Using the Enovate IT Local AI Server for Coding

This guide walks you through connecting to our self-hosted AI server and wiring it into your favourite coding tools. The server runs locally on our network via Open WebUI + Ollama, so your prompts and code never leave our infrastructure.

By the end you'll be able to:

1. Sign up on the internal Open WebUI portal.
2. Grab your personal API key.
3. Use that key with Aider (terminal, Claude-Code style) or Cline (VS Code / Cursor extension).

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure of the following:

• You are connected to the office VPN. The AI server lives on the internal network and is only reachable through the VPN. If you're off-VPN, none of the URLs below will resolve.
• You have a terminal (macOS / Linux / WSL) if you plan to use Aider, or VS Code / Cursor if you plan to use Cline.
• Python 3.8+ installed if you'll use Aider.

The portal is served over plain HTTP on the local domain, so your browser will show a "Not Secure" warning in the address bar. That's expected for an internal service — you can safely proceed.

Step 1 — Sign Up on Open WebUI

Open your browser and go to:

http://ai.enovate-it.local:12000

You'll land on the Sign in to Open WebUI screen. Since you don't have an account yet, click "Sign up" at the bottom (circled below).

On the sign-up form, enter your name, work email, and a password, then submit. Once registered, sign in with those same credentials.

Note: Depending on the server configuration, new accounts may need to be approved by an admin before they become active. If you sign in and see a "pending approval" message, ping the infra team to activate your account.

Step 2 — Open Settings

Once you're signed in, you'll see the main chat interface with the available local models (e.g. Qwen3-Coder-Next).

Click your name / avatar at the bottom-left of the sidebar, then click Settings (circled below).

Step 3 — Get Your API Key

In the Settings dialog, select Account from the left menu (circled). Scroll down to the API Key section at the bottom.

Click the field to reveal and copy your key. It will look like sk-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

⚠️ Keep this key private. It is tied to your account. Don't commit it to Git, paste it into shared docs, or share it in chat. Treat it like a password.

If you ever don't see a key, there's usually a small "+" / "Create new key" control in that section — click it to generate one.

Step 4 — This Server is Your OpenAI API Platform

Here's the key idea: Open WebUI exposes an OpenAI-compatible API. That means any tool that can talk to OpenAI can talk to our local server instead — you just point it at our URL and use your key.

Wherever a tool asks for OpenAI settings, use:

OPENAI_API_BASE="http://ai.enovate-it.local:12000/api"
OPENAI_API_KEY="<your api key>"

• Base URL: http://ai.enovate-it.local:12000/api
• API Key: the sk-... token you copied in Step 3.

The rest of this guide shows how to plug that into the two most common coding setups.

Option A — Aider (Terminal)

Best for: people who like Claude-Code-style, terminal-driven pair programming directly on their repo.

Project site: https://aider.chat/

1. Install Aider

Follow the install instructions at https://aider.chat/docs/install.html. The quickest way is usually:

python -m pip install aider-install
aider-install

(or pip install aider-chat inside a virtualenv). Once done, aider --version should work.

2. Point Aider at the local server and run

Open a terminal, go into the repo you want to work on, export the two environment variables, and launch Aider against the local model:

# 1. Go to your repo
cd repo

# 2. Point Aider at the local AI server
export OPENAI_API_BASE="http://ai.enovate-it.local:12000/api"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-xxxx"   # <-- your key from Step 3

# 3. Launch Aider on the local model
aider --model openai/qwen3-coder-next:latest

That's it — Aider will open a chat prompt in your terminal, aware of your repo's files. Describe the change you want and it will propose edits (and commits) directly.

Tip: The openai/ prefix tells Aider to route through the OpenAI-compatible provider — don't drop it. The part after the slash (qwen3-coder-next:latest) is the exact model name as shown in Open WebUI's model dropdown. If a different model is available on the server, swap the name accordingly.

Option B — Cline (VS Code / Cursor)

Best for: people who prefer an in-IDE assistant with GUI-driven file editing, diffs, and task automation.

1. Install the Cline extension

In VS Code (or Cursor), open the Extensions panel, search for Cline, and install it.

2. Configure Cline

1. Open VS Code.
2. Click the Cline icon in the left sidebar (looks like a robotic eye / target symbol).
3. Click the Gear icon (⚙️) in the top-right of the Cline panel to open settings.
4. Under the API Provider dropdown, select OpenAI Compatible.
5. Fill out the fields exactly as follows:
   • Base URL: http://ai.enovate-it.local:12000/api
   • API Key: paste your sk-... token from Step 3.
   • Model ID: the exact model string, e.g. openai/qwen3-coder-next:latest

Save the settings. Cline will now route all requests through our local server, and you can start giving it coding tasks from inside the editor.

Quick Reference

Troubleshooting

The URL won't load / "server not found". You're almost certainly off the VPN, or the internal DNS isn't resolving ai.enovate-it.local. Reconnect to the VPN and try again; if it still fails, contact the infra team.

Browser says "Not Secure". Expected — the internal portal uses plain HTTP. Proceed normally.

Aider or Cline returns a 401 / auth error. Your API key is wrong, expired, or has a stray space. Re-copy it from Settings → Account and make sure OPENAI_API_KEY matches exactly. Regenerate the key if needed.

"Model not found" error. The model ID doesn't match what's on the server. Open the model dropdown in Open WebUI, copy the exact name, and use it after the openai/ prefix (e.g. openai/<exact-model-name>).

My account can't sign in after signup. New accounts may require admin approval. Ask the infra team to activate yours.

Questions or something broken? Reach out to the infra / platform team.