ClawRouter

ClawRouter gives OpenClaw one policy-scoped key for multiple upstream model providers. The bundled 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.

You do not install or authenticate each upstream provider plugin on the OpenClaw host. Upstream credentials and provider-specific forwarding stay in ClawRouter. OpenClaw needs only the bundled @openclaw/clawrouter plugin and an issued ClawRouter credential.

Property	Value
Provider	clawrouter
Package	@openclaw/clawrouter
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

   The plugin is bundled with OpenClaw. 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/..., clawrouter/anthropic/..., or clawrouter/google/.... 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/

   /

   You can also select a returned model for one run with
   `openclaw agent --model clawrouter/

   /

   —message ”…”`.

Model discovery

GET /v1/catalog is the source of truth. OpenClaw does not ship a second, fixed list of ClawRouter models. A model configured in ClawRouter appears when:

• the credential’s policy grants its provider;
• the provider connection is enabled and ready;
• the catalog model advertises a supported LLM capability; and
• the catalog exposes a transport contract supported by the plugin.

Adding another model to a supported ClawRouter provider therefore does not require an OpenClaw release or another provider plugin. The next catalog refresh discovers it. A model that needs a new wire protocol requires support in the ClawRouter plugin before OpenClaw advertises it.

Protocol and provider plugins

You do not need to install every upstream company’s auth plugin. ClawRouter owns upstream credentials; its catalog tells OpenClaw which transport to use. The plugin supports:

Catalog route	OpenClaw transport
OpenAI-compatible chat	openai-completions
OpenAI-compatible Responses	openai-responses
Native Anthropic Messages	anthropic-messages
Native Google Gemini streaming	google-generative-ai

The plugin also applies the matching replay and tool-schema policies for those families. Catalog rows using another request/stream format are intentionally not advertised as OpenClaw text models. 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. /status and related dashboard status show the monthly budget window when the key has a limit, plus request, token, and spend totals. 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 format. 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 key.
• The proxy key is attached only at request dispatch; it is not stored in model metadata.
• 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.