freellmapi: run from source, auto-pull on boot, free-tier aggregator

decision Tue Jun 30 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) freellmapidev-serverai-gatewayfree-tierauto-startwindows

freellmapi: dev server from source, auto-pull on boot

What freellmapi is

tashfeenahmed/freellmapi is a 14,201-star OpenAI-compatible proxy that stacks the free tiers of 16 LLM providers behind one /v1 endpoint, totaling ~1.7B free tokens/month. Pure forward (not reverse-engineered), encrypted keys, smart routing with auto-failover.

Repo description: "OpenAI-compatible proxy that stacks the free tiers of 16 LLM providers (~1.7B tokens/month) behind one /v1 endpoint — plus any custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Smart routing, automatic failover, encrypted keys. Personal experimentation only."

Conceptually parallel to OmniRoute but with a tighter focus on the stacked-free-tier use case.

Decision

Same pattern as omniroute-dev-server-from-source-2026-06-30:

Fork tashfeenahmed/freellmapi to chirag127/freellmapi (canonical fork — duplicate freellmapi-1 deleted)
Clone to C:\D\oriz\repos\frk\freellmapi with upstream tracked
Startup script C:\D\oriz\scripts\start-freellmapi-dev.ps1:
- Fast-forward merges upstream/main
- npm install only when package-lock.json or package.json changed
- Launches npm run dev in a Windows Terminal tab titled "freellmapi Dev"
- Idempotent: skips if :3001 already in use
Auto-runs on Windows login via shell:startup shortcut
Manual trigger via desktop shortcut freellmapi Dev.lnk

Ports

Server: http://localhost:3001 (Hono backend per repo's .env.example default)
Client: http://localhost:5173 (Vite default; ships as part of npm run dev via concurrently)

The server is the OpenAI-compat endpoint (point AI tools at http://localhost:3001/v1). The client is the web dashboard.

No collision with OmniRoute (:20128) — both can run side by side.

Why this complements OmniRoute (not replaces it)

Capability	OmniRoute	freellmapi
Free providers stacked	50+	16 (curated)
Monthly free budget	varies	~1.7B tokens aggregated
Routing strategies	17	smart routing + failover
OpenAI-compat endpoint	yes	yes
Open source	partially	yes (14K stars)
Dashboard	full multi-panel	minimal
Compression	9-engine pipeline	none
Compatible with MCP/A2A	yes	no

Strategic role:

OmniRoute = primary daily-driver gateway with rich routing + compression + MCP
freellmapi = fallback when OmniRoute providers exhaust quota OR when a specific user wants a smaller, simpler gateway

Both pointing at the same downstream free tiers means cross-redundancy: if OmniRoute throttles, freellmapi may still have capacity on the same upstream provider via its independent routing.

Why not BYOK-only or paid

freellmapi explicitly stacks free tiers — passes the free-tier-with-cost-controls bar. No card-on-file required.

Caveats

freellmapi's own README says "Personal experimentation only" — apply normal don't-overload-free-tiers hygiene
Some of the 16 upstream providers freellmapi targets will rate-limit or shut down their free tiers over time; pair with periodic upstream review
License is permissive but the README cautions against commercial use; respect the upstream stance

Path note

Same as OmniRoute: the launcher uses absolute path to npm.cmd (C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.cmd) because wt-spawned shells don't reliably inherit the User PATH. See rules/development/windows-shortcut-absolute-binary-paths.