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OpenRouter routes requests to many models behind one API and one key. It is OpenAI-compatible, so OpenClaw talks to it over the same openai-completions-style transport used for other proxy providers.

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Getting started

1

Run OAuth onboarding

openclaw onboard --auth-choice openrouter-oauth
OpenClaw opens OpenRouter’s browser sign-in flow (PKCE), exchanges the code for an OpenRouter API key, and stores it in the default OpenRouter auth profile. On remote/headless hosts, OpenClaw prints the sign-in URL and asks you to paste the redirect URL after signing in.
2

(Optional) Switch to a specific model

Onboarding defaults to openrouter/auto. Pick a concrete model later:
openclaw models set openrouter/<provider>/<model>

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Config example

{
  env: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "openrouter/auto" },
    },
  },
}

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Model references

Model refs follow the pattern openrouter/<provider>/<model>. For the full list of available providers and models, see /concepts/model-providers.
Bundled fallback models, used when live catalog discovery is unavailable:
Model refNotes
openrouter/autoOpenRouter automatic routing
openrouter/moonshotai/kimi-k2.6Kimi K2.6 via MoonshotAI
openrouter/moonshotai/kimi-k2.5Kimi K2.5 via MoonshotAI
Any other openrouter/<provider>/<model> ref, including openrouter/openrouter/fusion (see Fusion router), resolves dynamically against OpenRouter’s live model catalog.

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Image generation

OpenRouter can back the image_generate tool. Set an OpenRouter image model under agents.defaults.imageGenerationModel: 
{
  env: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      imageGenerationModel: {
        primary: "openrouter/google/gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview",
        timeoutMs: 180_000,
      },
    },
  },
}
OpenClaw sends image requests to OpenRouter’s chat-completions image API with modalities: ["image", "text"]. Gemini image models additionally receive aspectRatio and resolution hints through OpenRouter’s image_config; other image models do not. Use agents.defaults.imageGenerationModel.timeoutMs for slower models; the image_generate tool’s per-call timeoutMs still wins.

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Video generation

OpenRouter can back the video_generate tool through its asynchronous /videos API. Set an OpenRouter video model under agents.defaults.videoGenerationModel: 
{
  env: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      videoGenerationModel: {
        primary: "openrouter/google/veo-3.1-fast",
      },
    },
  },
}
OpenClaw submits text-to-video and image-to-video jobs, polls the returned polling_url, and downloads the finished video from OpenRouter’s unsigned_urls or the job content endpoint. Reference images default to first/last-frame images; images tagged reference_image are sent as input references instead. The bundled google/veo-3.1-fast default supports 4/6/8 second durations, 720P/1080P resolutions, and 16:9/9:16 aspect ratios. Video-to-video is not supported: the upstream API only accepts text and image references.

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Music generation

OpenRouter can back the music_generate tool through chat-completions audio output. Set an OpenRouter audio model under agents.defaults.musicGenerationModel: 
{
  env: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      musicGenerationModel: {
        primary: "openrouter/google/lyria-3-pro-preview",
        timeoutMs: 180_000,
      },
    },
  },
}
The bundled OpenRouter music provider defaults to google/lyria-3-pro-preview and also exposes google/lyria-3-clip-preview. OpenClaw sends modalities: ["text", "audio"], streams the response, collects the audio chunks, and saves the result as generated media for channel delivery. Lyria models accept one reference image through the shared music_generate image=... parameter.

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Text-to-speech

OpenRouter can act as a TTS provider through its OpenAI-compatible /audio/speech endpoint. 
{
  messages: {
    tts: {
      auto: "always",
      provider: "openrouter",
      providers: {
        openrouter: {
          model: "hexgrad/kokoro-82m",
          speakerVoice: "af_alloy",
          responseFormat: "mp3",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
If messages.tts.providers.openrouter.apiKey is omitted, TTS falls back to models.providers.openrouter.apiKey, then OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

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Speech-to-text (inbound audio)

OpenRouter can transcribe inbound voice/audio attachments through the shared tools.media.audio path, using its STT endpoint (/audio/transcriptions). This applies to any channel plugin that forwards inbound voice/audio into media understanding preflight. 
{
  tools: {
    media: {
      audio: {
        enabled: true,
        models: [{ provider: "openrouter", model: "openai/whisper-large-v3-turbo" }],
      },
    },
  },
}
OpenClaw sends OpenRouter STT requests as JSON with base64 audio under input_audio (OpenRouter’s STT contract), not as multipart OpenAI form uploads.

