> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://phidatainc-studio-tools-doc.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`.

## 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.

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash Mac theme={null}
  export INCEPTION_API_KEY=***
  ```

  ```bash Windows theme={null}
  setx INCEPTION_API_KEY ***
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## Example

Use `Inception` with your `Agent`:

<CodeGroup>
  ```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.")
  ```
</CodeGroup>

<Note> View more examples [here](/models/providers/native/inception/usage/basic). </Note>

## 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](/models/providers/native/openai/completion/overview).

**Note**: Inception's OpenAI-compatible endpoint does not advertise 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.
</Note>