> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://gomodel-refactor-unify-native-forwarding.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Model metadata

> Where a model's pricing, context window, capabilities, and category come from, and which source wins when they disagree.

Every model in the catalog carries metadata — pricing, context window, max output
tokens, capabilities, and modes (which decide whether it shows up as a chat,
embeddings, image, or audio model). GoModel assembles it from five sources,
strongest first:

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart LR
    A[Pricing overrides] -->|pricing fields only| B[config.yaml metadata]
    B -->|declared fields win| C[ai-model-list catalog]
    C -->|when it knows the model| D[Provider discovery]
    D -.->|modes still missing| E[ID heuristic]
```

## The sources

1. **Pricing overrides** — set per model in the dashboard's **Models** page.
   The top layer for pricing fields only; unset price types keep inheriting.
   See [Cost tracking](/features/cost-tracking).
2. **`config.yaml` metadata** — `providers.<name>.models` entries can attach
   `metadata` (`pricing`, `context_window`, `modes`, `capabilities`, …). Declared
   fields win field-by-field over everything below; omitted fields inherit. This
   is the escape hatch for local models: declaring `modes: [embedding]` also
   derives the model's category.
3. **The model catalog** — the
   [`ai-model-list`](https://github.com/ENTERPILOT/ai-model-list) registry,
   fetched from `MODEL_LIST_URL` (default: the registry's `models.min.json` on
   GitHub) at startup and on every catalog refresh. It supplies the rich
   defaults — pricing, context windows, capabilities, modes — for most hosted
   models, matching IDs directly, through aliases, and with release-date
   suffixes stripped. Wrong or missing data is best fixed by contributing to the
   registry; use an override for an immediate fix.
4. **Provider discovery** — some providers report capabilities in their own
   model listings, and GoModel keeps them for the models it discovers there:
   Gemini's `supportedGenerationMethods`, Cohere's per-model `endpoints` and
   context length, OpenRouter's architecture modalities and context length, and
   Ollama's `/api/show` capabilities. Models declared via configured model
   lists skip this step.
5. **ID heuristic** — a last-resort name check for models that end up with no
   modes at all (typical for llama.cpp and LM Studio): IDs containing `embed` or
   matching well-known embedding families (`bge`, `e5`, `gte`, `minilm`) become
   embedding models, IDs containing `rerank` become reranking models. Namespaced
   IDs are matched by their final path segment. When unsure, it claims nothing.

## What metadata affects

* **Pricing** drives [cost tracking](/features/cost-tracking), budgets, and
  `cost` load-balancing. Each priced field remembers its source, so the
  dashboard can show where a rate came from.
* **Modes and categories** drive dashboard grouping and failover suggestions
  only — routing never blocks on them, so `/v1/embeddings` reaches any model
  the provider serves.
* **Context window and capabilities** are advertised on `GET /v1/models` for
  clients that pick models dynamically.

## Offline behavior

If the catalog fetch fails or the deployment is air-gapped, the gateway runs
normally — only the catalog-supplied defaults (including catalog pricing) are
missing. Pricing overrides, `config.yaml` metadata, provider discovery signals,
and the ID heuristic still apply. Mirror `MODEL_LIST_URL` internally or declare
metadata in `config.yaml`; see [Production guide](/guides/production) for
details.