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Fusion router

OpenRouter Fusion sends one OpenClaw model ref to several OpenRouter models in parallel, has OpenRouter judge their answers, and returns one final response through the normal OpenRouter endpoint. The upstream model slug is openrouter/fusion, so the OpenClaw model ref carries both the OpenClaw provider prefix and the upstream OpenRouter namespace: 
openclaw models set openrouter/openrouter/fusion
Configure Fusion’s panel and judge through the model’s params.extraBody; those fields forward directly into the OpenRouter chat-completions request body. Fusion works with either OAuth or API-key onboarding; if you use OAuth, omit the env.OPENROUTER_API_KEY line below. 
{
  env: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "openrouter/openrouter/fusion" },
      models: {
        "openrouter/openrouter/fusion": {
          params: {
            extraBody: {
              plugins: [
                {
                  id: "fusion",
                  analysis_models: [
                    "google/gemini-3.5-flash",
                    "moonshotai/kimi-k2.6",
                    "deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro",
                  ],
                  model: "google/gemini-3.5-flash",
                },
              ],
            },
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
analysis_models is the parallel panel; model inside the Fusion plugin config is the judge model. Do not set top-level tool_choice to "required" in normal agent/chat turns to try to force Fusion: OpenClaw turns can include its own tool definitions, and a top-level required tool choice may pick one of those instead of the Fusion router. When this Fusion plugin config is present, OpenClaw adds a sanitized system-prompt note listing the configured analysis models and judge model, so the agent can answer questions about its own Fusion panel. Other extraBody fields are not copied into the prompt. Fusion is slower by design: OpenRouter fans the prompt out to multiple analysis models, then runs a judge/synthesis step, so latency runs higher than a direct single-model request. Use it for deliberate, high-quality answers or escalation paths, not as a latency-sensitive default. Keep the panel small and pick faster analysis/judge models for quicker responses. Test a configured ref with a one-shot local call: 
openclaw infer model run --local \
  --model openrouter/openrouter/fusion \
  --prompt "Reply with exactly: FUSION_OK" \
  --json

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Authentication and headers

OpenRouter uses a Bearer token from your API key. OpenRouter OAuth is a PKCE login flow that issues an OpenRouter API key, so OpenClaw stores the result in the same openrouter:default API-key auth profile used by manual API-key setup. To sign in or rotate the stored key on an existing install without rerunning full onboarding: 
openclaw models auth login --provider openrouter --method oauth
openclaw models auth login --provider openrouter --method api-key
On verified OpenRouter requests (https://openrouter.ai/api/v1), OpenClaw adds OpenRouter’s documented app-attribution headers:
HeaderValue
HTTP-Refererhttps://openclaw.ai
X-OpenRouter-TitleOpenClaw
X-OpenRouter-Categoriescli-agent,cloud-agent,programming-app,creative-writing,writing-assistant,general-chat,personal-agent
If you repoint the OpenRouter provider at some other proxy or base URL, OpenClaw does not inject those OpenRouter-specific headers or Anthropic cache markers.

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Advanced configuration

OpenRouter response caching is opt-in. Enable it per model:
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "openrouter/auto": {
          params: {
            responseCache: true,
            responseCacheTtlSeconds: 300,
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
OpenClaw sends X-OpenRouter-Cache: true and, when configured, X-OpenRouter-Cache-TTL. responseCacheClear: true forces a refresh for the current request and stores the replacement response. Snake_case aliases (response_cache, response_cache_ttl_seconds, response_cache_clear) are accepted, as is responseCacheTtl / response_cache_ttl without the Seconds suffix.This is separate from provider prompt caching and from OpenRouter’s Anthropic cache_control markers. It only applies on verified openrouter.ai routes, not custom proxy base URLs.
On verified OpenRouter routes, Anthropic model refs keep OpenRouter’s Anthropic cache_control markers for better prompt-cache reuse on system/developer prompt blocks.
On verified OpenRouter routes, Anthropic model refs with reasoning enabled drop trailing assistant prefill turns before the request reaches OpenRouter, matching Anthropic’s requirement that reasoning conversations end with a user turn.
On supported non-auto routes, OpenClaw maps the selected thinking level to OpenRouter proxy reasoning payloads. openrouter/auto and unsupported model hints skip that injection. Stale openrouter/hunter-alpha refs also skip it, because OpenRouter could return final answer text in reasoning fields on that retired route.
On verified OpenRouter routes, openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash and openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro fill missing reasoning_content on replayed assistant turns, keeping thinking/tool conversations in DeepSeek V4’s required follow-up shape. OpenClaw sends OpenRouter-supported reasoning.effort values for these routes: xhigh/max map to xhigh, every other non-off level maps to high.
OpenRouter runs through the proxy-style OpenAI-compatible path, so native OpenAI-only request shaping such as serviceTier, Responses store, OpenAI reasoning-compat payloads, and prompt-cache hints is not forwarded.
Gemini-backed OpenRouter refs stay on the proxy-Gemini path: OpenClaw keeps Gemini thought-signature sanitation there, but does not enable native Gemini replay validation or bootstrap rewrites.
OpenRouter supports a provider request object for underlying provider routing. Configure a default policy for all OpenRouter text-model requests with models.providers.openrouter.params.provider:
{
  models: {
    providers: {
      openrouter: {
        params: {
          provider: {
            sort: "latency",
            require_parameters: true,
            data_collection: "deny",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
OpenClaw forwards that object to OpenRouter as the request provider payload. Use OpenRouter’s documented snake_case fields, including sort, only, ignore, order, allow_fallbacks, require_parameters, data_collection, quantizations, max_price, preferred_max_latency, preferred_min_throughput, zdr, and enforce_distillable_text.Per-model params override the provider-wide routing object:
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "openrouter/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6": {
          params: {
            provider: {
              order: ["anthropic"],
              allow_fallbacks: false,
            },
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
This only applies on OpenRouter chat-completions routes. Direct Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, or custom provider routes ignore OpenRouter routing params.

Model selection

Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.

Configuration reference

Full config reference for agents, models, and providers.