Modelglass Cost-Aware Router
A VS Code extension that routes a task to the cheapest LLM that clears a
confirmed benchmark bar, using the live Modelglass
pricing and capability feed.
What it does
- Run Modelglass: Route Task to Cheapest Capable Model from the Command Palette.
- Describe what you're about to do; the extension infers a starting task type
(coding / writing / general) from your active file's language — always
overridable.
- It fetches the current LLM pricing/capability feed and recommends the
cheapest model that clears the relevant quality bar — coding tasks are
ranked by SWE-bench Verified, writing/general tasks by
instruction-following rating.
Install
From the Marketplace (once published): search Modelglass Cost-Aware
Router in VS Code's Extensions view, or run:
code --install-extension modelglass.cost-aware-router
From a .vsix file directly (e.g. for testing a pre-release build):
code --install-extension path/to/cost-aware-router-0.1.0.vsix
First run
No account or setup needed: the extension silently provisions its own free
Modelglass API key the first time you run a command, stored in VS Code's
SecretStorage — never in a settings file or anything synced elsewhere.
Look in the Modelglass output channel (View → Output) to confirm it
provisioned successfully. If the API is unreachable, it offers to retry or
let you enter a key manually instead.
Commands
| Command |
What it does |
| Modelglass: Route Task to Cheapest Capable Model |
Prompts for a task description, then recommends the cheapest LLM that clears the relevant quality bar for it. |
| Modelglass: Compare Two Models |
Grounded migration diff between two models — pick a "from" model, then a "to" model (or the feed's own suggested competitors). Reports the unit-matched price delta and price stability (from the append-only price history), a per-dimension capability diff, billing-unit change warnings, and lifecycle checks, in the Modelglass Output panel. Works across image/llm/video/audio, and on every plan tier including Free. |
| Modelglass: Set API Key |
Enter an existing Modelglass API key, or clear the stored one (forcing re-provisioning on next use). |
Scope (v1 / MVP)
- Route Task is LLM routing only (coding + writing/general) — no image,
video, or audio modality there. Compare Two Models is cross-modality
(image/llm/video/audio all resolve) — a migration diff doesn't need to pick
a "best" model the way routing does, so there's no reason to scope it down.
- Single-subtask routing — "what should I use for this next chunk of work,"
once per invocation. The CLI's full multi-subtask task/JSON-file/cost-table
view is not reproduced here.
- No escalation/usage-logging (the CLI's
report command's feature set) — out
of scope for this extension.
Relationship to cost-aware-vscode-router
The core selection logic (src/lib.ts) is vendored from
modelglass-router-examples/cost-aware-vscode-router/src/lib.ts —
same pricing/quality-bar logic, same tests. There's no published shared
package to depend on instead, so this is a deliberate copy, kept in sync by
hand. requireApiKey() (that repo's CLI-only key handling, which calls
process.exit(1) on failure — not safe inside an Extension Host) is replaced
entirely by src/auth.ts.
Development
npm install
npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run build # bundles src/extension.ts -> dist/extension.cjs via esbuild
npm run watch # same, rebuilding on change
npm run package # builds + bundles a .vsix via vsce
Press F5 in VS Code (with this folder open) to launch an Extension
Development Host for manual testing.
License
MIT — see LICENSE. Consistent with modelglass-router-examples
(SCO-170) — this extension is meant to be installed, read, and adapted.
