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Set up OpenRouter

Last validated:

Aperture by Tailscale is currently in alpha.

Configure an OpenRouter provider in Aperture so your team can access models from multiple LLM providers through a single API. OpenRouter aggregates models from providers like Google, Meta, and others, including open-source models.

Aperture routes requests based on the model name, not the LLM client. Any LLM client configured to use Aperture can access any provider your admin has set up. Refer to the provider compatibility reference for the full list of supported providers and API formats.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need:

Configure the provider

Add OpenRouter as a provider in your Aperture configuration:

{
  "providers": {
    "openrouter": {
      "baseurl": "https://openrouter.ai/api/",
      "apikey": "<your-openrouter-key>",
      "models": [
        "qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
        "google/gemini-2.5-pro-preview",
        "x-ai/grok-code-fast-1"
      ]
    }
  }
}

OpenRouter uses OpenAI-compatible defaults (bearer authorization, openai_chat), so no compatibility flags or authorization overrides are needed. OpenRouter does not support the Responses API (openai_responses), only the chat completions API. This makes OpenRouter useful if you want to access models from multiple providers without configuring each one separately in Aperture.

Model names on OpenRouter use a provider/model prefix format. Browse the OpenRouter model directory to find available model names. Refer to the provider compatibility reference for the full list of flags.

After configuring the provider:

  1. Grant model access to the users or groups that need these models.
  2. Set up LLM clients to connect coding tools through Aperture.

Verify the provider

  1. Open the Aperture dashboard and confirm the provider appears with the expected models.

  2. Send a test request through a connected coding tool (such as Claude Code or Cursor), or use curl:

    curl http://<aperture-address>/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "<model-name>", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "hello"}]}'

    Replace <aperture-address> with your Aperture instance address and <model-name> with one of the models you configured for this provider.

  3. Check the Aperture dashboard session list for a new entry. The session shows the model name, token counts, and timestamp.

If the request fails, refer to the Aperture troubleshooting guide.