diff --git a/nanobot/providers/registry.py b/nanobot/providers/registry.py
index 8d1cfbe..e5ffe6c 100644
--- a/nanobot/providers/registry.py
+++ b/nanobot/providers/registry.py
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ PROVIDERS: tuple[ProviderSpec, ...] = (
         keywords=("openrouter",),
         env_key="OPENROUTER_API_KEY",
         display_name="OpenRouter",
-        litellm_prefix="openrouter",  # claude-3 → openrouter/claude-3
+        litellm_prefix="",  # routing handled by custom_llm_provider kwarg; no prefix needed
         skip_prefixes=(),
         env_extras=(),
         is_gateway=True,
diff --git a/tests/test_litellm_kwargs.py b/tests/test_litellm_kwargs.py
index 19b753b..2d0ca01 100644
--- a/tests/test_litellm_kwargs.py
+++ b/tests/test_litellm_kwargs.py
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ async def test_openrouter_injects_litellm_kwargs() -> None:
     assert call_kwargs.get("custom_llm_provider") == "openrouter", (
         "OpenRouter gateway should pass custom_llm_provider='openrouter' to acompletion"
     )
+    assert call_kwargs["model"] == "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5", (
+        "Model name must NOT get an 'openrouter/' prefix — routing is via custom_llm_provider"
+    )
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -110,3 +113,6 @@ async def test_openrouter_autodetect_by_key_prefix() -> None:
     assert call_kwargs.get("custom_llm_provider") == "openrouter", (
         "Auto-detected OpenRouter (by sk-or- prefix) should still inject custom_llm_provider"
     )
+    assert call_kwargs["model"] == "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5", (
+        "Auto-detected OpenRouter must preserve native model name without openrouter/ prefix"
+    )