ClawRouter

ClawRouter gives OpenClaw one policy-scoped key for multiple upstream model providers. The bundled clawrouter plugin discovers only the models allowed for that key, routes each model through its declared protocol, and reports the key’s budget and aggregate usage on OpenClaw usage surfaces.

Upstream credentials and provider-specific forwarding stay in ClawRouter, so you never install or authenticate each upstream provider plugin on the OpenClaw host. The plugin ships bundled with OpenClaw (enabledByDefault: true); you only need an issued ClawRouter credential.

Property	Value
Provider	clawrouter
Plugin	bundled (included in OpenClaw)
Auth	CLAWROUTER_API_KEY
Default URL	https://clawrouter.openclaw.ai
Model catalog	Credential-scoped via /v1/catalog
Quotas	Monthly budget and usage via /v1/usage

Getting started

1. Get a scoped credential

   Ask your ClawRouter administrator for a credential whose policy includes the providers, models, and monthly budget you should use. Credentials are revealed once when issued.

2. Configure OpenClaw

   export CLAWROUTER_API_KEY="..."
   openclaw onboard --auth-choice clawrouter-api-key
   openclaw plugins enable clawrouter
   

   clawrouter is bundled and enabled by default. If your configuration sets plugins.allow, add clawrouter to that list before enabling it. For a custom deployment, set models.providers.clawrouter.baseUrl to the ClawRouter origin; the default is https://clawrouter.openclaw.ai.

3. List granted models

   openclaw models list --all --provider clawrouter
   

   Use the returned model refs exactly as shown. They retain the upstream namespace, such as clawrouter/openai/gpt-5.5, clawrouter/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6, or clawrouter/google/gemini-3.5-flash. If agents.defaults.models is an allowlist in your configuration, add each selected ClawRouter ref to it.

4. Select a model

   openclaw models set clawrouter/<provider>/<model>
   

   You can also select a returned model for one run with openclaw agent --model clawrouter/<provider>/<model> --message "...".

Managed non-interactive deployment

Keep the proxy key in the workload’s secret injection and store only a SecretRef in openclaw.json. The canonical managed fields are:

Purpose	Config or environment field
Router origin	models.providers.clawrouter.baseUrl
Credential	models.providers.clawrouter.apiKey -> env SecretRef
Secret value	CLAWROUTER_API_KEY in the gateway process environment
Default model	agents.defaults.model.primary -> clawrouter/<provider>/<model>
Workload tag	models.providers.clawrouter.headers.X-ClawRouter-Project-Id (optional)

For example, a deployment controller can own this JSON5 patch:

{
  plugins: {
    entries: { clawrouter: { enabled: true } },
  },
  models: {
    providers: {
      clawrouter: {
        baseUrl: "https://clawrouter.internal.example",
        apiKey: {
          source: "env",
          provider: "default",
          id: "CLAWROUTER_API_KEY",
        },
        headers: {
          "X-ClawRouter-Project-Id": "fakeco",
        },
      },
    },
  },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "clawrouter/openai/gpt-5.5" },
    },
  },
}

If the deployment sets plugins.allow, preserve its existing entries and add clawrouter. Validate and apply without an interactive wizard:

openclaw config patch --file ./clawrouter.patch.json5 --dry-run --json
openclaw config patch --file ./clawrouter.patch.json5

The dry run resolves the SecretRef but never prints its value. To rotate the credential, update the external Secret that supplies CLAWROUTER_API_KEY and restart the gateway workload so the new process environment is loaded. The config file and model reference do not change.

For a source-built standalone Docker gateway, ClawRouter is already included in the root runtime. Select only the channel plugin that needs separate packaging, such as OPENCLAW_EXTENSIONS=clickclack, slack, or msteams; see source-built images with selected plugins. Archive/appliance deployments must package the same landed source through their own artifact pipeline rather than consuming the OCI image.

Readiness and live proof

These checks prove different boundaries; do not substitute one for another:

# ClawRouter process health only; no credential or upstream model is exercised.
curl -fsS https://clawrouter.internal.example/v1/health

# OpenClaw gateway startup readiness only; no model call is made.
curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:18789/readyz

# Credential-scoped catalog discovery.
openclaw models list --all --provider clawrouter --json

# Minimal real inference probe through the configured ClawRouter provider.
openclaw models status --probe --probe-provider clawrouter --probe-max-tokens 8 --json

# Workload canary using an exact granted model ref.
openclaw agent --agent main \
  --model clawrouter/openai/gpt-5.5 \
  --message "Reply exactly: CLAWROUTER_CANARY_OK" \
  --json

Use a model returned by the scoped catalog instead of copying the example model blindly. A successful /readyz response means the gateway can serve requests; it does not claim that ClawRouter, its credential, or an upstream provider is ready. The model probe and agent canary are the inference proofs.

