ClawRouter

<div align="center"> <img src="assets/banner.png" alt="ClawRouter Banner" width="600"> <h1>The LLM router built for autonomous agents</h1> <p>Agents can't sign up for accounts. Agents can't enter credit cards.<br> Agents can only sign transactions.<br><br> <strong>ClawRouter is the only LLM router that lets agents operate independently.</strong><br><br> <em><!-- br:models.free -->6<!-- /br:models.free --> models free, no crypto required. No signup. No API key. No credit card.</em></p> <br>

<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/🆓_6_Free_Models-success?style=for-the-badge" alt="6 free models">  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/🤖_Agent--Native-black?style=for-the-badge" alt="Agent native">  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/🔑_Zero_API_Keys-blue?style=for-the-badge" alt="No API keys">  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/⚡_Local_Routing-yellow?style=for-the-badge" alt="Local routing">  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/💰_x402_USDC-purple?style=for-the-badge" alt="x402 USDC">  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/🔓_Open_Source-green?style=for-the-badge" alt="Open source">

</div>

ClawRouter is an open-source smart LLM router that reduces AI API costs by up to <!-- br:savings.autoVsBaselinePct -->88<!-- /br:savings.autoVsBaselinePct -->%. It analyzes each request across <!-- br:clawrouter.dimensions -->15<!-- /br:clawrouter.dimensions --> dimensions and routes to the cheapest capable model in under 1ms, entirely locally. ClawRouter is the only LLM router built for autonomous AI agents — it uses wallet signatures for authentication (no API keys) and USDC micropayments via the x402 protocol (no credit cards). <!-- br:models.chatVisible -->71<!-- /br:models.chatVisible --> models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, and more. MIT licensed.

---

Why ClawRouter exists

Every other LLM router was built for human developers — create an account, get an API key, pick a model from a dashboard, pay with a credit card.

Agents can't do any of that.

ClawRouter is built for the agent-first world:

• Starts at $0 — <!-- br:models.free -->6<!-- /br:models.free --> NVIDIA models are free forever (incl. 1M-context DeepSeek V4 Flash + a vision-capable Nemotron Omni)
• No accounts — a wallet is generated locally, no signup
• No API keys — your wallet signature IS authentication
• No model selection — <!-- br:clawrouter.dimensions -->15<!-- /br:clawrouter.dimensions -->-dimension scoring picks the right model automatically
• No credit cards — agents pay per-request with USDC via x402
• No trust required — runs locally, <1ms routing, zero external dependencies

This is the stack that lets agents operate autonomously: x402 + USDC + local routing.

---

How it compares

| | OpenRouter | LiteLLM | Martian | Portkey | ClawRouter | | ---------------- | ----------------- | ---------------- | ----------------- | ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Models | 200+ | 100+ | Smart routing | Gateway | <!-- br:models.chatVisible -->71<!-- /br:models.chatVisible --> | | Free tier | Rate-limited | BYO keys | No | No | <!-- br:models.free -->6<!-- /br:models.free --> models, no signup | | Routing | Manual selection | Manual selection | Smart (closed) | Observability | Smart (open source) | | Auth | Account + API key | Your API keys | Account + API key | Account + API key | Wallet signature | | Payment | Credit card | BYO keys | Credit card | $49-499/mo | USDC per-request | | Runs locally | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | | Open source | No | Yes | No | Partial | Yes | | Agent-ready | No | No | No | No | Yes |

✓ Open source · ✓ Smart routing · ✓ Runs locally · ✓ Crypto native · ✓ Agent ready

We're the only one that checks all five boxes.

---

Quick Start

No wallet? <!-- br:models.free -->6<!-- /br:models.free --> models work free out of the box. Install, run, and pin free/mistral-nemotron (or any of the <!-- br:models.free -->6<!-- /br:models.free -->) — no crypto, no signup, no balance required. Add USDC later when you want paid models.

Option A — OpenClaw Agent

OpenClaw is an AI coding agent. If you're using it, ClawRouter installs as a plugin. Two paths:

A1. Recommended — one-shot install script:

curl -fsSL https://blockrun.ai/ClawRouter-update | bash
openclaw gateway restart

This handles everything: registration, models config, auth profile, wallet setup. Smart routing (blockrun/auto) is now your default model.

A2. If you prefer pure npm:

npm install -g @blockrun/clawrouter
clawrouter setup            # finishes OpenClaw integration — REQUIRED
openclaw gateway restart

⚠️ Skipping clawrouter setup will leave you broken. Bare npm install -g only puts the package on disk; it does NOT register the plugin with OpenClaw, sync the models allowlist, or write the auth profile. Symptom: /models in your bot shows only ~7 entries (OpenClaw's hardcoded defaults) instead of the full ~44 BlockRun models. Run clawrouter setup to repair, or use path A1 to begin with.

Option B — Standalone (continue.dev, Cursor, VS Code, any OpenAI-compatible client)

Using Claude Code? Check out BRCC — it's purpose-built for Claude Code with the same smart routing and x402 payments.

Using NousResearch Hermes? See ClawRouter-Hermes — a Python plugin that wires Hermes into the ClawRouter proxy. Same wallet, same <!-- br:models.chatVisible -->71<!-- /br:models.chatVisible --> models, same x402 USDC settlement on Base & Solana.

No OpenClaw required. ClawRouter runs as a local proxy on port 8402.

1. Start the proxy

npx @blockrun/clawrouter

2. Fund your wallet — optional, skip for free tier Your wallet address is printed on first run. For paid models, send a few USDC on Base or Solana — $5 covers thousands of requests. To stay at $0, pin any of the <!-- br:models.free -->6<!-- /br:models.free --> free models (e.g. free/mistral-nemotron) or use /model free inside OpenClaw.

3. Point your client at http://localhost:8402

<details> <summary><strong>continue.dev</strong> — <code>~/.continue/config.yaml</code></summary>

Important: apiBase must end with /v1/ (including the trailing slash). Without it, continue.dev constructs the URL as /chat/completions instead of /v1/chat/completions, and the proxy returns 404.

models:
  - name: ClawRouter Auto
    provider: openai
    model: blockrun/auto
    apiBase: http://localhost:8402/v1/
    apiKey: x402
    roles:
      - chat
      - edit
      - apply

To pin a specific model, replace blockrun/auto with any model from blockrun.ai/models, e.g. anthropic/claude-opus-5, xai/grok-4.5.

Both provider: openai and provider: clawrouter work — just make sure apiBase ends with /v1/.

<details> <summary>Legacy JSON format (<code>~/.continue/config.json</code>)</summary>

{
  "models": [
    {
      "title": "ClawRouter Auto",
      "provider": "openai",
      "model": "blockrun/auto",
      "apiBase": "http://localhost:8402/v1/",
      "apiKey": "x402"
    }
  ]
}

</details> </details> <details> <summary><strong>Cursor</strong> — Settings → Models → OpenAI-compatible</summary>

Set base URL to `http://loca