Ai.Tlbx.Inference

Trim-friendly .NET AI inference client for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI, built around a single inference facade.

Features

• Multi-provider — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google (AI Studio + Vertex), xAI behind a single interface
• Streaming — IAsyncEnumerable<string> across all supported providers with integration coverage
• Document attachments — provider-aware document attachment support with live coverage for supported models
• Structured output — CompleteAsync(..., JsonTypeInfo<T>) for trim- and AOT-safe typed results
• Model registry — first-class AiModelCatalog descriptors with endpoint/capability metadata
• Tool calling — unified tool loop with streaming support, lives once in the facade
• Embeddings — OpenAI and Google embedding models with batch support
• Image generation — Google Gemini image generation via gemini-2.5-flash-image
• Token metering — TokenUsage on every response including cache and thinking tokens
• Resilience — Polly v8 retry and timeout handling wired into provider HTTP execution
• Thinking budget — universal mapping across all providers that support reasoning
• Diagnostics — CompletionDiagnostics exposes endpoint family, stop reason, and truncation hints
• AOT/trimming-first — manual provider JSON construction/parsing where it reduces reflection risk and wire bloat

Design Goals

• One public facade: IAiInferenceClient
• Internal provider implementations
• Shared HttpClient per client instance
• Explicit model capability metadata instead of implicit provider heuristics
• Sparse provider payloads: omit null/default fields unless the upstream API requires them

Supported Models

OpenAI

Model	Enum	Context
GPT-5.2	AiModel.Gpt52	400k
GPT-5.2 Pro	AiModel.Gpt52Pro	400k
GPT-5.2 Chat	AiModel.Gpt52Chat	128k
GPT-5.3 Chat	AiModel.Gpt53Chat	128k
GPT-5.4	AiModel.Gpt54	1.05M

Anthropic

Model	Enum	Context
Claude Opus 4.6	AiModel.ClaudeOpus46	200k
Claude Sonnet 4.6	AiModel.ClaudeSonnet46	200k
Claude Haiku 4.5	AiModel.ClaudeHaiku45	200k

Google

Model	Enum	Context
Gemini 3.5 Flash	AiModel.Gemini35Flash	1M
Gemini 3 Flash Preview	AiModel.Gemini3FlashPreview	1M
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview	AiModel.Gemini31ProPreview	1M
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview	AiModel.Gemini31FlashLitePreview	1M

xAI

Model	Enum	Context
Grok 4.1 Fast	AiModel.Grok41Fast	2M
Grok 4	AiModel.Grok4	256k

Embeddings

Model	Enum	Dimensions	Provider
text-embedding-3-large	EmbeddingModel.TextEmbedding3Large	3072	OpenAI
text-embedding-3-small	EmbeddingModel.TextEmbedding3Small	1536	OpenAI
gemini-embedding-001	EmbeddingModel.GeminiEmbedding001	3072	Google

Installation

dotnet add package Ai.Tlbx.Inference

Quick Start

Model Registry

var descriptor = AiModelCatalog.Get(AiModel.Gpt52Pro);

Console.WriteLine(descriptor.ApiName);
Console.WriteLine(descriptor.PreferredEndpoint);
Console.WriteLine(descriptor.Capabilities.SupportsResponsesApi);

DI Registration

services.AddAiInference(options =>
{
    options.AddOpenAi("sk-...");
    options.AddAnthropic("sk-ant-...");
    options.AddGoogle("AIza...");
    options.AddXai("xai-...");
});

Simple Completion

var response = await client.CompleteAsync(new CompletionRequest
{
    Model = AiModel.ClaudeOpus46,
    Messages = [new ChatMessage { Role = ChatRole.User, Content = "Hello!" }]
});

Console.WriteLine(response.Content);
Console.WriteLine($"Tokens: {response.Usage.TotalTokens}");
Console.WriteLine(response.Diagnostics?.EndpointFamily);
Console.WriteLine(response.Diagnostics?.Note);

Streaming

await foreach (var delta in client.StreamAsync(new CompletionRequest
{
    Model = AiModel.Gpt52,
    Messages = [new ChatMessage { Role = ChatRole.User, Content = "Write a haiku" }]
}))
{
    Console.Write(delta);
}

Structured Output

public sealed record WeatherInfo
{
    public required string City { get; init; }
    public required double Temperature { get; init; }
    public required string Condition { get; init; }
}

var response = await client.CompleteAsync(new CompletionRequest
{
    Model = AiModel.Gemini31FlashLitePreview,
    JsonSchema = """{"type":"object","properties":{"city":{"type":"string"},"temperature":{"type":"number"},"condition":{"type":"string"}},"required":["city","temperature","condition"]}""",
    Messages = [new ChatMessage { Role = ChatRole.User, Content = "Weather in Berlin?" }]
}, MyJsonContext.Default.WeatherInfo);

Console.WriteLine($"{response.Content.City}: {response.Content.Temperature}°C, {response.Content.Condition}");

AiModel.Gemini35Flash maps to Google's gemini-3.5-flash Gemini API model and supports text, PDF/document attachments, streaming, structured output, and function calling through the Google GenerateContent endpoint.

