diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4906374..f76bfeb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -161,10 +161,13 @@ cython_debug/
 #  option (not recommended) you can uncomment the following to ignore the entire idea folder.
 #.idea/
 
+# Visual Studio code local settings
+.vscode/
+
 # SSH Keys
 *_host_key
 *.key 
 *.pub
 
 # config files
-*.ini 
+*.ini 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/SSH/config.ini.TEMPLATE b/SSH/config.ini.TEMPLATE
index 16ac131..70a5a82 100644
--- a/SSH/config.ini.TEMPLATE
+++ b/SSH/config.ini.TEMPLATE
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ server_version_string = OpenSSH_8.2p1 Ubuntu-4ubuntu0.3
 ##### OpenAI
 llm_provider = openai
 model_name = gpt-4o
+# if you want to specify another OpenAI-compatible endpoint
+# llm_endpoint = https://example.com
 
 ##### ollama llama3
 #llm_provider = ollama
diff --git a/SSH/ssh_server.py b/SSH/ssh_server.py
index 2d72982..fcd2d7d 100755
--- a/SSH/ssh_server.py
+++ b/SSH/ssh_server.py
@@ -16,10 +16,10 @@
 from base64 import b64encode
 from operator import itemgetter
 from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI
-from langchain_aws import ChatBedrock, ChatBedrockConverse
+from langchain_aws import ChatBedrockConverse
 from langchain_google_genai import ChatGoogleGenerativeAI
 from langchain_ollama import ChatOllama 
-from langchain_core.messages import HumanMessage, SystemMessage, trim_messages
+from langchain_core.messages import HumanMessage, trim_messages
 from langchain_core.chat_history import BaseChatMessageHistory, InMemoryChatMessageHistory
 from langchain_core.runnables.history import RunnableWithMessageHistory
 from langchain_core.prompts import ChatPromptTemplate, MessagesPlaceholder
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ def llm_get_session_history(session_id: str) -> BaseChatMessageHistory:
     return llm_sessions[session_id]
 
 def get_user_accounts() -> dict:
-    if (not 'user_accounts' in config) or (len(config.items('user_accounts')) == 0):
+    if ("user_accounts" not in config) or (len(config.items("user_accounts")) == 0):
         raise ValueError("No user accounts found in configuration file.")
     
     accounts = dict()
@@ -305,15 +305,21 @@ def get_user_accounts() -> dict:
 
     return accounts
 
-def choose_llm(llm_provider: Optional[str] = None, model_name: Optional[str] = None):
-    llm_provider_name = llm_provider or config['llm'].get("llm_provider", "openai")
+def choose_llm(
+    llm_provider: Optional[str] = None,
+    model_name: Optional[str] = None,
+    llm_endpoint: Optional[str] = None,
+):
+    llm_provider_name: str
+    if llm_provider is not None:
+        llm_provider_name = llm_provider
+    else:
+        llm_provider_name = config["llm"].get("llm_provider", "openai")
     llm_provider_name = llm_provider_name.lower()
     model_name = model_name or config['llm'].get("model_name", "gpt-3.5-turbo")
 
     if llm_provider_name == 'openai':
-        llm_model = ChatOpenAI(
-            model=model_name
-        )
+        llm_model = ChatOpenAI(model=model_name, endpoint=llm_endpoint)
     elif llm_provider_name == 'ollama':
             llm_model = ChatOllama(
             model=model_name
@@ -452,7 +458,11 @@ def get_prompts(prompt: Optional[str], prompt_file: Optional[str]) -> dict:
     llm_system_prompt = prompts["system_prompt"]
     llm_user_prompt = prompts["user_prompt"]
 
-    llm = choose_llm(config['llm'].get("llm_provider"), config['llm'].get("model_name"))
+    llm = choose_llm(
+        config["llm"].get("llm_provider"),
+        config["llm"].get("model_name"),
+        config["llm"].get("llm_endpoint"),
+    )
 
     llm_sessions = dict()