Concepts

MCP

Drive BitRouter from any MCP client — the origin MCP server exposing complete, list_models, and status as tools onto the same local endpoint.

MCP is a second way to drive BitRouter, parallel to the CLI. Where the CLI is a command-line surface onto the local daemon, the MCP server is a tool surface onto the same endpoint — so any MCP client (Claude, Cursor, or your own agent) can talk to BitRouter as a set of tools instead of shelling out.

The origin MCP server

bitrouter mcp serve exposes BitRouter itself as an origin MCP server — a small, fixed set of tools that front the local daemon at 127.0.0.1:4356:

  • complete — run a completion through the router, with all the same routing, fallback, and policy behavior as the HTTP API.
  • list_models — enumerate the models your account or keys can reach.
  • status — report the daemon's health and configuration.
bitrouter mcp serve                    # stdio → local daemon at 127.0.0.1:4356
bitrouter mcp install --client claude  # print the mcpServers config block to paste

Add --transport http to target the multi-tenant cloud backend instead of the local daemon.

Not the MCP gateway

Keep two BitRouter-and-MCP roles distinct:

  • This page — the origin server. BitRouter is the tool. A client calls complete / list_models / status to drive the router.
  • The MCP gateway. BitRouter sits in front of your own MCP servers, proxying their tools to agents with auth, access control, and identity forwarding. There BitRouter is the middle, not the endpoint.

One is how you reach BitRouter; the other is how BitRouter reaches your tools. See Tools for the gateway, and Agent Skill for the third way an agent drives BitRouter.

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