panel-review MCP server — deployment

Adversarial multi-model review via OpenRouter, callable from Claude as a custom connector.

Tested before packaging: server starts, serves /mcp over streamable-http, all five tools register, and the health check reports cleanly when the API key is absent rather than crashing.

Files

Related MCP server: Zen MCP Server

Deploy

1. Put all four files in a GitHub repo, at the top level (not in a subfolder).

2. Railway → New Project → Deploy from GitHub repo → pick the repo.

3. Railway service → Variables → New Variable: OPENROUTER_API_KEY = your key. Do this before worrying about the first deploy failing.

4. Railway service → Settings → Networking → Generate Domain. Without this the service runs but has no public URL. Port 8000 if asked.

5. Your connector URL is https://<the-domain-railway-gave-you>/mcp — note the /mcp.

Connect to Claude

Customize > Connectors > + > Add custom connector, paste the URL, Add. Then enable it per conversation via the + button > Connectors.

First thing to run

Ask Claude to run panel_health. It confirms the server is reachable and the key is set. Then panel_models with a filter (deepseek, gemini, gpt) to get slugs that currently resolve — the defaults in the file will drift and should not be trusted.

Optional environment variables

Internal and client routing

• Internal work — call the review tools with no client. Any model, any region, cheapest provider first.

• Client material — always pass client (for example client="mantle"). The server looks up the client's zone in client_regions.json, pins inference there with zero data retention and no prompt training, checks each model can serve that zone, and records the zone the gateway reports on each verdict. A client not in the file uses _default (eu). Models that cannot serve the zone are skipped with a note and the rest of the panel runs; nothing is ever routed outside the zone.

• Changing a client's zone — edit client_regions.json and commit, only after agreeing the change with the client.

• panel_models(client="mantle") lists eligible models; panel_models(open_weights=True, detailed=True) adds prices.

Two things to know

Spend exposure. This endpoint spends your OpenRouter key and the URL is the only thing protecting it. Anyone who learns the URL can burn credits. The caps above limit the damage but do not prevent it. Set a spend limit in the OpenRouter dashboard as well, and treat the URL as a secret. If it leaks, delete the Railway domain and generate a new one.

Job state is in memory. panel_submit and panel_status share state within one process. A redeploy loses running jobs, and if you ever scale to more than one replica the poll can land on the wrong instance and report "unknown". Stay on a single replica.