How long does the integration take?

Change one base URL in an OpenAI-compatible client, or install the Python or TypeScript SDK; the quickstart routes a first request in a few minutes.

Will this lock us into another vendor?

No. The router is Apache-2.0 open source, your provider keys stay yours, and the API is OpenAI-compatible, so leaving is a change of base URL.

What happens when a provider fails?

The router falls back to the next model your policy allows and records the fallback in the trace, so an outage costs a retry, not an incident.

cost-openrouter - Skill - OpenSmartRoute

Imported from ruvnet/ruflo (plugins/ruflo-cost-tracker/skills/cost-openrouter/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add ruvnet/ruflo --skill cost-openrouter. Copyright stays with the author.

name: cost-openrouter description: OpenRouter real spend — key limit and usage today/week/month, one request's billed cost by generation id, account credits. Use when asked what OpenRouter charged or whether a key is near its limit. Network and API key: asks first. argument-hint: "key | generation | credits" allowed-tools: Bash

Cost OpenRouter

Network skill. Ask the user before running it, and run it only with their yes.

node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/openrouter.mjs key --yes
node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/openrouter.mjs generation gen-abc123 --yes
node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/openrouter.mjs credits --yes

Rules

Without --yes the script prints the call it would make and sends nothing.
The key comes from OPENROUTER_API_KEY (credits: OPENROUTER_MANAGEMENT_KEY). A key the user stored as the plugin option openrouterApiKey arrives as OPENROUTER_API_KEY too: the plugin's SessionStart hook puts it there for this session's commands when the variable is not already set (ADR-506). Never ask the user to paste a key, never print, log or write one.
OpenRouter's usage.cost / total_cost is authoritative; do not recompute it from list prices.
credits needs a management key (a normal key returns 403). A fresh generation can 404 briefly: retry.
BYOK rows carry the 5% OpenRouter fee in usage, the provider's charge in upstream_inference_cost: show both, labelled.
Fallback and openrouter/auto can change the billed model: report model and provider_name as returned.

Install cost-openrouter and it becomes one more candidate the router can pick - when it fits.

A listing is a routing target with a manifest: what it does, which domains it covers, what it costs and who publishes it. Once installed it sits beside your own models and tools, is scored like any other candidate for each request, and shows up in the trace when it wins. Ratings come from workspaces that installed it, one per account.

cost-openrouter

About

Cost OpenRouter

Rules

Install cost-openrouter and it becomes one more candidate the router can pick - when it fits.

What it costs to adopt - in engineering time.

One base URL

No vendor lock-in

Failover built in

Use it

Manifest

Reviews