OpenRouter — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the

openrouter-pp-cli

binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

Install via the Printing Press installer:

bash

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install openrouter --cli-only

Verify:
```
openrouter-pp-cli --version
```
Ensure
```
$GOPATH/bin
```
(or
```
$HOME/go/bin
```
) is on
```
$PATH
```
.

If the

npx

install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.3 or newer):

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/ai/openrouter/cmd/openrouter-pp-cli@latest

--version

reports "command not found" after install, the install step did not put the binary on

$PATH

. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Other OpenRouter CLIs are chat REPLs. This one is built for the cron job and the AI agent calling out to

Bash

. Absorbed introspection commands (

credits

models

key

generation

providers

) honor the global

--agent

flag (sets --json --compact --no-input). Eight novel commands (

usage cost-by

models query

key eta

providers degraded

generation explain

usage anomaly

endpoints failover

budget

) ship a

--llm

mode that returns under 200 tokens of key:value output. A local SQLite catalog lets you query the 400+ model list with

models query "tools=true cost.completion<1"

instead of pasting 425KB of JSON into context.

When to Use This CLI

Use this CLI when an AI agent needs OpenRouter introspection data and you're optimizing for token efficiency. Absorbed commands accept

--agent

for compact JSON; the 8 novel commands ship

--llm

mode for terse key:value output. Use it when you need cost attribution beyond model+provider (which-cron-fired-the-call). Use it for pre-flight gates in bash compositions and for local-catalog querying that would otherwise blow context. Skip it for chat — use

grahamking/ort

for chat ergonomics.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Local state that compounds

usage cost-by
— Group your OpenRouter spend by which cron/agent fired the call, not just by model. Joins local generations with caller tags from your tool-call logger.
Use this when an agent needs to answer 'which automated job is burning my OpenRouter budget?' before deciding what to throttle.
bash
```
openrouter usage cost-by --group cron --since 7d --llm
```
models query
— Query the model catalog with structured filters (tools=true, cost.completion<1, ctx>=64k) — compiled to SQL over a local SQLite cache. Works offline.
Use this when an agent needs to shortlist models for an experiment without hallucinating pricing or pasting 400 model rows into context.
bash
```
openrouter models query "tools=true cost.completion<1 ctx>=64k modality=text" --llm
```
generation explain
— For a generation id, returns the cost, latency, prompt/completion token counts, AND a delta vs the cheapest provider for the same model+token-count.
Use this when an agent needs to decide whether a generation was expensive because of the model choice, the prompt size, or the provider markup.
bash
```
openrouter generation explain gen-abc123 --llm
```

Agent-native plumbing

providers degraded
— Returns the set of currently-degraded provider/model pairs by polling /providers and per-model /endpoints. Pipe into your router to preempt 429s.
Use this in a router or fallback chain when an agent needs to skip degraded provider/model pairs before dispatch instead of after a failed call.
bash
```
openrouter providers degraded --json | jq -r '.[].model_id'
```
usage anomaly
— Flags days where per-model cost exceeds 2σ of the trailing 7-day mean. Deterministic z-score, no LLM in the loop. Designed for cron.
Use this in a daily cron when an agent needs to detect cost regressions before a credit-low alarm fires.
bash
```
openrouter usage anomaly --since 24h --baseline 7d --llm
```
key eta
— Projects when your weekly OpenRouter cap will trip, based on /key.limit_reset, current usage, and your trailing 7-day burn rate.
Use this in a daily cron when an agent needs to know whether scheduled work will fit in the remaining weekly cap.
bash
```
openrouter key eta --llm
```
budget
— Set a weekly USD cap per cron job (budget set scan-pipeline 2usd). Pre-flight check returns exit 0 (under cap) or 8 (over) from tagged generations.
Use this when an agent needs structural budget enforcement per sub-agent or per cron, not aspirational env-var quotas.
bash
```
openrouter budget check scan-pipeline && ./scan-pipeline.mjs
```
endpoints failover
— For a model id, lists all providers serving it ranked by current status, pricing, and observed p50 latency from local cache. Pipe-feeds routers.
Use this when an agent needs to choose a provider for a given model based on current availability, not the static config order.
bash
```
openrouter endpoints failover anthropic/claude-opus-4-7 --json
```

Command Reference

activity — Manage activity

```
openrouter-pp-cli activity
```
— Returns user activity data grouped by endpoint for the last 30 (completed) UTC days. [Management...

credits — Credit management endpoints

```
openrouter-pp-cli credits
```
— Get total credits purchased and used for the authenticated user. [Management...

endpoints — Endpoint information

```
openrouter-pp-cli endpoints
```
— Preview the impact of ZDR on the available endpoints

generation — Generation history endpoints

```
openrouter-pp-cli generation get
```
— Get request & usage metadata for a generation
```
openrouter-pp-cli generation list-content
```
— Get stored prompt and completion content for a generation

key — Manage key

```
openrouter-pp-cli key
```
— Get information on the API key associated with the current authentication session

keys — Manage keys

```
openrouter-pp-cli keys create
```
— Create a new API key for the authenticated user. Management key...
```
openrouter-pp-cli keys delete
```
— Delete an existing API key. Management key required.
```
openrouter-pp-cli keys get
```
— Get a single API key by hash. Management key required.
```
openrouter-pp-cli keys list
```
— List all API keys for the authenticated user. Management key required.
```
openrouter-pp-cli keys update
```
— Update an existing API key. Management key required.

