Principle:Ollama Ollama OpenAI Route Registration
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | API_Design, Networking |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-14 00:00 GMT |
Overview
A middleware-based route registration pattern that maps OpenAI-compatible API endpoints to Ollama's native inference handlers through request/response translation middleware.
Description
OpenAI Route Registration enables Ollama to serve as a drop-in replacement for the OpenAI API. Rather than implementing separate handler logic, it registers the OpenAI endpoint paths (/v1/chat/completions, /v1/completions, /v1/models, /v1/embeddings) with middleware that translates between OpenAI and Ollama request/response formats, then delegates to the existing native handlers.
This approach maximizes code reuse: the core inference logic is written once in the native handlers, and the compatibility layer is a thin translation middleware.
Usage
Use this pattern when building an inference server that must support multiple API formats. The middleware-based approach avoids duplicating handler logic and ensures format-specific concerns are isolated in the translation layer.
Theoretical Basis
The middleware pattern for API compatibility:
- Route Registration: Register OpenAI endpoint paths with the HTTP router.
- Request Middleware: Before the handler executes, translate the incoming OpenAI request format to the native format and replace the request body.
- Response Middleware: Replace the response writer with a custom writer that translates native response format to OpenAI format.
- Handler Delegation: Call the native handler (ChatHandler, GenerateHandler, etc.) which operates on the translated request.
- Response Delivery: The custom response writer translates and forwards each response chunk.