OpenRouter Routing Rules

Overview

Beyond simple task-based model selection, production systems need configurable routing rules that consider user tier, cost budget, time of day, model availability, and feature requirements. This skill covers building a rules engine for OpenRouter model selection with config-driven rules, dynamic conditions, and override capabilities.

Prerequisites

• An OpenRouter API key (sk-or-v1-...) exported as OPENROUTER_API_KEY — see the openrouter-install-auth skill for setup
• Python 3.8+ with the OpenAI SDK — the rules engine itself is stdlib (dataclasses, json, random) layered on top
• Per-request metadata available in your app: user tier, task type, remaining budget, tool/vision needs, latency SLA (the RoutingContext fields)
• Budget tracking wired up (see openrouter-cost-controls) if you use budget-conditioned rules like low-budget

Instructions