models — Model information endpoints

```
openrouter-pp-cli models get
```
— List all models and their properties
```
openrouter-pp-cli models list-count
```
— Get total count of available models
```
openrouter-pp-cli models list-user
```
— List models filtered by user provider preferences, [privacy settings](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/privacy/provi...

openrouter-auth — Manage openrouter auth

```
openrouter-pp-cli openrouter-auth create-keys-code
```
— Create an authorization code for the PKCE flow to generate a user-controlled API key
```
openrouter-pp-cli openrouter-auth exchange-code-for-apikey
```
— Exchange an authorization code from the PKCE flow for a user-controlled API key

providers — Provider information endpoints

```
openrouter-pp-cli providers
```
— List all providers

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

bash

openrouter-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which

resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code

means at least one match; exit code

means no confident match — fall back to

--help

or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Pre-flight gate before expensive cron

bash

openrouter budget check scan-pipeline --json

Returns exit 0 if under cap or 8 if over. Compose with && in bash to gate expensive jobs without half-execution.

Cost attribution for the week

bash

openrouter usage cost-by --group cron --since 7d --llm

Returns one row per cron name with total cost — answers 'which automated job is burning my OpenRouter budget'.

Shortlist tool-capable cheap deep-context models (with --select narrowing)

bash

openrouter models query "tools=true cost.completion<1 ctx>=64k" --agent --select id,context_length,pricing.completion

Local SQLite + dotted --select narrows ~400 models to a handful of fields. Agent context cost: ~150 tokens vs ~425KB raw.

Detect cost regression before credit-low alarm fires

bash

openrouter usage anomaly --since 24h --baseline 7d --llm

Flags per-model days exceeding 2σ over trailing 7-day mean. Daily cron catches runaway loops 1-3 days before /credits hits zero.

Pre-empt 429s by skipping degraded providers

bash

openrouter providers degraded --json

Returns {added, degraded, removed} arrays from set-diff vs prior snapshot. Pipe-feeds your router/suspension logic. Replaces reactive 429-and-learn with leading-indicator polling.

Auth Setup

Set

OPENROUTER_API_KEY

for per-call operations (creds, models, usage, generation lookup). For sub-key management (

keys list/create/delete

), set

OPENROUTER_MANAGEMENT_KEY

separately — OpenRouter's API splits these intentionally and this CLI honors the split. Both variables are read fresh per command; nothing is persisted to disk by default.

Run

openrouter-pp-cli doctor

to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add

--agent

to any command. Expands to:

--json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes

Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr
Filterable —
```
--select
```
keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:
bash
```
openrouter-pp-cli credits --agent --select id,name,status
```
Previewable —
```
--dry-run
```
shows the request without sending
Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag
Explicit retries — use
```
--idempotent
```
only when an already-existing create should count as success, and
```
--ignore-missing
```
only when a missing delete target should count as success

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

json

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse

.results

for data and

.meta.source

to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable

N results (live)

summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

openrouter-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
openrouter-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
openrouter-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at

~/.openrouter-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl

. They are never POSTed unless

OPENROUTER_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT

is set AND either

--send

is passed or

OPENROUTER_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true

. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts

--deliver <sink>

. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Sink	Effect
`stdout`	Default; write to stdout only
`file:<path>`	Atomically write output to `<path>` (tmp + rename)
`webhook:<url>`	POST the output body to the URL ( `application/json` or `application/x-ndjson` when `--compact` )

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

openrouter-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
openrouter-pp-cli --profile briefing credits
openrouter-pp-cli profile list --json
openrouter-pp-cli profile show briefing
openrouter-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults.

agent-context

lists all available profiles under

available_profiles

so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error (wrong arguments)
3	Resource not found
4	Authentication required
5	API error (upstream issue)
7	Rate limited (wait and retry)
10	Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse

$ARGUMENTS

Empty,
help
, or
--help
→ show
```
openrouter-pp-cli --help
```
output
Starts with
install
→ ends with
```
mcp
```
→ MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with
```
--agent
```
)

MCP Server Installation

Install the MCP binary from this CLI's published public-library entry or pre-built release, then register it:

bash

claude mcp add openrouter-pp-mcp -- openrouter-pp-mcp

Verify:

claude mcp list

Direct Use

Check if installed:
```
which openrouter-pp-cli
```
If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.

Execute with the

--agent

flag:

bash

openrouter-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent

If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help:
```
openrouter-pp-cli <command> --help
```
.

pp-openrouter

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

OpenRouter — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

When to Use This CLI

Unique Capabilities

Local state that compounds

Agent-native plumbing

Command Reference

Finding the right command

Recipes

Pre-flight gate before expensive cron

Cost attribution for the week

Shortlist tool-capable cheap deep-context models (with --select narrowing)

Detect cost regression before credit-low alarm fires

Pre-empt 429s by skipping degraded providers

Auth Setup

Agent Mode

Response envelope

Agent Feedback

Output Delivery

Named Profiles

Exit Codes

Argument Parsing

MCP Server Installation

Direct Use