What is codex-router?

Codex Router lets you use AI models from other companies, such as Anthropic, Kimi, DeepSeek, and xAI, inside AI desktop apps that normally only work with their own built in models. It does this by running a small local program on your own computer that sits between the app and these outside models, keeping your login credentials for each provider separate and isolated from one another. It currently supports the Codex app and command line tool as a stable target, with experimental support for Claude Desktop and the Cursor editor. Installing support for one app does not change the settings of another, and the project is an independent community effort not affiliated with any of the companies whose models it connects to. Setup is meant to be guided rather than manual. You can either paste a prepared instruction into an AI coding agent so it installs everything for you, or run a provided install script for macOS, Linux, or Windows. The installer walks you through choosing which providers to connect, detects logins you already have, lets you sign in to some providers directly, and asks for API keys through a hidden terminal prompt rather than displaying them on screen. It does not make any billed test request unless you specifically ask it to. Using it requires the target app itself, a recent version of Node.js, either the uv tool or Python with a virtual environment, and Git. Once connected, supported models such as different Kimi, DeepSeek, Grok, and Claude versions appear in the app's own model picker, each tied to its own authentication method, which may be an existing account login or a separately billed API key. Codex Router adds only a small, clearly marked block to the app's configuration file so it can find the router, while leaving your existing accounts, profiles, and settings untouched. On macOS there is also an optional menu bar control panel that shows usage and health information for whichever provider you are actively using. Because Codex Router runs entirely on your own machine and stores keys locally with restricted file permissions, it is aimed at people comfortable running command line tools and installers, rather than a fully hosted service.