ClawRouter

ClawRouter is an open-source smart LLM router that reduces AI API costs by up to 84%. It analyzes each request across 15 dimensions and routes to the cheapest capable model in under 1ms, entirely locally. It is the only LLM router that an autonomous agent can pay for by itself — a wallet signature is the account, and USDC micropayments over the x402 protocol are the billing — and it takes an ordinary credit card too: sign up at user.blockrun.ai, top up, and run the same router on an API key. 78 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, and more. MIT licensed.

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What BlockRun is

BlockRun lets agents pay for the outcome — every LLM, tool and data source, best value per dollar.

Not a seat, not a subscription, not a monthly minimum you keep paying while the agent idles. An agent asks for one thing — an answer, an image, a transcript, a price, a call placed — and pays for that one thing at the moment it happens. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to cancel.

Every LLM 78 chat models across 9 providers, behind one endpoint and one balance Every tool 12 image models, 8 video models, music, 5 voices, img2img editing, and outbound phone calls that come back as transcripts Every data source web, news and neural search; prediction markets; live crypto and equity quotes; on-chain SQL over 100M+ labeled wallets; DEX routing; RPC across 40 chains Best value per dollar 15-dimension local routing sends each request to the cheapest model that can actually do it — 84% below pinning Claude Opus 5 on the same traffic, computed from a published workload mix rather than estimated

ClawRouter is how an agent reaches it. BlockRun is the gateway and the billing; ClawRouter is the MIT-licensed router that runs on your machine, decides which model each request deserves, and settles the bill — a wallet signature in USDC, or a credit-card-funded API key. The rest of this README is about ClawRouter.

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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 — 6 open-weight models are free forever (incl. a 1M-context reasoner and two sub-second coders). Image turns route to paid models — see the free-tier note below.
• No accounts needed — a wallet is generated locally, no signup
• No API keys needed — your wallet signature IS authentication
• No model selection — 15-dimension scoring + constraint-first ranking (router-core) picks the right model automatically
• No credit card needed — 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.

…and if you are a human, not an agent

Every "no X needed" above is a capability, not a restriction. ClawRouter takes a credit card too. Sign up at user.blockrun.ai, top up, mint an API key, and run clawrouter login brk_live_…. Same router, same 78 models, same local routing — calls go to api.blockrun.ai on a bearer token and bill your account credit. No crypto, no gas, no seed phrase.

You are Pay with Setup Just trying it Nothing Install and pin a free model A person Credit card → account credit Sign up at user.blockrun.ai → clawrouter login brk_live_… An autonomous agent USDC on Solana or Base, per request Nothing — a wallet is generated on first run (Solana by default)

Full walkthrough: Paying with a credit card.

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How it compares

OpenRouter LiteLLM Martian Portkey ClawRouter Models 200+ 100+ Smart routing Gateway 78 Free tier Rate-limited BYO keys No No 6 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 or API key Payment Credit card BYO keys Credit card $49-499/mo USDC per-request or card credit 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.

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Quick Start

No wallet? 6 models work free out of the box. Install, run, and pin free/nemotron-3.5-lightning (or any of the 6) — no crypto, no signup, no balance required. Add a credit card or USDC later when you want paid models.

Two ways to pay for the paid ones — pick one, the rest of ClawRouter is identical:

Wallet (default) API key Who it is for Autonomous agents, and anyone happy holding USDC People who would rather pay with a card Setup Nothing — a wallet is generated on first run Sign up at user.blockrun.ai, top up, mint a key, clawrouter login brk_live_… Auth An x402 signature per request Authorization: Bearer brk_live_… Gateway sol.blockrun.ai (Solana, default) / blockrun.ai (Base) api.blockrun.ai Billing USDC leaves your wallet per call, non-custodial Card-funded account credit, drawn down at exact usage Fees $0.001/tx settlement fee (covers on-chain gas) 5.5% + $0.30 on the top-up, then list price with nothing per call

ClawRouter prefers the API key whenever one is configured, so clawrouter login is all it takes to switch and clawrouter logout is all it takes to switch back.

Where do I sign up? user.blockrun.ai — sign in with Google, add credit with a card under Credits, mint a key under API Keys. That one key covers all 78 chat models plus images, video, speech and the live-data APIs. No wallet, no crypto, no seed phrase.

Desktop control plane (macOS)

The Electron app in apps/desktop provides one-click connections for OpenClaw, Codex, Hermes, DeepSeek Harness, and Pi, plus model pricing/context, wallet balances, Solana/Base switching, and Coinbase Onramp. It snapshots each agent's existing config before changing it and restores the original bytes when you disconnect. Wallets are shared through ~/.blockrun; older ClawRouter wallets are copied there automatically without overwriting existing Core files.

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.

OpenClaw now also bundles an unrelated plugin named clawrouter (@openclaw/clawrouter). BlockRun uses the distinct plugin id blockrun-clawrouter; the installer preserves the official plugin and allows both products to coexist.

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 OpenClaw's defaults instead of the 55 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 78 models, same x402 USDC settlement on Solana & Base.

No OpenClaw required. ClawRouter runs as a local p