OrcaRouter

Browse 160+ LLM models and live pricing — no API key needed for catalog. Add key to route chat.

What can you do with OrcaRouter?

🗺️ Discover providers and models without an API key
💬 Run chat completions through any served model
🧠 Auto-route requests through your workspace's orcarouter/auto router (cost / quality / balanced / LinUCB / gated-adaptive strategies)
🔁 Configure fallback chains (primary + up to 4 fallbacks) for resilience
📊 Filter models server-side by provider, capability, or minimum context window
🎯 Inspect detailed model cards: pricing, context, latency, supported endpoints
🔌 Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, and any MCP client

Install

Add this to your client's MCP configuration (Claude Desktop: claude_desktop_config.json; Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json; VS Code and others use the same "mcpServers" shape).

NPM package @orcarouter/mcp

Claude Code

claude mcp add orcarouter -e 'ORCAROUTER_API_KEY=<your orcarouter_api_key>' -e 'ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL=<ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL>' -e 'ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=<ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT>' -- npx -y @orcarouter/mcp@1.1.5

JSON configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code)

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "orcarouter": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@orcarouter/mcp@1.1.5"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ORCAROUTER_API_KEY": "<your orcarouter_api_key>",
                "ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL": "<ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL>",
                "ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT": "<ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Environment variables

ORCAROUTER_API_KEY secret OrcaRouter API key. Required only for orcarouter_chat. Catalog tools (orcarouter_models_list, orcarouter_model_card, orcarouter_providers_list) work without it.
ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL Override the gateway base URL. Defaults to https://api.orcarouter.ai.
ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT Per-request timeout in seconds. Defaults to 300 (5 minutes) to accommodate long reasoning-model completions.

Documentation

From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.

Contents

OrcaRouter MCP Server
What you can do
Examples
Quick Start
Tools
Configuration
Security
Development
Contributing
License

OrcaRouter MCP Server

Official MCP server for the OrcaRouter LLM gateway.

Browse OrcaRouter's model catalog and run chat completions from inside any Model Context Protocol client — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, or anything else that speaks the protocol.

Catalog browsing works without an API key — compare pricing and capabilities before signing up.

What you can do

🗺️ Discover providers and models without an API key
💬 Run chat completions through any served model
🧠 Auto-route requests through your workspace's orcarouter/auto router (cost / quality / balanced / LinUCB / gated-adaptive strategies)
🔁 Configure fallback chains (primary + up to 4 fallbacks) for resilience
📊 Filter models server-side by provider, capability, or minimum context window
🎯 Inspect detailed model cards: pricing, context, latency, supported endpoints
🔌 Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, and any MCP client

Examples

Try saying things like:

"List all providers on OrcaRouter"
"Show me all Anthropic models with their pricing"
"Get details about minimax/minimax-m2.7"
"Chat with orcarouter/auto and explain quantum computing"

Quick Start

Claude Code (CLI one-liner)

claude mcp add orcarouter -s user \
  -e ORCAROUTER_API_KEY=sk-orca-your-key \
  -- npx -y @orcarouter/mcp

Other clients (config-file path)

Copy the example config for your MCP client into the client's config file:

Client Example Action

Claude Desktop claude-desktop.json Replace

Claude Code claude-code.json Merge

Cursor cursor.json Replace

Windsurf windsurf.json Replace

See examples/README.md for the config-file paths and notes on Zed and other clients.
Replace sk-or-... in the copied file with your OrcaRouter API key.
Restart your MCP client.

Client	Example	Action
Claude Desktop	claude-desktop.json	Replace
Claude Code	claude-code.json	Merge
Cursor	cursor.json	Replace
Windsurf	windsurf.json	Replace

The root .mcp.json is the same config in the Open Plugins standard location, so registry/discovery tools that scan for it (e.g. cursor.directory) can pick this server up automatically.

Requires Node.js 18 or later. The ORCAROUTER_API_KEY env var is only required for orcarouter_chat; catalog tools work without it.

Tools

orcarouter_chat — run a chat completion (with optional fallback chain)
orcarouter_models_list — browse the catalog (pricing, context, capabilities)
orcarouter_model_card — detailed info for one model
orcarouter_providers_list — list providers with model counts

Full input schemas are exposed at runtime via the MCP tools/list method — your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) reads them automatically.

Configuration

Name	Required	Description
`ORCAROUTER_API_KEY`	optional	OrcaRouter API key. Required only for `orcarouter_chat`.
`ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL`	optional	API base URL. Defaults to `https://api.orcarouter.ai`.
`ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT`	optional	Per-request HTTP timeout in seconds. Defaults to `300`.

Security

API keys are read from environment variables, never logged, and only sent to the OrcaRouter API. See SECURITY.md for the vulnerability disclosure policy.

Development

# bun (preferred)
bun install
bun run test
bun run typecheck
bun run build

# or with npm
npm install
npm test
npm run typecheck
npm run build

The build produces an ESM bundle at dist/index.js with a #!/usr/bin/env node shebang, runnable as the orcarouter-mcp binary.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. For newcomer-friendly tasks, browse the good first issue label.

License

MIT

Frequently asked questions

What is OrcaRouter?

Browse 160+ LLM models and live pricing — no API key needed for catalog. Add key to route chat.

How do I install OrcaRouter?

It runs on your machine. In Claude Code: claude mcp add orcarouter -e 'ORCAROUTER_API_KEY=<your orcarouter_api_key>' -e 'ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL=<ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL>' -e 'ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=<ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT>' -- npx -y @orcarouter/mcp@1.1.5. For other clients, paste the JSON configuration from this page into their MCP settings.

Does OrcaRouter need an API key?

Yes. It expects ORCAROUTER_API_KEY, which you set in its configuration.

Is OrcaRouter open source?

Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the MIT license.

Who maintains OrcaRouter?

It is published by Continuum-AI-Corp. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.

From the official MCP Registry. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.

Server details

Listed in: Official MCP Registry
Publisher: Continuum-AI-Corp
Category: AI and agents
Runs: Local
GitHub stars: ★ 13
License: MIT
Language: TypeScript
Last commit: Oct 22, 2026
Open issues: 9
Version: 1.1.5
Published: May 26, 2026

io.github.Continuum-AI-Corp/orcarouter-mcp

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