---
title: Qwen2.5-Coder ZeroGPU API
emoji: 🧑‍💻
colorFrom: indigo
colorTo: blue
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: 5.6.0
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
license: apache-2.0
---

# Qwen2.5-Coder-7B — OpenAI-compatible API on ZeroGPU

Serves `Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-7B-Instruct` (swappable) behind an OpenAI-compatible
`/v1/chat/completions` endpoint, protected by an API key and rate-limited to
5 requests/minute by default.

## 1. Deploy

1. Create a new Space → SDK: **Gradio** → Hardware: **ZeroGPU**.
2. Upload `app.py` and `requirements.txt` (and this `README.md`) to the Space repo.
3. Go to **Settings → Variables and secrets → New secret**:
   - Name: `API_KEY`
   - Value: a long random string, e.g. generate one locally with:
     ```bash
     python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))"
     ```
   - **Do not use anything guessable.** This is the only thing standing
     between "just your app" and "anyone on the internet" using your GPU quota.
4. (Optional) Add more secrets/variables if you want to override defaults:
   - `RATE_LIMIT_PER_MINUTE` (default `5`)
   - `MODEL_ID` (default `Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-7B-Instruct`)
   - `GPU_DURATION_SECONDS` (default `90`)
5. The Space will build and start. Since the Space is **public**, the *page*
   is visible to anyone, but the API itself refuses every request that
   doesn't carry your `API_KEY` as a Bearer token — see the "Why public
   Space + secret API key is safe" section below.

## 2. Use it with the OpenAI SDK

```python
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://<your-username>-<your-space-name>.hf.space/v1",
    api_key="<the same value you put in the API_KEY secret>",
)

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-7B-Instruct",  # informational; server ignores and uses whatever is loaded
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a Rust function that reverses a linked list."}],
    max_tokens=512,
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)
```

Find your exact Space URL under the Space's **Settings** tab or in the
address bar when viewing the Space (it's `https://<owner>-<space-name>.hf.space`).

Note: `stream=True` is **not** implemented in this version — if you need
token-by-token streaming, that's a follow-up (SSE handling adds real
complexity with ZeroGPU's process-per-call model, so it was left out of a
first version by design, not by accident).

## 3. Admin panel (switch the active model)

Visit `https://<your-space-url>/admin` in a browser. Enter your `API_KEY`
in the password field to unlock the panel, then pick a model from the
dropdown (or type any Hugging Face model ID) and click **Load this model**.

The swap is **in-memory only** — it resets to `MODEL_ID` (or the default)
if the Space restarts or goes to sleep. If you want a swap to survive
restarts, change the `MODEL_ID` secret/variable instead.

## 4. Where to put the API key in *your own* application

- **Never** put it directly in client-side/browser JavaScript, a public
  GitHub repo, or a Colab notebook you might share — anything that ships to
  a browser or gets committed is effectively public.
- **Local scripts / backend services:** put it in an environment variable
  and read it with `os.environ`, e.g. a `.env` file that is in your
  `.gitignore`:
  ```
  # .env  (add this file to .gitignore!)
  QWEN_API_KEY=the-long-random-string-you-generated
  ```
  ```python
  import os
  from dotenv import load_dotenv
  load_dotenv()
  api_key = os.environ["QWEN_API_KEY"]
  ```
- **A server you control (VPS, another HF Space, etc.):** use that
  platform's secret manager (HF Spaces secrets, systemd `EnvironmentFile`,
  Docker `--env-file`, etc.) — same principle, never in source code.
- **If it ever leaks** (committed by accident, pasted somewhere, etc.):
  go back to Settings → Variables and secrets, delete it, and create a new
  one. The old key stops working immediately once removed and the Space
  restarts.

## 5. Why "public Space + secret API key" is safe

The Space repo/page being public just means anyone can *see the code and
visit the page*. It does not mean anyone can *call the API*: every request
to `/v1/chat/completions` is checked against the `API_KEY` secret before
any GPU time is spent (see `require_api_key` in `app.py`). Requests without
a valid key get `401` before `generate()` — and therefore before ZeroGPU —
is ever invoked. Rate limiting is applied per-key on top of that, so even
if your key were somehow guessed, usage is capped at
`RATE_LIMIT_PER_MINUTE` requests/minute.

## 6. Notes / limitations

- ZeroGPU only works with the Gradio SDK, so the OpenAI-compatible layer is
  implemented as a FastAPI app mounted alongside Gradio in the same
  process, not as a separate Docker/FastAPI Space.
- `usage.prompt_tokens` / `completion_tokens` in responses are placeholder
  `-1` values, not real counts — the server doesn't currently tokenize for
  counting purposes outside generation. If your client code does billing
  math off these fields, don't rely on them yet.
- Rate limiting is in-memory and per-process. If the Space restarts, the
  window resets. This is intentional for a single-instance hobby deployment
  and is not a distributed rate limiter.