mcp-bench-router

MCP server that delegates design tasks to whichever model currently tops designarena.ai's crowdsourced leaderboard, via OpenRouter.

Why?

AI coding assistants produce mediocre frontend/design output. designarena.ai maintains a live leaderboard of the best design models, updated every 2 hours. This MCP server lets Claude (or any MCP client) automatically route design tasks to the current best model.

Tools

Tool	Description
get_best_design_model	Get the current #1 design model, optionally by category
get_leaderboard	Browse full rankings with category filter and pagination
query_design_model	Send a prompt to the best available model via OpenRouter
query_specific_model	Send a prompt to a specific model via OpenRouter

Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• An OpenRouter API key (required for query_design_model and query_specific_model)

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add mcp-bench-router -s user -e OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-... -- npx -y mcp-bench-router

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-bench-router": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-bench-router"],
      "env": {
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "sk-or-..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-bench-router": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-bench-router"],
      "env": {
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "sk-or-..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-... npx -y mcp-bench-router

From source

git clone https://github.com/K1ta141k/mcp-bench-router.git
cd mcp-bench-router
npm install
npm run build

Categories

Filter by design category: allcategories, website, gamedev, 3d, dataviz, uicomponent, image, logo, svg, video, imagetoimage, slides, graphicdesign, tts.

Usage Examples

Check who's #1:

"Use get_best_design_model to see the current top design model"

Browse rankings:

"Show me the top 20 design models for websites"

Generate a design:

"Use query_design_model to create a landing page for a SaaS product"

Use a specific model:

"Use query_specific_model with claude-sonnet-4-5 to design a dashboard"

How It Works

1. Fetches live rankings from designarena.ai's API (cached 2hr)
2. Maps arena model names to OpenRouter IDs (static + dynamic + fuzzy matching)
3. Skips codename/unreleased models and picks the best available one
4. Routes the prompt through OpenRouter's API

License

MIT