Devtoolwatch BoardLM Studio SDK review
LM Studio SDK is LM Studio's official TypeScript client library for using local LLMs from JavaScript and TypeScript code.
TL;DR
LM Studio SDK (lmstudio-js) is LM Studio's official JavaScript client SDK, written in TypeScript. It is for TypeScript and JavaScript developers who run local LLMs through LM Studio. It covers chat, completions, embeddings, local agents, and model loading and configuration, which the README says the OpenAI SDK lacks.
- 1.8kGitHub stars
- +6new stars, week of Oct 25
- –not ranked this week
LM Studio SDK at a glance
- Category
- Inference and training
- Maintained by
- LM Studio (organization, @lmstudio-ai on GitHub)
- License
- MIT
- Language
- TypeScript, JavaScript, Shell
- Repository
- github.com/lmstudio-ai/lmstudio-js
- Website
- www.npmjs.com/package/@lmstudio/sdk
- npm package
- @lmstudio/sdk 2.1.0
- PyPI package
- lmstudio 1.5.0
- Latest release
- @lmstudio/sdk 2.1.0 on npm, Oct 14, 2026
- First published
- Sep 15, 2023
What LM Studio SDK does
- LM Studio SDK uses LLMs to respond in chats or predict text completions.
- LM Studio SDK lets you define functions as tools and turn LLMs into autonomous agents that run completely locally.
- LM Studio SDK loads, configures, and unloads models from memory.
- LM Studio SDK configures load parameters such as context length and GPU offload settings.
- LM Studio SDK supports speculative decoding and reports model information such as context length and model size.
- LM Studio SDK generates embeddings for text.
- LM Studio SDK runs in the browser and in any Node-compatible environment.
How it works
LM Studio SDK is installed from npm as @lmstudio/sdk. In code, you create an LMStudioClient, get a model handle with client.llm.model() and a model name, then call methods such as respond(). The SDK is a client for LM Studio, the desktop app for discovering, downloading, and running local LLMs.
How to install and start using LM Studio SDK
With npm
npm install @lmstudio/sdk --saveRequirements
- A browser or any Node-compatible environment.
- LM Studio, since this is LM Studio's client SDK.
First steps
- Install the package with npm install @lmstudio/sdk --save.
- Import LMStudioClient from "@lmstudio/sdk" and create a new client.
- Get a model with client.llm.model("llama-3.2-1b-instruct").
- Call model.respond() with a prompt and print result.content.
Who LM Studio SDK is for
- TypeScript and JavaScript developers building apps on local LLMs.
- Developers who need to load, unload, and configure local models from code.
- Building tool-using agents that run completely locally.
Limitations to know
- LM Studio SDK is a client for LM Studio, not a general SDK for hosted model providers.
- Major version changes may introduce breaking changes.
- LM Studio SDK targets JavaScript and TypeScript. Python users need the separate lmstudio-python SDK.
Is LM Studio SDK growing? Usage data
LM Studio SDK was not ranked on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026: it needs 25 or more new stars or 1,000 or more added downloads in a week to rank.
Show the weekly numbers
| Week of | New stars |
|---|---|
| Aug 9, 2026 | 7 |
| Aug 16, 2026 | 6 |
| Aug 23, 2026 | 3 |
| Aug 30, 2026 | 7 |
| Sep 6, 2026 | 6 |
| Sep 13, 2026 | 8 |
| Sep 20, 2026 | 3 |
| Sep 27, 2026 | 4 |
| Oct 4, 2026 | 4 |
| Oct 11, 2026 | 8 |
| Oct 18, 2026 | 7 |
| Oct 25, 2026 | 6 |
On Hacker News
- Claude Code 2.0, 842 points and 413 comments (Sep 29, 2025)
- Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English, 420 points and 198 comments (Dec 27, 2025)
- Svelte 5 Released, 415 points and 246 comments (Oct 19, 2024)
- Is-even-ai – Check if a number is even using the power of AI, 301 points and 159 comments (May 20, 2025)
- NPM – "is-even", 160k weekly downloads, 247 points and 260 comments (Nov 16, 2021)
The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.
LM Studio SDK alternatives
Other LLM inference and training tools on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:
| Rank | Tool | Stars | Downloads/wk |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | dsh-our-free-modeldsh-our-free-model is a dsh plugin that provides DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3 and other models without login, sign-up or API key. | 54.3k | – |
| #2 | magpiemagpie is a local gateway and app that lets coding agents like Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI use any provider's model. | 26.9k | – |
| #3 | StrataStrata is a local inference engine and app that runs large open models like Qwen3.8-Flash-Next on consumer hardware with… | 37.1k | – |
| #4 | edge0edge0 is an open-source streaming inference framework that runs large sparse mixture-of-experts models on consumer hardware by streaming… | 8.9k | – |
| #5 | OmniRouteOmniRoute is an open-source AI gateway that routes requests across many model providers through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with… | 83.2k | 106k |
| #6 | CLIProxyAPICLIProxyAPI is a Go proxy server that exposes CLI coding accounts like Codex, Claude Code and Gemini CLI through OpenAI, Gemini and… | 57.1k | – |
LM Studio SDK FAQ
Is LM Studio SDK free and open source?
Yes. LM Studio SDK's source code is on GitHub (lmstudio-ai/lmstudio-js) under the MIT license, so you can use it for free.
How do I install LM Studio SDK?
Run npm install @lmstudio/sdk --save. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.
Is LM Studio SDK still maintained?
Yes. The lmstudio-ai/lmstudio-js repository was last updated on Oct 21, 2026, and the latest release, @lmstudio/sdk 2.1.0 on npm, came out on Oct 14, 2026.
How popular is LM Studio SDK?
LM Studio SDK has 1.8k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 6 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 6 a week.
What are the best alternatives to LM Studio SDK?
Other LLM inference and training tools on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: dsh-our-free-model (#1), magpie (#2), Strata (#3), edge0 (#4), OmniRoute (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.
Why use LM Studio SDK instead of the OpenAI SDK?
LM Studio SDK includes local features that the README says the OpenAI SDK lacks. These include loading and unloading models, configuring load parameters such as context length and GPU offload, speculative decoding, and reading model info. The README also says it was designed from the ground up for TypeScript and JavaScript, while the OpenAI SDK is generated automatically.
Does LM Studio SDK work in the browser?
Yes. LM Studio SDK supports both browser and any Node-compatible environments.
Is there a Python version of LM Studio SDK?
Yes. LM Studio offers lmstudio-python, published on PyPI as lmstudio. That package requires Python 3.10 or later.
Can LM Studio SDK build agents?
Yes. LM Studio SDK lets you define functions as tools and turn LLMs into autonomous agents that run completely locally.
Where can I get help with LM Studio SDK?
The README points to the #dev-chat channel in LM Studio's Community Discord server. It also links to the lmstudio-js docs at lmstudio.ai/docs/typescript.
Sources
LM Studio SDK README badge
Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:
[](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/lm-studio/)How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].