> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.claude-mem.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# OpenRouter Provider

> Access 100+ AI models through OpenRouter's unified API and run observation extraction off-plan

# OpenRouter Provider

Claude-mem supports [OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai) as an alternative provider for observation extraction. OpenRouter provides a unified API to access 100+ models from different providers including Google, Meta, Mistral, DeepSeek, and many others.

<Tip>
  **Memory runs off-plan**: With OpenRouter (or the claude-mem observer, which runs on this provider), observation extraction happens off your Claude plan — so memory work never shares your plan usage.
</Tip>

<Note>
  **claude-mem observer**: When you sign in during `npx claude-mem install` and choose the claude-mem observer, claude-mem configures this provider for you automatically with a provisioned key — no manual setup needed. The rest of this page covers bringing your own OpenRouter key.
</Note>

## Why Use OpenRouter?

* **Runs off-plan**: Observation extraction never shares your Claude plan usage
* **Access to 100+ models**: Choose from models across multiple providers through one API
* **Free model options**: Several high-quality models are available at no charge
* **Errors throw clearly**: 429s, 5xx, and network failures throw — leaving messages pending so they can be retried
* **Hot-swappable**: Switch providers without restarting the worker
* **Multi-turn conversations**: Full conversation history maintained across API calls

## Free Models on OpenRouter

OpenRouter actively supports democratizing AI access by offering free models. These are production-ready models suitable for observation extraction.

### Featured Free Models

| Model                    | ID                                       | Parameters             | Context | Best For                  |
| ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | ---------------------- | ------- | ------------------------- |
| **Xiaomi MiMo-V2-Flash** | `xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free`              | 309B (15B active, MoE) | 256K    | Reasoning, coding, agents |
| **Gemini 2.0 Flash**     | `google/gemini-2.0-flash-exp:free`       | —                      | 1M      | General purpose           |
| **Gemini 2.5 Flash**     | `google/gemini-2.5-flash-preview:free`   | —                      | 1M      | Latest capabilities       |
| **DeepSeek R1**          | `deepseek/deepseek-r1:free`              | 671B                   | 64K     | Reasoning, analysis       |
| **Llama 3.1 70B**        | `meta-llama/llama-3.1-70b-instruct:free` | 70B                    | 128K    | General purpose           |
| **Llama 3.1 8B**         | `meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct:free`  | 8B                     | 128K    | Fast, lightweight         |
| **Mistral Nemo**         | `mistralai/mistral-nemo:free`            | 12B                    | 128K    | Efficient performance     |

<Note>
  **Default Model**: Claude-mem uses `xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free` by default—a 309B parameter mixture-of-experts model that ranks #1 on SWE-bench Verified and excels at coding and reasoning tasks.
</Note>

### Free Model Considerations

* **Rate limits**: Free models may have stricter rate limits than paid models
* **Availability**: Free capacity depends on provider partnerships and demand
* **Queue times**: During peak usage, requests may be queued briefly
* **Max tokens**: Most free models support 65,536 completion tokens

All free models support:

* Tool use and function calling
* Temperature and sampling controls
* Stop sequences
* Streaming responses

## Getting an API Key

1. Go to [OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai)
2. Sign in with Google, GitHub, or email
3. Navigate to [API Keys](https://openrouter.ai/keys)
4. Click **Create Key**
5. Copy and securely store your API key

<Tip>
  **Free to start**: No credit card required to create an account or use free models. Add credits only if you want to use premium models.
</Tip>

## Configuration

### Settings

| Setting                          | Values                           | Default                     | Description                             |
| -------------------------------- | -------------------------------- | --------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| `CLAUDE_MEM_PROVIDER`            | `claude`, `gemini`, `openrouter` | `claude`                    | AI provider for observation extraction  |
| `CLAUDE_MEM_OPENROUTER_API_KEY`  | string                           | —                           | Your OpenRouter API key                 |
| `CLAUDE_MEM_OPENROUTER_MODEL`    | string                           | `xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free` | Model identifier (see list above)       |
| `CLAUDE_MEM_OPENROUTER_SITE_URL` | string                           | —                           | Optional: URL for analytics attribution |
| `CLAUDE_MEM_OPENROUTER_APP_NAME` | string                           | `claude-mem`                | Optional: App name for analytics        |

### Using the Settings UI

1. Open the worker URL printed on startup
2. Click the **gear icon** to open Settings
3. Under **AI Provider**, select **OpenRouter**
4. Enter your OpenRouter API key
5. Optionally select a different model

Settings are applied immediately—no restart required.

### Manual Configuration

Edit `~/.claude-mem/settings.json`:

```json theme={null}
{
  "CLAUDE_MEM_PROVIDER": "openrouter",
  "CLAUDE_MEM_OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "sk-or-v1-your-key-here",
  "CLAUDE_MEM_OPENROUTER_MODEL": "xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free"
}
```

Alternatively, set the API key via environment variable:

```bash theme={null}
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-your-key-here"
```

The settings file takes precedence over the environment variable.

