Migrate to OpenRouter from direct provider APIs or upgrade between SDK/model versions. Triggers: 'openrouter migrate', 'openrouter upgrade', 'switch to openrouter', 'migrate from openai to openrouter'.
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Migrate to OpenRouter from direct provider APIs or upgrade between SDK/model versions. Triggers: 'openrouter migrate', 'openrouter upgrade', 'switch to openrouter', 'migrate from openai to openrouter'.
Designed for Claude Code, also compatible with Codex and OpenClaw
OpenRouter Upgrade & Migration
Current State
!npm list openai 2>/dev/null | head -5
!pip show openai 2>/dev/null | head -5
Overview
Migrating to OpenRouter from a direct provider API (OpenAI, Anthropic) is minimal: change base_url and api_key, add two headers. The OpenAI SDK works natively with OpenRouter. This skill covers migrating from direct APIs, switching between models, upgrading SDK versions, and running comparison tests.
Prerequisites
An existing direct OpenAI or Anthropic integration to migrate — the Current State block above checks your installed openai SDK via npm list openai / pip show openai
An OpenRouter API key (sk-or-v1-...) exported as OPENROUTER_API_KEY — see the openrouter-install-auth skill for setup
Python 3.8+ or Node.js 18+ with the OpenAI SDK (Anthropic SDK users switch to the OpenAI SDK as part of the migration)
The old provider key (OPENAI_API_KEY / ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) kept active during migration for comparison tests and quick rollback
Instructions
Confirm your installed SDK versions from the Current State output at the top of this skill.
Apply the 3-line change per Migration from Direct OpenAI, Migration from Direct Anthropic, or TypeScript Migration: swap base_url to https://openrouter.ai/api/v1, switch to OPENROUTER_API_KEY, and add the HTTP-Referer / X-Title headers. Anthropic migrations also change response parsing to .choices[0].message.content.
Prefix every model ID with its provider per the Model ID Migration Map (e.g. gpt-4o → openai/gpt-4o).
Work through the Migration Checklist — config, code, testing, and operations items — before flipping traffic.
Run the Comparison Test Script on your critical prompts (temperature=0) to compare content, tokens, and latency against the old backend.
Roll out gradually with the Feature Flag Migration pattern (USE_OPENROUTER env var plus get_model_id mapping), moving 10% → 50% → 100%.
Watch for post-migration failures (401, model_not_found, response-format drift, +50–100ms latency) per the Error Handling table.
