Generate API - Helicone OSS LLM Observability

Warning

Important Notice: As of April 25th, 2025, the @helicone/generate SDK has been discontinued. We launched a new prompts feature with improved composability and versioning on July 20th, 2025.

The SDK and the legacy prompts feature will continue to function until August 20th, 2025.

Installation#

npm install @helicone/generate

Usage#

Simple usage with just a prompt ID#

import { generate } from "@helicone/generate";// model, temperature, messages inferred from idconst response = await generate("prompt-id");console.log(response);

With variables#

const response = await generate({  promptId: "prompt-id",  inputs: {    location: "Portugal",    time: "2:43",  },});console.log(response);

With Helicone properties#

const response = await generate({  promptId: "prompt-id",  userId: "ajwt2kcoe",  sessionId: "21",  cache: true,});console.log(response);

In a chat#

const promptId = "homework-helper";const chat = [];// Userchat.push("can you help me with my homework?");// Assistantchat.push(await generate({ promptId, chat }));console.log(chat[chat.length - 1]);// Userchat.push("thanks, the first question is what is 2+2?");// Assistantchat.push(await generate({ promptId, chat }));console.log(chat[chat.length - 1]);

Supported Providers and Required Environment Variables#

Warning

Ensure all required environment variables are correctly defined in your .env file before making a request.

Always required: HELICONE_API_KEY

Provider	Required Environment Variables
OpenAI	`OPENAI_API_KEY`
Azure OpenAI	`AZURE_API_KEY`, `AZURE_ENDPOINT`, `AZURE_DEPLOYMENT`
Anthropic	`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`
AWS Bedrock	`BEDROCK_API_KEY`, `BEDROCK_REGION`
Google Gemini	`GOOGLE_GEMINI_API_KEY`
Google Vertex AI	`GOOGLE_VERTEXAI_API_KEY`, `GOOGLE_VERTEXAI_REGION`, `GOOGLE_VERTEXAI_PROJECT`, `GOOGLE_VERTEXAI_LOCATION`
OpenRouter	`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`

API Reference#

`generate(input)`#

Generates a response using a Helicone prompt.

Parameters#

input (string | object): Either a prompt ID string or a parameters object:
- promptId (string): The ID of the prompt to use, created in the Prompt Editor
- version (number | "production", optional): The version of the prompt to use. Defaults to "production"
- inputs (object, optional): Variable inputs to use in the prompt, if any
- chat (string[], optional): Chat history for chat-based prompts
- userId (string, optional): User ID for tracking in Helicone
- sessionId (string, optional): Session ID for tracking in Helicone Sessions
- cache (boolean, optional): Whether to use Helicone's LLM Caching

Returns#

Promise<object>: The raw response from the LLM provider