Configuration

The standalone RouteKit daemon reads one strict canonical router document:

~/.config/routekit/router.yaml

Credentials stay outside YAML. Unknown top-level fields, unknown provider-policy fields, duplicate policy rules, inline credential fields, and malformed model IDs fail validation.

Use the CLI to create, inspect, and replace the document:

routekit config init
routekit config init --provider anthropic
routekit config init --provider bedrock \
  --default-model bedrock/APPROVED_MODEL_OR_INFERENCE_PROFILE_ID
routekit config init --empty
routekit config path
routekit config show
routekit config edit
routekit config import --from <complete-router.yaml>

The no-flag form remains the backward-compatible OpenAI starter. Use routekit setup for interactive, multi-route onboarding; it authenticates and discovers selected API providers before writing a fresh configuration, enrolls selected subscriptions, and offers a live default-model picker.

config init --provider accepts openai, anthropic, openrouter, or bedrock. --default-model requires --provider, must use the same namespace, and is mandatory for Bedrock. config init --empty creates a provider-free daemon so the first transactional Codex or Claude Code enrollment can enable its provider without a temporary API route.

config import validates and atomically replaces the complete document. It does not merge the imported file with the current configuration.

Complete example

providers:
  openai: {}
  openrouter: {}
  claude-code:
    strategy: capacity_weighted
    switchThreshold: 0.9
    probeIntervalMs: 60000
    fallbackCooldownSeconds: 30

defaultModel: openai/gpt-5.5

modelPolicy:
  allow:
    - openai/gpt-*
    - openrouter/anthropic/*
    - claude-code/*
  deny:
    - openai/*-preview

modelAliases:
  fast: openai/gpt-5.5

leaderboard:
  liveLimit: 5000
  liveTtlHours: 72
  durable: true
  durableRetentionDays: 14

providers

providers is required and may be empty while preparing a daemon. RouteKit can start that empty configuration specifically for subscription bootstrap. Public first-launch provider IDs are:

Every configured provider must authenticate and complete live model discovery. Startup fails rather than silently omitting a broken provider. Retained registry implementations outside this table are non-contractual and do not expand the public support surface.

Each configured provider accepts this strict policy object:

The pool fields matter primarily for subscription providers. Model discovery publishes the union of healthy accounts, but requests use only an eligible account that advertised the requested model. Pool rotation never crosses into another provider or billing class.

defaultModel

defaultModel is optional and must be a canonical provider/native-model ID owned by a configured provider. The model must also survive live discovery and modelPolicy; otherwise startup fails.

When a client omits its model, RouteKit selects defaultModel, or the first effective live model when no default is configured. An explicit unknown or unnamespaced model is an error and never falls through to the default.

modelPolicy

modelPolicy filters the catalog after every configured provider authenticates and discovers models, but before aliases and the default are finalized.

modelPolicy:
  allow:
    - openai/gpt-*
    - openrouter/anthropic/*
  deny:
    - openrouter/*/preview

Rules are anchored to the complete canonical ID. Only * is special; it matches zero or more characters, including /. Every other character is literal. Each rule must contain a supported provider namespace and a nonempty model portion.

• An omitted or empty allow list permits every discovered model.
• A nonempty allow list narrows the catalog.
• deny then removes matches and always wins.
• Duplicate rules are invalid.

Excluded models disappear from listings, provider status, native pickers, aliases, defaults, and request routing.

modelAliases

Aliases provide short client-facing names while preserving one canonical target:

modelAliases:
  fast: openai/gpt-5.5

Alias keys cannot contain /. Targets must be canonical namespaced IDs owned by configured providers and must survive policy filtering. Keep canonical IDs in durable configuration when possible; an alias never creates fallback.

reasoningCapabilities

The optional reasoningCapabilities map overrides discovered reasoning metadata for an exact canonical model ID. It is intended for operators who must correct or supplement provider discovery, not for ordinary setup.

Each entry can declare status, effort IDs and labels, defaultEffort, token budget bounds, adaptive, and a provider-specific wireShape. Effort IDs must be unique, a declared default must appear in the effort list, and the minimum budget cannot exceed the maximum. Explicit configuration has precedence over discovered metadata.

leaderboard

The optional leaderboard block controls bounded call attribution:

Durable hourly rollups are stored at $ROUTEKIT_HOME/usage/leaderboard-rollups.v1.json with mode 0600. They do not contain prompts, response bodies, or credentials.

CLI versus embedded SDK configuration

The singleton CLI daemon does not vary policy by the caller's working directory. --config and ROUTEKIT_CONFIG are available only for documented recovery/migration paths, not ordinary daemon scoping. Import a complete project document explicitly when needed:

routekit config import --from .routekit/router.yaml

The embeddable @velum-labs/routekit-config SDK has a different layered lookup:

explicit config path > ROUTEKIT_CONFIG > nearest project .routekit/router.yaml > global config

Without an override, project and global SDK files are layered. Provider objects merge by provider. modelPolicy merges by field, so a project allow replaces global allow, project deny replaces global deny, and omitted fields inherit.

Credential and service environment

Router YAML cannot contain fields such as apiKey, token, authorization, accessToken, refreshToken, or clientSecret. API providers read their registry-defined environment. Subscription credentials live in private account files under $ROUTEKIT_HOME/subscriptions.

For a supervised daemon, RouteKit persists only allowlisted provider environment to $ROUTEKIT_HOME/env/daemon.env with mode 0600. Restart or reinstall the service after changing provider environment variables. Read Privacy and Routes and billing before exposing a shared gateway.