feat: add Avian as a cloud LLM inference provider

[avianion]

Summary

Adds Avian as a new Go backend for LocalAI, enabling users to access cloud-hosted LLMs through Avian's OpenAI-compatible API at https://api.avian.io/v1.

Backend

• New Go gRPC backend at backend/go/avian/ following the existing huggingface backend pattern
• Proxies chat completion requests (both streaming and non-streaming) to the Avian API
• Supports structured messages, temperature, top_p, max_tokens, and stop sequences
• Authentication via AVIAN_API_KEY environment variable
• Configurable base URL via AVIAN_API_BASE environment variable (defaults to https://api.avian.io/v1)

Gallery Models

Four models available out of the box:

Model	Context	Output	Input Price	Output Price
deepseek/deepseek-v3.2	164K	65K	$0.26/1M	$0.38/1M
moonshotai/kimi-k2.5	131K	8K	$0.45/1M	$2.20/1M
z-ai/glm-5	131K	16K	$0.30/1M	$2.55/1M
minimax/minimax-m2.5	1M	1M	$0.30/1M	$1.10/1M

Usage

# Set API key
export AVIAN_API_KEY=your-api-key

# Install the model from the gallery
local-ai models install avian-deepseek-v3.2

# Or use a model config YAML
cat > models/avian-deepseek.yaml << EOF
name: avian-deepseek
backend: avian
parameters:
  model: deepseek/deepseek-v3.2
  max_tokens: 8192
context_size: 164000
EOF

# Query the model
curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"avian-deepseek-v3.2","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello!"}]}'

Build Infrastructure

• Backend definition in Makefile (BACKEND_AVIAN = avian|golang|.|false|true)
• CI workflow entries for Linux (amd64/arm64) and macOS (metal/darwin)
• Backend index.yaml entries with OCI image references
• Added to .NOTPARALLEL and docker-build-backends targets

Files Changed

• backend/go/avian/ - Go gRPC backend implementation (main.go, avian.go, Makefile, run.sh, package.sh)
• gallery/avian.yaml - Base model configuration template
• gallery/index.yaml - Four Avian model entries
• backend/index.yaml - Backend metadata and OCI image entries
• Makefile - Backend build targets
• .github/workflows/backend.yml - CI build matrix entries

Test plan

• Backend compiles: make -C backend/go/avian
• Docker build succeeds: BACKEND=avian make docker-build-avian
• Model loads with valid AVIAN_API_KEY
• Chat completions work (non-streaming)
• Chat completions work (streaming)
• Gallery model install works: local-ai models install avian-deepseek-v3.2
• Error handling: missing API key returns clear error message

cc @mudler

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[avianion]

Hey @mudler, would love your review on this when you get a chance. Happy to address any feedback!

[avianion]

Friendly follow-up — this PR is still active and ready for review. Would appreciate a look when you get a chance! cc @mudler

[avianion]

Friendly follow-up — this PR is still active and ready for review. All feedback has been addressed. Would appreciate a look when you get a chance! cc @mudler

[avianion]

Hey @mudler — friendly follow-up on this PR. Avian is an OpenAI-compatible inference provider that's already live and powering apps like ISEKAI ZERO. This is a lightweight integration (standard OpenAI-compatible endpoint) and we're happy to address any feedback or make adjustments. Would love to get this merged if you have a moment to review. Thanks!