For live diagnosis, issue the canary and inspect the gateway’s standard logs. The existing metadata-only model transport diagnostics emit lines shaped like:

[model-fetch] start provider=clawrouter api=openai-responses model=openai/gpt-5.5 method=POST url=https://clawrouter.internal.example/v1/responses
[model-fetch] response provider=clawrouter api=openai-responses model=openai/gpt-5.5 status=200

The plugin sends bounded X-ClawRouter-Client, X-ClawRouter-Agent-Id, and X-ClawRouter-Session-Id headers when those identifiers are available. It also maps the model call’s diagnostic callId (<run-id>:model:<n>) to X-Request-ID, so an OpenClaw model-call event can be joined to ClawRouter’s metadata-only audit trail. Values within the 128-character request-id budget are identical. Longer values retain the :model:<n> suffix and a deterministic hash so distinct calls remain bounded and joinable. Static deployment metadata such as X-ClawRouter-Project-Id can be set in the provider headers map. Agent and session attribution headers retain their separate 256-character limit. Automatic request ids containing characters outside ClawRouter’s ASCII identifier set use the same deterministic bounded form. Explicit configured headers, including any case variant of X-Request-ID, win over automatic values. The transport diagnostic records routing and response metadata; it does not log credentials, request ids, prompts, or completions. ClawRouter’s own audit event provides the selected upstream provider and content-retention state.

Model discovery

GET /v1/catalog returns { providers: [...] }, where each provider entry lists its own models[] (with upstream id, capabilities, and pricing) and its supported request routes. OpenClaw does not ship a second, fixed list of ClawRouter models. A catalog model is advertised as an OpenClaw model when:

• the credential’s policy grants its provider;
• the catalog model advertises a supported LLM capability (llm.responses, llm.chat, llm.messages, or llm.stream with a matching streaming route); and
• the provider exposes a matching route for one of the transports below.

Adding a model to a supported ClawRouter provider needs no OpenClaw release: the next catalog refresh (cached 60 seconds per credential scope) discovers it. A model that needs a new wire protocol requires plugin support first.

Protocol and provider plugins

ClawRouter owns upstream credentials; its catalog tells OpenClaw which transport to use, so you never install every upstream company’s auth plugin.

Catalog capability / route	OpenClaw transport
llm.responses (OpenAI-compatible provider)	openai-responses
llm.chat (OpenAI-compatible provider)	openai-completions
llm.messages + anthropic.messages route	anthropic-messages
llm.stream + streaming google.generate_content route	google-generative-ai

The plugin also applies the matching replay and tool-schema policies for those families (OpenAI/DeepSeek/Gemini tool-schema compat; native Anthropic and Google Gemini replay policies). A catalog provider exposing only an unsupported request format is intentionally not advertised as an OpenClaw text model. Normalize those providers to one of the supported contracts in ClawRouter rather than sending an incompatible payload.

Quotas and usage

ClawRouter’s /v1/usage response feeds the normal OpenClaw provider-usage surfaces: request, token, and spend totals, plus a monthly budget window when the key has a limit. Unmetered keys still show aggregate usage without a percentage window.

Quota lookup uses the same scoped key as model discovery. A failed quota lookup does not block model execution.

Check the live snapshot with:

openclaw status --usage
openclaw models status

The same provider snapshot is available to /status in chat and OpenClaw’s usage UI. The budget is policy-wide, so requests made by another client using the same ClawRouter policy can change the remaining percentage.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Check
No ClawRouter models	Confirm the plugin is enabled and allowed by plugins.allow, then check that the credential is active and grants at least one ready provider.
A configured ClawRouter model is missing	Inspect its /v1/catalog capability and route support. Unsupported transport contracts are intentionally filtered.
Unknown model: clawrouter/...	Add the exact catalog ref to agents.defaults.models when that configuration map is being used as an allowlist.
401 or 403 from catalog or usage	Reissue or re-scope the ClawRouter credential; OpenClaw does not fall back to upstream provider keys.
Model call fails after discovery	Check the provider connection and upstream health in ClawRouter, then retry after its readiness state recovers.
Usage has totals but no percentage	The policy is unmetered; add a monthly budget in ClawRouter to expose a percentage window.

Security behavior

• Catalog discovery is scoped to the configured proxy key and cached per credential scope (agent dir, workspace dir, auth profile id, and base URL).
• The proxy key is attached only at request dispatch; it is not stored in model metadata.
• Automatic attribution and request-correlation values are trimmed and control-character rejected before dispatch. Attribution values are bounded to 256 characters; request ids are bounded to 128.
• Model transport diagnostics contain metadata only and never include the proxy key or model content.
• Native Anthropic and Gemini model ids are rewritten to their upstream ids only at dispatch.
• Unsupported or ungranted catalog rows fail closed and are not selectable.

Related

Model providers

Provider configuration and model selection.

Usage tracking

OpenClaw usage and status surfaces.