v0.5.0 — 9 new providers, Anthropic API, media, MCP

The biggest release yet — a month of work spanning 9 new free providers, an Anthropic-compatible API, generative media, an MCP server, structured outputs, and a large reliability + security hardening pass.

New providers (9)

SEA-LION, NavyAI, NaraRouter, Aion, Requesty, AI Horde, Routeway, BazaarLink, AINative — all with genuine free tiers, routed behind the same single key.

New APIs & surfaces

• Anthropic-compatible API — /v1/messages works with Anthropic SDKs and tools (Claude Code included), with system-role fixes and Gemini thought-signature preservation (#361, #362, #493)
• Generative media — image generation + audio/TTS endpoints, with Image and Audio tabs in the model browser (#358, #359)
• MCP server at /mcp — gateway introspection for coding agents (#517)
• Structured outputs — json_schema forwarded to providers, with JSON healing, routing filter, and format-ignore failover when a provider can't comply (#514, #516, #520)
• Legacy completions endpoint (#340) and embeddings dimensions parameter for MRL truncation (#393)
• Self-hosted OpenAPI reference at /v1/docs + /v1/openapi.json (#482)
• Opt-in response cache for /v1/chat/completions (#481)

Routing & reliability

• Unified the four provider fallback loops; 401 key rotation, retry budgets, truncation policy, rich exhaustion diagnostics (#483, #484)
• Per-request token budget + failover circuit breaker (#511)
• Client-disconnect abort + X-Fallback-Trail header on every surface (#518)
• Post-sleep wake recovery: drift detection, socket flush, immediate key re-probe (#515)
• Multi-key improvements: pooled monthly token budgets scale with key count, embeddings/media load balancing, quota fixes (#457, #459, #479)
• Provider timeout tuning from a live all-provider sweep; 60s chat timeout for reasoning-model TTFB (#519, #521)
• Fusion mode: tool-call support and model-family panel diversity (#331)
• Router penalty inspector + quota observability (#344)

Security

• First-run setup code; unified key moved out of the DB into a key file; CSV export hardening (#477)
• Custom-provider SSRF guard, plus two follow-up bypass closures (#443, #450)

Dashboard & desktop

• Keys page redesign with tabs, provider key import/export, custom models managed from the Keys page (#327, #467, #473)
• Cmd/Ctrl+K command palette, models nav dropdown, first-run checklist, skeletons, error boundary + toasts, 404 page
• Consolidated provider detail pages with API usage for image/audio/embeddings (#360)
• Playground: system prompt support + real error bubbles (#390)
• Desktop: LAN access toggle (bind 0.0.0.0), app version in popover (#421, #447)
• i18n: Italian added; complete coverage across all six locales (#367)

Under the hood

• File-per-migration DB system, Db/DbStatement interfaces, Scheduler abstraction with lifecycle tests (#265, #397)
• Runtime-capability guards + centralized Config (#375); env-drift warning at startup (#494)
• Catalog controls, persistence backup, and declarative config

Full diff: v0.4.1...v0.5.0

Thanks to community contributors: @chongjiazhen, @LoneRifle, @vjsai, @Tazrif-Raim, @kairwang01 and everyone who reported issues.

macOS note: the DMG is not yet notarized — on first launch use right-click → Open (or xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/FreeLLMAPI.app).