Open source · Search is GA · Code & Design in preview

Great coding AI shouldn't be a privilege you rent.

Most of what makes a coding agent good isn't the model — it's the tooling around it. So we build that tooling as open-source engines anyone can use, and price the hosted surfaces to fund the work. Never to lock you in.

Open source · MIT · Token-lean by design · BYOK · metered, no lock-in
github.com/aptrouter MIT
blastguard★ 4.2k
Structure-aware code understanding — fewer tokens, fewer breaks.
research-mcp★ 3.1k
Grounds decisions in real, cited sources — not stale model memory.
design-mcp★ 2.4k
Turns "is this UI any good?" into an objective pass / fail.
3 engines, open. More on the way.
~74 tokens / result
vs ~480 for a scraped page
0 fabricated citations
grounded by architecture
MIT · BYOK
metered, no lock-in
Open source, in the wild
blastguard 4.2k research-mcp 3.1k design-mcp 2.4k
★ 9.7k stars · MIT
The bet

The model is becoming a commodity. The tooling around it isn't. Structure-aware edits, grounded research, objective quality gates — that's where coding agents win or lose. So we build it as open source and give it away, because a better-tooled field beats a bigger moat.

— the team at aptrouter
Open source

Three engines today. Many more coming.

Each is useful on its own and pushes the whole field forward — not just our product. They compose into /code, but the engines are the gift, not a wall around it.

blastguardMIT

Structure-aware code understanding — fewer tokens, fewer breaks.

research-mcpMIT

Grounds decisions in real, cited sources — not stale model memory.

View on GitHub → powers Search
design-mcpMIT

Turns "is this UI any good?" into an objective pass / fail.

View on GitHub → powers Design
More engines in the works — determinism and token-thrift, open by default.
Hosted surfaces

The products that fund the mission.

Cheap, metered, BYOK. The paid surfaces pay for the open work — and they're built on the very same engines, so nothing is hidden.

By the numbers

Measured, not marketed.

Determinism and token-thrift everywhere, so the cost of great coding keeps falling. Every figure here is reproducible against the live API.

Provably cited
0

fabricated citations by architecture — every quote is extracted verbatim from a fetched source.

Token-lean
~74

tokens per result vs ~480 for a typical scraped page your agent would otherwise pay to read.

Fast
<10ms

single-digit p99 on cached retrieval, measured at the edge in us-east and eu-west.

Pricing

Priced to fund the mission — not to trap you.

Usage-metered, BYOK, cancel anytime. 1 credit per /v1/search call against a monthly ceiling. The revenue keeps the engines open and free.

See pricing →
Search · usage-metered
$5/ 1,000 cited results

Indicative — final unit pricing confirmed at GA billing launch.

  • Open-source engines, free forever
  • Bounded free tier — no card to evaluate
  • BYOK · cancel anytime, no lock-in
FAQ

Common questions.

What is aptrouter?
aptrouter is open-source tooling and hosted APIs that make AI coding agents cheaper and more reliable. The engines — blastguard, research-mcp and design-mcp — are free and MIT-licensed; the hosted surfaces Search, Code and Design fund the open work without locking you in.
What are blastguard, research-mcp and design-mcp?
They're our open-source engines. blastguard gives an agent structural code understanding instead of blind grepping; research-mcp grounds decisions in real, cited sources; design-mcp turns "is this UI any good?" into an objective pass or fail. Each is useful on its own, and they compose into the /code agent.
Is aptrouter really open source?
Yes. The engines are MIT-licensed and free forever. They work standalone and are a gift to the ecosystem, not a wall around the product — more engines are on the way.
How much does Search cost?
Search is usage-metered at roughly $5 per 1,000 cited results — 1 credit per /v1/search call against a monthly ceiling you set. There's a bounded free tier with no card required, it's BYOK, and you can cancel anytime.
Do you lock me in or train on my code?
No. Pricing is usage-metered and BYOK, billing runs through the Stripe customer portal, and you can cancel anytime. The revenue funds the open-source work; it never traps you.

Make great coding cheap. Build it in the open.