOK’s mirror image. BYOK puts frontier model keys in your hands; this takes tool keys out of them. Reference a reserved tool name (like tavily_orbitrage) in your normal tools=[…] array — Orbitrage runs it with our pooled key, feeds the result back to the model, and returns the final answer. You pay per call (provider price + the standard 2.5% platform fee). Your own tools always run on your side, untouched.

How it works

Enable + allow-list

On the Tools Gateway page, turn the feature on and check the managed tools you want to allow.

Reference the tool by name

Add the reserved name to your request’s tools array — in pure OpenAI format. No key, no setup.

We run it, you get the answer

When the model calls a managed tool, Orbitrage executes it (with our key), appends the result, and re-invokes the model until it produces a final answer — all in one request. We bill the call to your credit balance.

Tools Gateway settings page with the managed-tool allow-list — The Tools Gateway settings — enable the feature and allow-list exactly the managed tools you want, each with its per-call price.

Available tools

Tool name	What it does	Runs via
`tavily_orbitrage`	Web search with a synthesized answer + sources	Tavily MCP
`serper_orbitrage`	Google web search (organic results, answer box)	Serper
`firecrawl_orbitrage`	Scrape a page → clean LLM-ready markdown	Firecrawl MCP
`jina_orbitrage`	Read a URL → markdown text	Jina Reader
`screenshot_orbitrage`	Screenshot any public web page → PNG image URL	Orbitrage
`weather_orbitrage`	Current weather for a city	OpenWeather
`calculator_orbitrage`	Evaluate an arithmetic expression (local, free)	Orbitrage
`datetime_orbitrage`	Current date/time for any timezone (local, free)	Orbitrage
`exa_search_orbitrage`	Neural web search — results with extracted page text	Exa
`image_gen_orbitrage`	Generate image(s) from a prompt → image URL(s)	MiniMax
`music_gen_orbitrage`	Generate a song (vocal/instrumental) → audio URL	MiniMax
`onchain_wallet_orbitrage`	Token holdings of any EVM wallet (value, chain, 24h)	Zerion
`monid_find_orbitrage`	Discover a tool from the full catalog by description (free)	Catalog
`monid_run_orbitrage`	Run any catalog tool by provider + endpoint	Catalog

Rich tools (Tavily, Firecrawl) run through the vendor’s hosted MCP server with our key injected — so the model’s tool calls are executed and billed by us, and it works for every model you route to, not just MCP-aware ones. Your key never leaves our backend.

The whole tool catalog, by name

Beyond the named tools above, monid_find_orbitrage + monid_run_orbitrage reach a catalog of ~1,300 third-party tools (web search, scraping, people/company data, media generation, on-chain, weather, news, and more) — all executed with Orbitrage’s pooled account, no signup or keys on your side. The model discovers the right tool by description (monid_find_orbitrage) then runs it (monid_run_orbitrage) — long-running tools are polled to completion transparently. These are metered: you’re billed the tool’s actual per-call cost (which varies per tool) plus the standard markup — nothing when a tool completes but returns no data. A per-call cost ceiling protects against runaway spend.

Usage

Just list the tool name — Orbitrage expands it to the full definition for you. This is the whole point: zero boilerplate.

import os, orbitrage
orbitrage.init(os.environ["ORBITRAGE_API_KEY"], user_id="customer_42")

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI()

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="minimax-m3",          # pin a model for tools (see tip below)
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What's the latest on the Model Context Protocol? Cite sources."}],
    tools=["tavily_orbitrage"],   # ← that's it
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

import { orbitrage } from "orbitrage";
await orbitrage.init({ apiKey: process.env.ORBITRAGE_API_KEY, userId: "customer_42" });

import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI();

const resp = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "minimax-m3",          // pin a model for tools (see tip below)
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "What's the latest on the Model Context Protocol? Cite sources." }],
  tools: ["tavily_orbitrage"],   // ← that's it
});
console.log(resp.choices[0].message.content);

Pin a model for tool-heavy calls. glm-5.2, minimax-m3, and gpt-oss-20b all run managed tools reliably. model="auto" can route to a small reasoning model that truncates before emitting the tool call — use a direct model (or set max_tokens ≥ 512) when tools matter.

The SDK doesn’t matter — Orbitrage works through any OpenAI-compatible client because the gateway recognizes the reserved name on the wire.

One example per managed tool

Each is a one-liner — just name the tool. (Get the 7006652 answer, a real forecast, live search results, scraped markdown, etc., looped back automatically.)

ASK = lambda prompt, tool: OpenAI().chat.completions.create(
    model="minimax-m3", max_tokens=300,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": prompt}], tools=[tool],
).choices[0].message.content

ASK("Compute 1234 * 5678. Only the number.",            "calculator_orbitrage")  # → 7006652
ASK("What time is it in Asia/Tokyo right now?",          "datetime_orbitrage")
ASK("What's the weather in Lisbon?",                     "weather_orbitrage")
ASK("Search the web: who won the 2025 F1 title? Cite.",  "tavily_orbitrage")     # Tavily
ASK("Google: best Python HTTP client 2026.",             "serper_orbitrage")     # Serper SERP
ASK("Scrape https://modelcontextprotocol.io and summarize.", "firecrawl_orbitrage")  # Firecrawl
ASK("Read https://news.ycombinator.com and list 3 titles.",  "jina_orbitrage")   # Jina Reader
ASK("Screenshot https://example.com",                    "screenshot_orbitrage")  # → PNG image URL

Mix as many as you like in one tools=[...] array — the model picks which to call, Orbitrage runs each server-side, and you get one final answer.

Customizing + mixing with your own tools

Prefer the full OpenAI tool object? It still works — pass a normal function tool and we’ll use your schema. Your own tools sit right alongside managed ones and always run on your side:

tools=[
    "tavily_orbitrage",                       # managed — we run it
    {"type": "function", "function": {        # your own — you run it
        "name": "get_order_status",
        "parameters": {"type": "object", "properties": {"id": {"type": "string"}}, "required": ["id"]}}},
]

Managed vs. your own tools

Managed (*_orbitrage, allow-listed): we run them, loop until a final answer, and bill per call. The dashboard flags each one via Orbitrage with its cost.
Your tools: if the model calls one of your own functions, we hand that turn straight back to you to execute — exactly like a normal tool call. If a single turn mixes both, we return it for you to handle.

Billing + tracking

Each managed call is billed at the provider’s price + 2.5% and folded into the request’s cost_usd, so it debits your credits like any other usage.

This holds on a BYOK turn too. The frontier model’s tokens are billed by your provider and cost $0 in Orbitrage credits — but managed tools run on our pooled tool keys, so they still bill. A BYOK turn that used managed tools costs exactly the tool cost.

Per-tool spend is recorded on routing_steps (tool_calls_cost_usd, managed_tools, managed_tool_calls) and rolled up by the org_tool_spend analytics function. Streaming requests emit scaleasap.tool_call / scaleasap.tool_result progress events while the tools run.

Get Started

Core Concepts

SDKs

Integrations

Examples

Dashboard

Platform

Account & Billing

How it works

Available tools

The whole tool catalog, by name

Usage

One example per managed tool

Customizing + mixing with your own tools

Managed vs. your own tools

Billing + tracking

​How it works

​Available tools

​The whole tool catalog, by name

​Usage

​One example per managed tool

​Customizing + mixing with your own tools

​Managed vs. your own tools

​Billing + tracking

How it works

Available tools

The whole tool catalog, by name

Usage

One example per managed tool

Customizing + mixing with your own tools

Managed vs. your own tools

Billing + tracking