What is duel-agents?

Duel Agents is a routing layer for AI coding tools that sends your prompts to multiple AI models at once and picks the cheapest response that still meets a quality bar. The idea is that you do not always need the most expensive model for every task, and a system that compares answers across models can save money without noticeably reducing quality. This repository provides the client-side tools: an installer, a TypeScript SDK, and plugins for popular AI coding environments. All requests route through the Duel Agents hosted service at duelagents.com, which requires a paid subscription and an API key from their dashboard. You cannot use your own Anthropic or OpenAI keys directly with these integrations. The installer supports four tools: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, and OpenClaw. Running one command sets up whichever tools you want. For Cursor, the setup writes your Duel API key to the project environment and points Cursor at the Duel proxy URL instead of the default AI provider. For Codex CLI and OpenClaw, it patches configuration files so those tools send requests to the Duel endpoint. For Claude Code, a plugin is installed directly into the Claude Code tool. For developers who want to build their own tools on top of the service, the SDK provides an API client that accepts both OpenAI-style and Anthropic-style request formats. You use the model name "duel-auto" and the service handles selecting and comparing underlying models. Any tool that supports a custom OpenAI-compatible base URL can also connect by pointing it at the Duel proxy endpoint. The codebase is organized into three packages: a core validation and configuration layer, the installer CLI, and the API SDK. It is released under the MIT license. The README does not describe the internal model comparison algorithm or pricing in detail beyond pointing to the dashboard.