diff --git a/src/lib/util.ts b/src/lib/util.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f277e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/util.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+export const DEFAULT_BASE_URL = "http://localhost:9292";
+
+export interface CfgSettings {
+  baseUrl?: string;
+  apiKey?: string;
+}
+
+export interface LlamaSwapConfig {
+  baseUrl: string;
+  apiKey?: string;
+}
+
+export function cfgFromSettings(settings: CfgSettings): LlamaSwapConfig {
+  return {
+    baseUrl: normalizeBaseUrl(settings.baseUrl ?? DEFAULT_BASE_URL),
+    apiKey: settings.apiKey || undefined,
+  };
+}
+
+export function normalizeBaseUrl(baseUrl: string): string {
+  return baseUrl.trim().replace(/\/+$/, "");
+}
+
+export function shorten(name: string, max = 14): string {
+  if (name.length <= max) return name;
+  const head = Math.floor((max - 1) * 0.7);
+  return `${name.slice(0, head)}…${name.slice(name.length - (max - head - 1))}`;
+}
+
+export function escapeXml(text: string): string {
+  return text
+    .replace(/&/g, "&amp;")
+    .replace(/</g, "&lt;")
+    .replace(/>/g, "&gt;")
+    .replace(/"/g, "&quot;")
+    .replace(/'/g, "&apos;");
+}
diff --git a/tests/util.test.ts b/tests/util.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61003e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/util.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import assert from "node:assert/strict";
+import { test } from "node:test";
+import {
+  cfgFromSettings,
+  escapeXml,
+  normalizeBaseUrl,
+  shorten,
+} from "../src/lib/util";
+
+test("normalizeBaseUrl strips trailing slashes", () => {
+  assert.equal(normalizeBaseUrl("http://localhost:9292/"), "http://localhost:9292");
+  assert.equal(normalizeBaseUrl("http://localhost:9292"), "http://localhost:9292");
+});
+
+test("cfgFromSettings defaults baseUrl and omits empty apiKey", () => {
+  const cfg = cfgFromSettings({});
+  assert.equal(cfg.baseUrl, "http://localhost:9292");
+  assert.equal(cfg.apiKey, undefined);
+  assert.deepEqual(cfgFromSettings({ baseUrl: "http://x/", apiKey: "abc" }), {
+    baseUrl: "http://x",
+    apiKey: "abc",
+  });
+});
+
+test("shorten keeps short names and truncates long ones", () => {
+  assert.equal(shorten("Qwen3.8-27B"), "Qwen3.8-27B");
+  assert.equal(shorten("DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731"), "DeepSeek-…0731");
+});
+
+test("escapeXml escapes XML special characters", () => {
+  assert.equal(escapeXml(`A&B <C> "D" 'E'`), "A&amp;B &lt;C&gt; &quot;D&quot; &apos;E&apos;");
+});