OpenRouter Compliance Review

Overview

OpenRouter is a proxy that routes requests to upstream providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.). Compliance depends on both OpenRouter's data handling and the selected provider's policies. Key considerations: data transit through OpenRouter infrastructure, provider-specific data retention, model selection for regulated data, and audit trail requirements.

Prerequisites

• An OpenRouter API key (sk-or-v1-...) exported as OPENROUTER_API_KEY — see the openrouter-install-auth skill for setup
• Python 3.8+ with the OpenAI SDK for provider-pinned requests and the automated checker in the references
• curl and jq to run the Compliance Audit Script
• An existing OpenRouter integration to review — the audit script scans its source tree for hardcoded sk-or-v1- keys
• Knowledge of which regimes apply (SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA) and how your data is classified

Instructions

1. Work through the four areas of the Compliance Checklist — data_handling, access_control, audit_trail, and provider_selection — recording pass/fail per item.
2. Classify each workload with the Data Classification Matrix (Public → Internal → Confidential → Restricted/PHI) to determine allowed providers and required controls.
3. Pin regulated traffic per Provider Routing for Compliance: set provider.order plus allow_fallbacks: False, then verify response.model confirms the approved provider actually served the request.
4. For data-sovereignty requirements, configure BYOK per BYOK for Data Sovereignty so inference runs on your own provider account and OpenRouter only routes.
5. Run the Compliance Audit Script: key label/limit check via GET /api/v1/auth/key, a free-tier warning (free tier is unsuitable for regulated data), and the hardcoded-key scan.
6. Document the data flow for auditors — client → OpenRouter (routing) → provider (inference) — per Enterprise Considerations.

Compliance Checklist

COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST = {
    "data_handling": [
        "Verify OpenRouter does NOT train on your data (confirmed in their privacy policy)",
        "Confirm provider-level data policies (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google each differ)",
        "Document data flow: your app -> OpenRouter -> provider -> OpenRouter -> your app",
        "Identify if prompts contain PII, PHI, or regulated data",
        "Implement PII redaction before sending to API",
    ],
    "access_control": [
        "Use per-service API keys (not shared keys)",
        "Set credit limits per key to isolate blast radius",
        "Rotate keys on a 90-day schedule",
        "Store keys in secrets manager (not .env files in repos)",
        "Enable management keys for programmatic key provisioning",
    ],
    "audit_trail": [
        "Log every API call with generation_id, model, user_id, cost",
        "Hash prompts (SHA-256) instead of logging raw content",
        "Retain audit logs per regulation (90d operational, 7yr financial)",
        "Ship logs to append-only storage (S3, immutable DB)",
    ],
    "provider_selection": [
        "Route regulated data only to compliant providers",
        "Use provider routing to exclude non-compliant providers",
        "Document which models are approved for which data classifications",
        "Test that fallback routing doesn't route to unapproved providers",
    ],
}

Provider Routing for Compliance

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["OPENROUTER_API_KEY"],
    default_headers={"HTTP-Referer": "https://my-app.com", "X-Title": "my-app"},
)

# Route ONLY to specific providers (e.g., Anthropic for SOC2)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Analyze this contract..."}],
    max_tokens=2048,
    extra_body={
        "provider": {
            "order": ["Anthropic"],        # Only Anthropic's infrastructure
            "allow_fallbacks": False,       # Do NOT fall back to other providers
        },
    },
)

# Verify which provider actually served the request
print(f"Served by: {response.model}")  # Should match anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet

Data Classification Matrix

BYOK for Data Sovereignty

# Bring Your Own Key -- requests go directly to provider
# OpenRouter acts as router only; data doesn't persist on OpenRouter
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="openai/gpt-4o",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Process this..."}],
    max_tokens=1024,
    extra_body={
        "provider": {
            "order": ["OpenAI"],
            "allow_fallbacks": False,
        },
    },
    # With BYOK, configure your provider key in OpenRouter dashboard
    # Data flows: your app -> OpenRouter (routing only) -> OpenAI (your account)
)

Compliance Audit Script

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== OpenRouter Compliance Audit ==="

# 1. Verify API key has credit limit set
echo "1. Key configuration:"
curl -s https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/auth/key \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" | \
  jq '{label: .data.label, limit: .data.limit, is_free_tier: .data.is_free_tier}'

# 2. Check if using free tier (not suitable for regulated data)
IS_FREE=$(curl -s https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/auth/key \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" | jq -r '.data.is_free_tier')
[ "$IS_FREE" = "true" ] && echo "WARNING: Free tier. Not suitable for regulated data."

# 3. Scan for hardcoded keys in source
FOUND=$(grep -r "sk-or-v1-" --include="*.py" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v node_modules | wc -l)
echo "Hardcoded keys found: $FOUND"

Output

• A pass/fail/warn compliance report from the automated checker in the references, one line per control (API key storage, HTTPS enforcement, max_tokens, error handling, audit logging)
• Key-configuration JSON (label, limit, is_free_tier) plus a free-tier warning and a count of hardcoded keys found in source, from the Compliance Audit Script
• A provider-pinned client configuration (provider.order + allow_fallbacks: False) that cannot route regulated data to unapproved providers
• A filled-in markdown compliance checklist (template in the references) covering security, data privacy, reliability, observability, and cost controls

Examples

Running run_compliance_review() from the references against a healthy integration:

Compliance: 5/5 passed, 0 failed, 0 warnings
  [OK] api_key_storage: Key loaded from environment variable
  [OK] https_enforcement: HTTPS enforced
  [OK] max_tokens: max_tokens set to 500
  [OK] error_handling: Error handling present
  [OK] audit_logging: Audit logging configured

Any [FAIL] line maps to a checklist item above — fix it and re-run until clean. More worked examples: references/examples.md.

Error Handling

Enterprise Considerations

• OpenRouter does not train on API data, but upstream providers may have different terms for API vs consumer use
• Use provider.order + allow_fallbacks: false to guarantee data only flows to approved providers
• BYOK eliminates OpenRouter as a data processor for inference (routing metadata still transits)
• Document the data flow diagram for auditors: client -> OpenRouter (routing) -> provider (inference)
• Implement client-side PII redaction as defense-in-depth
• Consider self-hosted or VPC deployments for restricted/PHI data

References

• Examples | Errors
• Privacy Policy | Provider Routing