Model Validation

var validation = AiModelValidator.ValidateForCompletion(
    AiModel.Gpt52Pro,
    streaming: false,
    tools: false,
    structuredOutput: false);

foreach (var warning in validation.Warnings)
{
    Console.WriteLine(warning);
}

Document Attachments

var attachment = new DocumentAttachment
{
    FileName = "brief.pdf",
    MimeType = "application/pdf",
    Content = File.ReadAllBytes("brief.pdf")
};

var response = await client.CompleteAsync(new CompletionRequest
{
    Model = AiModel.Gemini31FlashLitePreview,
    Messages =
    [
        new ChatMessage
        {
            Role = ChatRole.User,
            Content = "Read the attached document and summarize it in three bullet points.",
            Attachments = [attachment]
        }
    ]
});

Console.WriteLine(response.Content);

Tool Calling

var tools = new List<ToolDefinition>
{
    new()
    {
        Name = "get_weather",
        Description = "Get current weather for a city",
        ParametersSchema = JsonDocument.Parse(
            """{"type":"object","properties":{"city":{"type":"string"}},"required":["city"]}""").RootElement
    }
};

var result = await client.CompleteWithToolsAsync(
    new CompletionRequest
    {
        Model = AiModel.ClaudeSonnet46,
        Messages = [new ChatMessage { Role = ChatRole.User, Content = "What's the weather in Tokyo?" }]
    },
    tools,
    toolExecutor: async call =>
    {
        var weather = GetWeather(call.Arguments);
        return new ToolCallResult
        {
            ToolCallId = call.Id,
            Result = JsonSerializer.Serialize(weather)
        };
    });

Console.WriteLine(result.Content);
Console.WriteLine($"Tool iterations: {result.Iterations}, Total tokens: {result.Usage.TotalTokens}");

Embeddings

var embedding = await client.EmbedAsync(new EmbeddingRequest
{
    Model = EmbeddingModel.TextEmbedding3Large,
    Input = "The quick brown fox"
});

Console.WriteLine($"Dimensions: {embedding.Embedding.Length}");

Image Generation

var imageBytes = await client.GenerateImageAsync(new ImageGenerationRequest
{
    Model = ImageGenerationModel.GptImage2,
    Prompt = "A product photo of a matte black teapot on a concrete counter",
    Size = "1536x1024",
    Quality = "high"
});

await File.WriteAllBytesAsync("teapot.png", imageBytes);

ImageGenerationModel selects both the provider and the model. OpenAI image generation uses the Image API and returns the decoded PNG bytes from data[0].b64_json; Size and Quality map directly to the request. Google image generation remains available through the default Gemini25FlashImage model and returns the first inline image bytes from Gemini's response.

Configuration

Logging

services.AddAiInference(options =>
{
    options.AddOpenAi("sk-...");
    options.WithLogging((level, message) =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"[{level}] {message}");
    });
});

Custom Retry Policy

var customPipeline = new ResiliencePipelineBuilder<HttpResponseMessage>()
    .AddRetry(new RetryStrategyOptions<HttpResponseMessage>
    {
        MaxRetryAttempts = 2,
        Delay = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)
    })
    .Build();

services.AddAiInference(options =>
{
    options.AddOpenAi("sk-...");
    options.WithRetryPolicy(customPipeline);
});

Google Vertex AI

services.AddAiInference(options =>
{
    options.AddGoogle(
        serviceAccountJson: File.ReadAllText("service-account.json"),
        projectId: "my-project",
        location: "us-central1");
});

Thinking Budget

var response = await client.CompleteAsync(new CompletionRequest
{
    Model = AiModel.ClaudeOpus46,
    ThinkingBudget = 10000,
    Messages = [new ChatMessage { Role = ChatRole.User, Content = "Solve this complex problem..." }]
});

Console.WriteLine($"Thinking tokens used: {response.Usage.ThinkingTokens}");

Prompt Caching (Anthropic)

var response = await client.CompleteAsync(new CompletionRequest
{
    Model = AiModel.ClaudeSonnet46,
    EnableCache = true,
    SystemMessage = longSystemPrompt,
    Messages = [new ChatMessage { Role = ChatRole.User, Content = "Question..." }]
});

Console.WriteLine($"Cache read: {response.Usage.CacheReadTokens}, Cache write: {response.Usage.CacheWriteTokens}");

AOT / Trimming

The library is AOT and trimming compatible (IsAotCompatible, IsTrimmable).

For structured output and typed tool results, use the JsonTypeInfo<T> overloads and provide your schema explicitly:

[JsonSerializable(typeof(WeatherInfo))]
internal partial class MyJsonContext : JsonSerializerContext { }

var response = await client.CompleteAsync(
    new CompletionRequest
    {
        Model = AiModel.Gemini31FlashLitePreview,
        JsonSchema = """{"type":"object","properties":{"city":{"type":"string"},"temp":{"type":"number"}},"required":["city","temp"]}""",
        Messages = [new ChatMessage { Role = ChatRole.User, Content = "Weather in Berlin?" }]
    },
    MyJsonContext.Default.WeatherInfo);

The non-generic methods (CompleteAsync, StreamAsync, EmbedAsync, etc.) are always AOT-safe.

Runtime Notes

• The library does not create ad hoc provider HttpClient instances. A single shared HttpClient is supplied to each AiInferenceClient instance and reused by all configured providers for that client.
• Provider request payloads are built manually with JsonObject/JsonArray so the library can omit unused fields and stay predictable under trimming/AOT.
• A small shared JSON policy is used for serializer-based paths, and source-generated DTOs are used for a few stable internal envelopes such as embedding and upload responses.

Paid Integration Tests

Live provider integration tests cost money and are intended to run on demand only.

• Command: dotnet test tests\Ai.Tlbx.Inference.IntegrationTests\Ai.Tlbx.Inference.IntegrationTests.csproj
• Manifest: tests/Ai.Tlbx.Inference.IntegrationTests/live-test-manifest.json
• Source of truth for covered models: AiModelCatalog
• Smoke request helper: CompletionRequestProfiles

Recommended environment variables:

• OPENAI_API_KEY
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
• GOOGLE_API_KEY
• XAI_API_KEY

The live suite includes:

• simple prompt smoke tests
• streaming tests that verify multi-chunk output
• document attachment tests for supported models

These tests are intentionally not run automatically.

License

MIT