> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://agno-v2.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Inception

> Use Inception Labs Mercury diffusion models with Agno agents.

[Inception](https://www.inceptionlabs.ai/) builds Mercury, a family of diffusion large language models (dLLMs) that refine all tokens in parallel instead of generating them left-to-right, making them very fast. Inception serves the models through an OpenAI-compatible API, so you drive them through Agno like any other OpenAI-compatible provider.

The `Inception` class defaults to `mercury-2` and points at `https://api.inceptionlabs.ai/v1`.

## Installation

```bash theme={null}
uv pip install -U openai agno
```

## Authentication

1. Create an account at the [Inception Platform](https://platform.inceptionlabs.ai/).
2. Open the dashboard and go to [API Keys](https://platform.inceptionlabs.ai/dashboard/api-keys).
3. Create a key and set your `INCEPTION_API_KEY` environment variable.

```bash Mac theme={null}
export INCEPTION_API_KEY=***
```

```bash Windows theme={null}
setx INCEPTION_API_KEY ***
```

## Example

Use `Inception` with your `Agent`:

```python agent.py theme={null}
from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.models.inception import Inception

agent = Agent(model=Inception(id="mercury-2"), markdown=True)

# Print the response in the terminal
agent.print_response("Share a 2 sentence horror story.")
```

> [!NOTE]
>
> View more examples [here](https://agno-v2.mintlify.site/models/providers/native/inception/usage/basic.md).

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
| - | - | - | - |
| `id` | `str` | `"mercury-2"` | The id of the Mercury model to use |
| `name` | `str` | `"Inception"` | The name of the model |
| `provider` | `str` | `"InceptionLabs"` | The provider of the model |
| `api_key` | `Optional[str]` | `None` | The API key for Inception (defaults to `INCEPTION_API_KEY` env var) |
| `base_url` | `str` | `"https://api.inceptionlabs.ai/v1"` | The base URL for the Inception API |

`Inception` extends the OpenAI-compatible interface and supports most parameters from the [OpenAI model](https://agno-v2.mintlify.site/models/providers/native/openai/completion/overview.md).

**Note**: Inception's OpenAI-compatible endpoint does not implement native `json_schema` structured outputs, so `supports_native_structured_outputs` is set to `False`. Use `use_json_mode=True` for structured output.

To hit a different host (private deployment, regional endpoint), pass `base_url`:

```python theme={null}
Inception(id="mercury-2", base_url="https://your-host.example.com/v1")
```

## Available Models

| Model id | Notes |
| - | - |
| `mercury-2` | Flagship reasoning dLLM. Tunable reasoning depth, 128K context, native tool use, JSON output. |
| `mercury-coder-small` | Coding-focused variant for latency-sensitive code workflows. |

> [!NOTE]
>
> The original `mercury` model is only available to accounts created before February 24, 2026. New accounts should use `mercury-2` (or the coder variants) instead.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.