The agentic proxy for modern agent runtimes. Smart, safe, agent-controlled routing across LLMs, tools, and agents.
As LLM agents grow more autonomous, humans can no longer hand-pick the best model, tool, or sub-agent for every runtime decision. BitRouter is a proxy layer purpose-built for LLM agents (OpenClaw, OpenCode, etc.) to discover and route to LLMs, tools, and other agents autonomously — with agent-native control, guardrails, and observability via CLI + TUI, backed by a high-performance Rust proxy that optimizes for performance, cost, and safety during runtime.
- Multi-provider routing — unified access to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and custom providers with cost/performance-aware routing (
core·providers·config) - Tools as a service — discover, aggregate, and route tool calls across MCP servers and REST APIs with the same config-driven routing used for models (
core·providers·config) - Streaming & non-streaming — first-class support for both modes across all providers
- Agent firewall — inspect, warn, redact, or block risky content at the proxy layer (
guardrails) - MCP gateway — proxy for MCP servers, agents discover and call tools across hosts (
providers·api) - Skills registry — track and expose agent skills following the agentskills.io standard (
providers) - Agentic payment — 402/MPP payment handling for LLMs, tools, and APIs (
api·accounts) - Observability — per-request spend tracking, metrics, and cost calculation (
observe) - CLI + TUI — monitor and control agent sessions in real time, with live ACP (Agent Client Protocol) integration for managing coding agents (
cli·tui)
DEVELOPMENT.md— workspace architecture and server composition detailsCONTRIBUTING.md— contribution workflow, issue reporting, and provider updatesCLAUDE.md— guidance for AI coding agents working in this repository
cargo install bitrouterbitrouterOn first launch, BitRouter runs an interactive setup wizard with two modes:
- Cloud — connect to BitRouter Cloud with x402/Solana wallet payments
- BYOK — bring your own API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or custom providers
After setup, the TUI and API server start at http://localhost:8787.
You can re-run the wizard at any time with bitrouter reset.
If you already have provider API keys in your environment, BitRouter auto-detects them — no config file needed:
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
bitrouter
# Routes to "openai:gpt-4o" at http://localhost:8787For a foreground server without the TUI, use bitrouter serve.
Install Agent Skills to give your AI agent the knowledge to register on the BitRouter network, configure services, and start serving requests:
# Any agent (Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, Codex, etc.)
npx skills add BitRouterAI/agent-skills| Provider | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | ✅ | Chat Completions + Responses API |
| Anthropic | ✅ | Messages API |
| ✅ | Generative AI API | |
| OpenRouter | ✅ | Chat Completions + Responses API |
| OpenCode Zen | ✅ | Curated models across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google protocols |
| OpenCode Go | ✅ | Low-cost subscription for open coding models |
Want to see another provider supported? Open an issue or submit a PR — contributions are welcome. If you're a provider interested in first-party integration, reach out on Discord.
BitRouter works as a drop-in proxy for agent runtimes that support custom API base URLs. Point your runtime at http://localhost:8787 and route to any configured provider.
| Runtime | Integration |
|---|---|
| OpenClaw | Native plugin |
| Claude Code | CLI + Skills |
| ZeroClaw | CLI + Skills |
| Codex CLI | CLI + Skills |
| OpenCode | CLI + Skills |
| Kilo Code | CLI + Skills |
Any agent runtime that can target a custom OpenAI or Anthropic base URL works with BitRouter out of the box. Building an agent runtime or framework? We partner with teams to build native BitRouter integrations — reach out on Discord or open an issue.
| BitRouter | OpenRouter | LiteLLM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Local-first proxy + optional cloud | Cloud-only SaaS | Local proxy (Python) |
| Language | Rust | Closed-source | Python |
| Self-hosted | Yes | No | Yes |
| Agent-native | Yes — built for autonomous agent runtimes | No — human-facing API gateway | Partial — SDK-oriented |
| Agent protocols | MCP + Skills + ACP | No | MCP |
| Agent firewall | Built-in guardrails (inspect, redact, block) | Yes | Yes |
| Cross-protocol routing | Yes (e.g. OpenAI format → Anthropic provider) | Provider-specific | Yes (unified interface) |
| Agentic payments | Stablecoin (402/MPP) + Fiat | Credit-based billing | No |
| Observability | CLI + TUI + per-request cost tracking | Web dashboard | Logging + callbacks + WebUI |
| Extensibility | Trait-based SDK — import and compose crates | API only | Python middleware |
| Performance | ~10ms | ~30ms (cloud) | ~500ms |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Proprietary | Apache 2.0 |
TL;DR — OpenRouter is a cloud API marketplace for humans picking models. LiteLLM is a Python proxy for unifying provider SDKs. BitRouter is a Rust-native proxy purpose-built for autonomous agents — with unified model and tool routing, agent protocols (MCP, Skills), guardrails, and agentic payments out of the box.
- Core routing engine and provider abstractions
- OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google adapters
- Interactive setup wizard (
bitrouter init) with auto-detection - Custom provider support (OpenAI-compatible / Anthropic-compatible)
- Cross-protocol routing (e.g. OpenAI format → Anthropic provider)
- MCP & Skills protocol support
- Tools as a service — config-driven tool routing across MCP and REST providers
- ACP (Agent Client Protocol) integration — manage coding agents (Claude Code, OpenCode, OpenClaw) via the TUI
- TUI observability dashboard
- Telemetry and usage analytics
- Provider & model routing policy customization
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.