Migrate from Helicone

Helicone was acquired by Mintlify in March 2026 and is in maintenance mode. If you route traffic through Helicone today, moving to CoreValue is mostly a rename: both are a proxy you reach by changing a base URL, and most Helicone-* headers have a Cova-* header with the same name and meaning.

What you gain is control as well as visibility. Helicone tells you what you spent. CoreValue also checks every request against your budgets before it reaches the provider, and can stop or downgrade it when a budget has run out.

What changes

The provider key is the one real change in shape. With Helicone your app holds the OpenAI or Anthropic key and adds a second header for Helicone. With CoreValue you add the provider key in the console, and your app sends only the CoreValue key. One secret leaves your application instead of two.

Migrate in five steps

from openai import OpenAI

# Before
client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://oai.helicone.ai/v1",
    default_headers={"Helicone-Auth": f"Bearer {os.environ['HELICONE_API_KEY']}"},
)

# After
client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["COVA_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://gateway.corevalue.dev/v1",
)

import OpenAI from "openai";

// Before
const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY,
  baseURL: "https://oai.helicone.ai/v1",
  defaultHeaders: { "Helicone-Auth": `Bearer ${process.env.HELICONE_API_KEY}` },
});

// After
const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.COVA_API_KEY,
  baseURL: "https://gateway.corevalue.dev/v1",
});

from anthropic import Anthropic

# Before
client = Anthropic(
    api_key=os.environ["ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://anthropic.helicone.ai",
    default_headers={"Helicone-Auth": f"Bearer {os.environ['HELICONE_API_KEY']}"},
)

# After
client = Anthropic(
    api_key=os.environ["COVA_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://gateway.corevalue.dev",
)

# Before
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://oai.helicone.ai/v1
# After
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://gateway.corevalue.dev/v1
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-cova-…

Header mapping

Same name, same meaning

Works differently

Requests that share a Cova-Session-Id appear together on the console's Runs page, which is where Helicone's Sessions view went.

Response headers follow the same rename: Helicone-Id becomes Cova-Id, and Helicone-Cache becomes Cova-Cache.

What you get that Helicone did not have

• Budgets that act. Set a monthly budget on the organisation, a team, a member, a customer or a key. When it runs out, CoreValue refuses the request with HTTP 429, or, for organisation and team budgets, downgrades it to a cheaper model. Alerts work on every plan; refusing and downgrading need the Growth plan. See Budgets and limits.
• Chargeback and unit economics. Monthly spend per team for finance, and cost and margin per customer. See Chargeback and Unit economics.
• MCP and agent traffic. Tool calls to MCP servers and calls between agents go through the same gateway, with access rules on who may call what. See MCP gateway.
• Roles, SSO and an audit log for the console. See Roles.

Before you switch

• History stays in Helicone. CoreValue starts counting from your first request through the gateway. Export anything you need from Helicone first.
• Run both for a while if you want to compare. Point one service or one environment at CoreValue and leave the rest on Helicone until the numbers match what you expect.
• Prompt templates managed in Helicone do not move over. Keep the prompt text in your code, and send Cova-Prompt-Id to group requests by prompt.

Stuck on a header that is not listed here? Tell us at support@corevalue.dev.