Works with / OpenRouter

Synapse with OpenRouter

Run your Bots on models from many companies through one OpenRouter key.

What works

  • Every model on OpenRouter's list that can use tools. The model picker lists them with their prices, and you can search them.
  • Chat, tools and replies, through the same approvals as every Bot.
  • Web search, through OpenRouter's web plugin on the Bot's own model.
  • Voice calls.
  • Subagents, on the same model.
  • Computer and browser helpers, on the same model. A model not known to read images works from text reads of the screen and page instead of screenshots, as Experimental.
  • Your key can also give search to Bots on providers without their own, like Mistral and DeepSeek.
  • Coding agents and Engineering mode, on the same model, through the same approvals.

OpenRouter's models vary a lot. Each one starts as Not checked, and images show as Not checked until they are measured. See how badges are earned.

Not yet

  • A credit balance check. Test key checks that the key works, not how much credit is left.

Cost

OpenRouter bills your own key. Synapse meters every call and counts it against your spend budget. When the budget is reached, the model isn't called.

  • Prices come from OpenRouter's own model list, fetched once a day. The cost OpenRouter reports for each call is what Synapse counts.
  • A model with no known price is counted at the highest rate Synapse knows, $20 in, $2 cached and $75 out per million tokens, so spend is never under-counted.
  • Web search is charged by OpenRouter, inside each call's reported cost.
  • OpenRouter has no small model set aside for Synapse's own tasks, so those run on the Bot's model.

Privacy

  • Consent first. Nothing goes to OpenRouter until you allow it once. The consent says what is sent: the conversation, tool results, files the Bot reads, safety-check inputs, memory notes and call transcripts. OpenRouter's own terms apply.
  • Only companies that don't keep your data. OpenRouter passes each request to the company that runs the model. Synapse asks it to use only companies that don't collect your data.
  • Your key stays on your Mac. It is encrypted, and only Synapse's own proxy adds it to a request. Your Bots never see it. Each call gets a one-time token, and the key is removed from anything that comes back.
  • The same safety gate. Every action goes through Synapse's fixed rules and approvals, whatever the model. The safety reviewer runs on Claude when you've saved an Anthropic key, and otherwise on the provider you set up. You can pick another model for it in Settings → Rules → Safety reviewer. A reviewer on a model other than Claude asks you first until it passes the safety check.

Set up

  1. Create a key on OpenRouter, with some credit on the account.
  2. In Synapse, open Settings → Account → Model providers. Click Allow next to OpenRouter, read what it sends, and allow it.
  3. Paste the key, click Save, then Test key.
  4. Open a Bot's settings, search OpenRouter's models in the model picker, and pick one.

You can also start with OpenRouter: pick it in the key step when you first open Synapse, allow it, and paste the key. It's tested before it's saved, and no Anthropic key is needed.