openclaw/docs/concepts/models.md

summary, read_when, title, sidebarTitle

summary	read_when	title	sidebarTitle
Models CLI: list, set, aliases, fallbacks, scan, status	Adding or modifying models CLI (models list/set/scan/aliases/fallbacks) Changing model fallback behavior or selection UX Updating model scan probes (tools/images)	Models CLI	Models CLI

Auth profile rotation, cooldowns, and how that interacts with fallbacks. Quick provider overview and examples. PI, Codex, and other agent loop runtimes. Model config keys.

Model refs choose a provider and model. They do not usually choose the low-level agent runtime. For example, openai/gpt-5.5 can run through the normal OpenAI provider path or through the Codex app-server runtime, depending on agents.defaults.agentRuntime.id. See Agent runtimes.

How model selection works

OpenClaw selects models in this order:

`agents.defaults.model.primary` (or `agents.defaults.model`). `agents.defaults.model.fallbacks` (in order). Auth failover happens inside a provider before moving to the next model. - `agents.defaults.models` is the allowlist/catalog of models OpenClaw can use (plus aliases). - `agents.defaults.imageModel` is used **only when** the primary model can't accept images. - `agents.defaults.pdfModel` is used by the `pdf` tool. If omitted, the tool falls back to `agents.defaults.imageModel`, then the resolved session/default model. - `agents.defaults.imageGenerationModel` is used by the shared image-generation capability. If omitted, `image_generate` can still infer an auth-backed provider default. It tries the current default provider first, then the remaining registered image-generation providers in provider-id order. If you set a specific provider/model, also configure that provider's auth/API key. - `agents.defaults.musicGenerationModel` is used by the shared music-generation capability. If omitted, `music_generate` can still infer an auth-backed provider default. It tries the current default provider first, then the remaining registered music-generation providers in provider-id order. If you set a specific provider/model, also configure that provider's auth/API key. - `agents.defaults.videoGenerationModel` is used by the shared video-generation capability. If omitted, `video_generate` can still infer an auth-backed provider default. It tries the current default provider first, then the remaining registered video-generation providers in provider-id order. If you set a specific provider/model, also configure that provider's auth/API key. - Per-agent defaults can override `agents.defaults.model` via `agents.list[].model` plus bindings (see [Multi-agent routing](/concepts/multi-agent)).

Selection source and fallback behavior

The same provider/model can mean different things depending on where it came from:

• Configured defaults (agents.defaults.model.primary and agent-specific primaries) are the normal starting point and use agents.defaults.model.fallbacks.
• Auto fallback selections are temporary recovery state. They are stored with modelOverrideSource: "auto" so later turns can keep using the fallback chain without probing a known-bad primary first.
• User session selections are exact. /model, the model picker, session_status(model=...), and sessions.patch store modelOverrideSource: "user"; if that selected provider/model is unreachable, OpenClaw fails visibly instead of falling through to another configured model.
• Cron --model / payload model is a per-job primary. It still uses configured fallbacks unless the job supplies explicit payload fallbacks (use fallbacks: [] for a strict cron run).
• CLI default-model and allowlist pickers respect models.mode: "replace" by listing explicit models.providers.*.models instead of loading the full built-in catalog.
• The Control UI model picker asks the Gateway for its configured model view: agents.defaults.models when present, otherwise explicit models.providers.*.models, otherwise the full catalog so fresh installs are not blank.

Quick model policy

• Set your primary to the strongest latest-generation model available to you.
• Use fallbacks for cost/latency-sensitive tasks and lower-stakes chat.
• For tool-enabled agents or untrusted inputs, avoid older/weaker model tiers.

Onboarding (recommended)

If you don't want to hand-edit config, run onboarding:

openclaw onboard

It can set up model + auth for common providers, including OpenAI Code (Codex) subscription (OAuth) and Anthropic (API key or Claude CLI).

