9router: Unlimited Free AI Coding for Every Editor

The Problem

Every AI coding tool has the same constraints:

• Rate limits — hit them, wait hours
• Cost — $20-50/mo per tool adds up
• Lock-in — each editor wants its own subscription
• No fallback — one provider down = you're blocked

The Solution: 9router

A universal LLM router that sits between your editor and 40+ free providers:

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌────────────────────────┐
│   Editor    │────▶│   9router   │────▶│  40+ Free Providers    │
│ (Cursor,    │     │  (local)    │     │  • Claude (free tier)  │
│  Copilot,   │     │             │     │  • GPT-4o-mini (free)  │
│  Cline,     │     │  • Auto     │     │  • Gemini (free tier)  │
│  Codex,     │     │    fallback │     │  • DeepSeek (free)     │
│  etc.)      │     │  • RTK -40% │     │  • Ollama (local)      │
└─────────────┘     │  • No code  │     │  • Groq (free tier)    │
                    │    changes  │     │  • Together.ai (free)  │
                    └─────────────┘     └────────────────────────┘

How It Works

1. Universal Adapter Pattern

Each editor speaks its own protocol. 9router normalizes them:

// src/adapters/base.ts
export interface LLMAdapter {
  name: string;
  complete(request: CompletionRequest): Promise<CompletionResponse>;
  stream(request: CompletionRequest): AsyncIterable<Chunk>;
  models(): Promise<Model[]>;
}

// Adapters for: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Cline, Copilot, Antigravity, Continue, etc.

2. Provider Pool with Auto-Fallback

// src/providers/pool.ts
export class ProviderPool {
  private providers: Provider[] = [
    { name: 'claude-free', priority: 1, freeTier: true },
    { name: 'gemini-free', priority: 2, freeTier: true },
    { name: 'deepseek-free', priority: 3, freeTier: true },
    { name: 'groq-free', priority: 4, freeTier: true },
    { name: 'ollama-local', priority: 5, freeTier: true, local: true },
    // ... 35 more
  ];

  async complete(request: CompletionRequest): Promise<CompletionResponse> {
    for (const provider of this.providers.sort((a, b) => a.priority - b.priority)) {
      if (await this.isHealthy(provider)) {
        try {
          return await provider.complete(request);
        } catch (e) {
          this.markUnhealthy(provider);
          continue; // auto-fallback
        }
      }
    }
    throw new Error('All providers exhausted');
  }
}

3. Request Token Knapsack (RTK) — 40% Token Reduction

Compresses context before sending:

// src/optimization/rtk.ts
export function compressContext(messages: Message[], maxTokens: number): Message[] {
  // 1. Remove redundant system prompts
  // 2. Summarize old conversation turns
  // 3. Drop low-importance files (config, locks, generated)
  // 4. Keep only relevant code sections via embedding similarity
  // 5. Reconstruct minimal viable context
  
  return optimizedMessages; // ~60% of original tokens
}

Configuration

One file, works everywhere:

# ~/.9router/config.yaml
providers:
  - name: claude-free
    api_key: ${CLAUDE_API_KEY}
    models: [claude-3-5-sonnet, claude-3-haiku]
  - name: gemini-free
    api_key: ${GEMINI_API_KEY}
    models: [gemini-1.5-flash, gemini-1.5-pro]
  - name: ollama
    endpoint: http://localhost:11434
    models: [llama3.2, codellama, mistral]

routing:
  strategy: priority-fallback
  rtk_enabled: true
  rtk_target_reduction: 0.4

editors:
  - cursor
  - cline
  - copilot
  - codex

Supported Editors (Zero Code Changes)

| Editor | Integration Method | |--------|-------------------| | Cursor | Built-in OpenAI-compatible endpoint | | Cline | VS Code LM API proxy | | Copilot | GitHub Copilot Chat proxy | | Codex | OpenAI API compatible | | Claude Code | Anthropic API compatible | | Continue | Custom provider config | | Antigravity | OpenAI compatible | | Windsurf | OpenAI compatible | | Zed | OpenAI compatible |

Key Takeaways

• One router replaces 10+ individual subscriptions
• Auto-fallback means zero downtime when providers have issues
• RTK compression saves 40% tokens = 2.5x more context per request
• Local Ollama integration = truly unlimited free coding
• Works with every major AI editor without plugin development

Code References

• 9router Repo

Further Reading

• LLM Router Pattern
• Token Optimization Techniques
• Ollama Local Models
• Free LLM Provider Comparison

Conclusion

9router eliminated my AI coding costs entirely. I went from $80/mo across Cursor + Copilot + Claude Code to $0, with better reliability (auto-fallback) and more context (RTK). The router runs locally, adds ~50ms latency, and has saved me hundreds of hours of "rate limit exceeded" waits. If you code with AI daily, this is the single highest-ROI tool you can add.