OpenRouter CLI

A powerful command-line interface for OpenRouter, enabling seamless integration with multiple language models and AI services. Currently featuring Claude Code integration with more capabilities coming soon.

✨ Features

• Multi-Model Support: Access any model available on OpenRouter through a unified interface
• Claude Code Integration: Use any OpenRouter model with Claude Code for enhanced development workflows
• Smart Model Routing: Automatically route requests to optimal models based on task type (reasoning, long context, web search, etc.)
• Dynamic Model Switching: Change models on-the-fly using simple commands
• Extensible Architecture: Built to support future OpenRouter features and integrations

🚀 Getting Started

1. Installation

Install the OpenRouter CLI:

npm install -g @openrouter/cli

For Claude Code integration, ensure you have Claude Code installed:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

2. Configuration

Create and configure your ~/.openrouter/config.json file. For more details, see the included config.example.json.

The configuration file supports several key sections:

• OPENROUTER_API_KEY: Your OpenRouter API key for accessing models
• LOG (optional): Enable/disable logging. Default is true
• LOG_LEVEL (optional): Set logging verbosity: "fatal", "error", "warn", "info", "debug", "trace". Default is "debug"
• Logging Systems: The OpenRouter CLI uses two separate logging systems:
  • Server logs: HTTP requests and API events in ~/.openrouter/logs/
  • Application logs: Routing decisions and operations in ~/.openrouter/router.log
• models: Configure model routing for different task types
• API_TIMEOUT_MS: API call timeout in milliseconds

Environment Variable Support

The OpenRouter CLI supports environment variable interpolation for secure credential management. Reference environment variables in your config using $VAR_NAME or ${VAR_NAME} syntax:

{
  "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "$OPENROUTER_API_KEY"
}

Keep sensitive credentials secure by storing them as environment variables rather than in configuration files.

Example Configuration

{
  "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "$OPENROUTER_API_KEY",
  "LOG": true,
  "models": {
    "default": "deepseek/deepseek-chat",
    "background": "qwen/qwen3-30b-a3b",
    "think": "deepseek/deepseek-reasoner",
    "longContext": "google/gemini-2.5-pro-preview",
    "longContextThreshold": 60000,
    "webSearch": "google/gemini-2.5-flash:online"
  }
}

3. Usage

Claude Code Integration

Use any OpenRouter model with Claude Code:

openrouter code "your prompt here"

Service Management

openrouter proxy start    # Start the proxy service
openrouter proxy stop     # Stop the proxy service
openrouter proxy restart  # Restart the service (required after config changes)
openrouter proxy status   # Check service status

4. Model Routing

Configure intelligent model routing based on task requirements:

• default: Primary model for general tasks
• background: Cost-efficient model for background operations
• think: Advanced reasoning model for complex problem-solving
• longContext: Model optimized for large context windows (>60K tokens)
• longContextThreshold: Token threshold for automatic long-context routing (default: 60000)
• webSearch: Model with web search capabilities (append :online to model name)

Dynamic Model Selection

Switch models on-the-fly within Claude Code:

/model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4

Developing

Installation

Make sure you have bun.

bun install

Running locally

All openrouter commands above via npm dev:

bun run dev proxy start
bun run dev proxy status
bun run dev code
bun run dev proxy stop

Testing your built package locally with npm

bun run build
bun pm pack

# local npm install
cd /path/to/somewhere
npm uninstall @openrouter/cli
npm install /path/to/cli/openrouter-cli-version-number.tgz
node_modules/.bin/openrouter proxy start
node_modules/.bin/openrouter code

# global npm install
npm uninstall -g @openrouter/cli
npm install -g /path/to/cli/openrouter-cli-version-number.tgz
openrouter proxy start
openrouter code

🚧 Coming Soon

The OpenRouter CLI is actively expanding to support:

• Direct model querying/chat
• Ability to intercept all calls on your system to openai or anthropic through your openai account to use any model
• API usage monitoring and analytics
• Account management
• And much more!

Stay tuned for updates as we build out the complete OpenRouter experience.