Zero-Cost Coworker Setup: OpenRouter Free Models + Local LFM2.5

Melvin Vivas · X post · 2026-08-26 · Open on X

Topics: AI Agents, Tool Use & MCP, LLMOps, Deployment & Monitoring · Level: beginner

Summary

Shows how to run the Coworker agent app for free. It combines free models from OpenRouter with local models such as Liquid AI's LFM2.5-2.6B running on your own machine.

Key points

• OpenRouter offers free models that agent apps can call.
• Small local models such as LFM2.5-2.6B run on your own machine with no API cost.
• Mixing free cloud models and local models lets you run Coworker at zero cost.
• The creator plans to tune this setup for work use.

Resources mentioned

• OpenRouter · tool · openrouter.ai · free
  A single OpenAI-compatible API that routes requests to hundreds of models from many providers, with one bill and model fallbacks.
  Also in: Customizing Your Coding Setup with Pi Coding Agent Extensions (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), The Jev model is now on OpenRouter (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Kev-4B model, an alternative to Jev, now available on OpenRouter (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Space Bunny Alpha: stealth 1M-context flash model on OpenRouter (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 42 more
• Liquid AI (@liquidai) on X · website · x.com · free
  An AI company that builds efficient foundation models. The quoted post shows its PII handling working on Japanese text.
  Also in: Zero-Shot Prompt Routing with Liquid AI's LFM 2.5-Encoder-350M (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Liquid AI LFM 2.5 Encoder: a CPU-friendly encoder model (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Fine-tuning Liquid AI LFM2/LFM2.5 MoE models with the new Halo framework (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Liquid AI's LFM2-Longevity models for aging-data analysis (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 19 more
• LFM2.5-2.6B · tool · huggingface.co · free
  Liquid AI's small language model, which can be paired with the LFM2.5-VL-3B vision model.
  Also in: Coworker: Open-Source Work Agent That Runs on Small Local Models (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Coworker with Liquid AI LFM2.5-2.6B via LM Studio on a Mac (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Coworker: A Subscription-Free AI Agent on Local LFM2.5-2.6B (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Run Your Hermes Agent on Free LFM2.5-2.6B via OpenRouter (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 9 more
• Coworker (donvito/coworker) · repo · github.com · free
  The creator's local-first desktop app where you pick an AI coworker and have it produce work such as invoices as finished PDFs.
  Also in: Claude Opus 5.5 for Video Making: Creator's Showcase Thread (Coworker) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Coworker: free open-source desktop AI coworker app (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Coworker: Open-Source Desktop App for AI Agents (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Using Devin AI to Test the Coworker Desktop App on Windows (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 38 more

Try this

• Set up Coworker with free OpenRouter models and a local LFM2.5-2.6B model for a zero-cost agent.