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Install with an agent

Paste this prompt into a coding agent that can use a terminal and access the machine where you want to run vLLM Semantic Router:

Install, configure, and verify vLLM Semantic Router on this machine by following the official skill: https://vllm-sr.ai/install/agent/vllm-sr/SKILL.md

That is the complete bootstrap prompt. It points the agent to the public, self-contained vLLM SR Skill; installation details stay in the Skill instead of being copied into every prompt. The Dashboard is optional; the agent can verify it when you request Dashboard or Playground work.

What the agent does

The Skill directs the agent to:

  1. Inspect the host, existing installation, container runtime, accelerator, and available model endpoints without changing them.
  2. Install the latest published dev CLI when needed, then verify its supported commands before changing a runtime. Discover configuration progressively from the CLI and the selected Router's schema and OpenAPI contract.
  3. Create or update canonical YAML for the available model pool while keeping credentials in environment variables. Reuse packaged built-in Recipes through vllm-sr recipe builtin list, export, and init when requested.
  4. For a new stack, validate locally, launch, and wait for readiness. For an existing stack, validate and plan before applying; listener or provider topology changes require an authorized deployment restart.
  5. Preview the routing decision without calling a model, then send a real end-to-end request through the routed inference endpoint.
  6. Leave the config path, active revision, validation result, and routing evidence for review.

Tell the agent your model endpoint URLs, routing objective, or deployment constraints in the same message when they are already known. Otherwise, the agent will discover what it can and ask only when a choice or permission is required.

Direct contracts

The agent works against the same contracts used by the CLI and Dashboard. Dashboard verification is optional and uses real server responses and streamed Playground output when requested.

PurposeCLI or Router contract
Discover operationsGET /api/v1?audience=agent&visibility=primary
Inspect an operationGET /openapi.json?path=...&method=...
Discover configurationvllm-sr config schema or GET /api/v1/config/schema
Discover packaged Recipesvllm-sr recipe builtin list
First launchvllm-sr config validate, then vllm-sr serve and readiness
Plan an existing-stack changevllm-sr config validate, then vllm-sr config plan
Apply a hot-reloadable changevllm-sr config apply with the planned ETag
Test routing logicvllm-sr route preview
Test the complete data pathvllm-sr route probe

The management origin serves health, discovery, configuration, and OpenAPI. The routed inference origin separately serves OpenAI-compatible requests. An agent must discover both rather than infer one from the other.

Safety boundaries

  • Keep API keys and provider credentials in environment variables; do not put secret values in prompts, YAML, command arguments, or logs.
  • Keep changes within the requested deployment and existing authorization; obtain missing authorization before destructive changes, public exposure, or disruption of an unrelated service.
  • A routing preview proves the decision path but does not call a model. A route probe is the end-to-end check that reaches the selected backend.
  • Use the running Router's discovery, schema, and OpenAPI responses as the authority for its installed version.

For deeper configuration work, continue with the configuration contract and configuration workflows. For model and Mixture-of-Models evaluation, use the agent evaluation loop.

Maintaining the Skill

The single authored source is tools/agent/skills/vllm-sr-agent-operations/, including its three optional references. Edit those files and run make agent-skill-sync; do not edit the public copies directly. The generator changes only the public skill name and relative reference links to absolute URLs on the same site. Commit the generated files alongside their source; the website publishes those static files directly. A remote agent can load each reference without a repository checkout.

make agent-skill-check, pre-commit, and make harness-check reject missing or stale generated files. The repository and website therefore share one workflow while keeping their respective skill names and installation paths.