## Model Selection Guide

### Free Models

**Recommended**: `xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free`

* Best-in-class performance on coding benchmarks
* 256K context window handles large observations
* 65K max completion tokens
* Mixture-of-experts architecture (15B active parameters)

**Alternatives**:

* `google/gemini-2.0-flash-exp:free` - 1M context, Google's flagship
* `deepseek/deepseek-r1:free` - Excellent reasoning capabilities
* `meta-llama/llama-3.1-70b-instruct:free` - Strong general purpose

### Premium Models (Higher Quality/Speed)

| Model                         | Best For                     |
| ----------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| `anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet` | Highest quality observations |
| `google/gemini-2.0-flash`     | Fast responses               |
| `openai/gpt-4o`               | GPT-4 quality                |

Premium models draw on your OpenRouter credit — still off-plan, so they never touch your Claude plan usage.

## Context Window Management

The full conversation history is sent to the model on each request. claude-mem does
**not** apply any client-side truncation or message-count cap — the provider and model
own their own context window. If you need to bound context for a specific model, choose a
model with an appropriate context length or manage limits at the OpenRouter/provider level.

### Usage Tracking

Logs include detailed usage information:

```
OpenRouter API usage: {
  model: "xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free",
  inputTokens: 2500,
  outputTokens: 1200,
  totalTokens: 3700,
  estimatedCostUSD: "0.00",
  messagesInContext: 8
}
```

## Provider Switching

You can switch between providers at any time:

* **No restart required**: Changes take effect on the next observation
* **Conversation history preserved**: When switching mid-session, the new provider sees the full conversation context
* **Seamless transition**: All providers use the same observation format

### Switching via UI

1. Open Settings in the viewer
2. Change the **AI Provider** dropdown
3. The next observation will use the new provider

### Switching via Settings File

```json theme={null}
{
  "CLAUDE_MEM_PROVIDER": "openrouter"
}
```

## Error Behavior

If OpenRouter errors, claude-mem logs the failure and re-throws so the message stays pending for later retry. There is no Claude SDK fallback — earlier docs claimed automatic Claude fallback, but the wiring was never actually engaged in production (#2087). To switch providers, change `CLAUDE_MEM_PROVIDER` in settings.

**Throwing conditions:**

* Rate limiting (HTTP 429)
* Server errors (HTTP 500, 502, 503)
* Network issues (connection refused, timeout)
* 4xx errors other than 429
* Missing API key

## Multi-Turn Conversation Support

OpenRouter agent maintains full conversation history across API calls:

```
Session Created
  ↓
Load Pending Messages (observations from queue)
  ↓
For each message:
  → Add to conversation history
  → Call OpenRouter API with FULL history
  → Parse XML response
  → Store observations in database
  → Sync to Chroma vector DB
  ↓
Session complete
```

This enables:

* Coherent multi-turn exchanges
* Context preservation across observations
* Seamless provider switching mid-session

## Troubleshooting

### "OpenRouter API key not configured"

Either:

* Set `CLAUDE_MEM_OPENROUTER_API_KEY` in `~/.claude-mem/settings.json`, or
* Set the `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` environment variable

### Rate Limiting

Free models may have rate limits during peak usage. If you hit rate limits:

* The agent throws and leaves the message pending — it will be retried later
* Consider switching to a different free model
* Add credits for premium model access

### Model Not Found

Verify the model ID is correct:

* Check [OpenRouter Models](https://openrouter.ai/models) for current availability
* Use the `:free` suffix for free model variants
* Model IDs are case-sensitive

### High Token Usage

If a session accumulates a large conversation history, requests can grow. To keep
per-request size down:

* Choose a model suited to your usage volume
* Consider a model with a larger context window if you hit provider-side limits

### Connection Errors

If you see connection errors:

* Check your internet connection
* Verify OpenRouter service status at [status.openrouter.ai](https://status.openrouter.ai)
* The agent throws and leaves the message pending for later retry

## API Details

OpenRouter uses an OpenAI-compatible REST API:

**Endpoint**: `https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions`

**Headers**:

```
Authorization: Bearer {apiKey}
HTTP-Referer: https://github.com/thedotmack/claude-mem
X-Title: claude-mem
Content-Type: application/json
```

**Request Format**:

```json theme={null}
{
  "model": "xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "system", "content": "..."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "..."}
  ],
  "temperature": 0.3,
  "max_tokens": 4096
}
```

## Comparing Providers

| Feature         | Claude (SDK)            | Gemini                     | OpenRouter                                                   |
| --------------- | ----------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Plan usage**  | Shares your Claude plan | Off-plan (your Gemini key) | Off-plan (your OpenRouter credit or the claude-mem observer) |
| **Models**      | Claude only             | Gemini only                | 100+ models                                                  |
| **Quality**     | Highest                 | High                       | Varies by model                                              |
| **Rate limits** | Based on tier           | 5-4000 RPM                 | Varies by model                                              |
| **On error**    | Throws                  | Throws                     | Throws                                                       |
| **Setup**       | Automatic               | API key required           | API key required                                             |

<Tip>
  **Recommendation**: The claude-mem observer (chosen at install) is the easiest way to run memory off-plan. Bringing your own key? Start with the free `xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash:free` model. If you need higher quality or encounter rate limits, switch to a premium model or the Claude provider.
</Tip>

## Next Steps

* [Configuration](/configuration) - Full settings reference
* [Gemini Provider](/usage/gemini-provider) - Alternative free provider
* [Getting Started](/usage/getting-started) - Basic usage guide
* [Troubleshooting](/troubleshooting) - Common issues