Config keys (overview)

• agents.defaults.model.primary and agents.defaults.model.fallbacks
• agents.defaults.imageModel.primary and agents.defaults.imageModel.fallbacks
• agents.defaults.pdfModel.primary and agents.defaults.pdfModel.fallbacks
• agents.defaults.imageGenerationModel.primary and agents.defaults.imageGenerationModel.fallbacks
• agents.defaults.videoGenerationModel.primary and agents.defaults.videoGenerationModel.fallbacks
• agents.defaults.models (allowlist + aliases + provider params)
• models.providers (custom providers written into models.json)

Model refs are normalized to lowercase. Provider aliases like `z.ai/*` normalize to `zai/*`.

Provider configuration examples (including OpenCode) live in OpenCode.

Safe allowlist edits

Use additive writes when updating agents.defaults.models by hand:

openclaw config set agents.defaults.models '{"openai/gpt-5.4":{}}' --strict-json --merge

`openclaw config set` protects model/provider maps from accidental clobbers. A plain object assignment to `agents.defaults.models`, `models.providers`, or `models.providers..models` is rejected when it would remove existing entries. Use `--merge` for additive changes; use `--replace` only when the provided value should become the complete target value.

Interactive provider setup and `openclaw configure --section model` also merge provider-scoped selections into the existing allowlist, so adding Codex, Ollama, or another provider does not drop unrelated model entries. Configure preserves an existing `agents.defaults.model.primary` when provider auth is re-applied. Explicit default-setting commands such as `openclaw models auth login --provider <id> --set-default` and `openclaw models set <model>` still replace `agents.defaults.model.primary`.

"Model is not allowed" (and why replies stop)

If agents.defaults.models is set, it becomes the allowlist for /model and for session overrides. When a user selects a model that isn't in that allowlist, OpenClaw returns:

Model "provider/model" is not allowed. Use /model to list available models.

This happens **before** a normal reply is generated, so the message can feel like it "didn't respond." The fix is to either:

• Add the model to agents.defaults.models, or
• Clear the allowlist (remove agents.defaults.models), or
• Pick a model from /model list.

For local/GGUF models, store the full provider-prefixed ref in the allowlist, for example ollama/gemma4:26b, lmstudio/Gemma4-26b-a4-it-gguf, or the exact provider/model shown by openclaw models list --provider <provider>. Bare local filenames or display names are not enough when the allowlist is active.

Example allowlist config:

{
  agent: {
    model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6" },
    models: {
      "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6": { alias: "Sonnet" },
      "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": { alias: "Opus" },
    },
  },
}

Switching models in chat (/model)

You can switch models for the current session without restarting:

/model
/model list
/model 3
/model openai/gpt-5.4
/model status

- `/model` (and `/model list`) is a compact, numbered picker (model family + available providers). - On Discord, `/model` and `/models` open an interactive picker with provider and model dropdowns plus a Submit step. - `/models add` is deprecated and now returns a deprecation message instead of registering models from chat. - `/model <#>` selects from that picker. - `/model` persists the new session selection immediately. - If the agent is idle, the next run uses the new model right away. - If a run is already active, OpenClaw marks a live switch as pending and only restarts into the new model at a clean retry point. - If tool activity or reply output has already started, the pending switch can stay queued until a later retry opportunity or the next user turn. - A user-selected `/model` ref is strict for that session: if the selected provider/model is unreachable, the reply fails visibly instead of silently answering from `agents.defaults.model.fallbacks`. This is different from configured defaults and cron job primaries, which can still use fallback chains. - `/model status` is the detailed view (auth candidates and, when configured, provider endpoint `baseUrl` + `api` mode). - Model refs are parsed by splitting on the **first** `/`. Use `provider/model` when typing `/model `. - If the model ID itself contains `/` (OpenRouter-style), you must include the provider prefix (example: `/model openrouter/moonshotai/kimi-k2`). - If you omit the provider, OpenClaw resolves the input in this order: 1. alias match 2. unique configured-provider match for that exact unprefixed model id 3. deprecated fallback to the configured default provider — if that provider no longer exposes the configured default model, OpenClaw instead falls back to the first configured provider/model to avoid surfacing a stale removed-provider default.

Full command behavior/config: Slash commands.

CLI commands

openclaw models list
openclaw models status
openclaw models set <provider/model>
openclaw models set-image <provider/model>

openclaw models aliases list
openclaw models aliases add <alias> <provider/model>
openclaw models aliases remove <alias>

openclaw models fallbacks list
openclaw models fallbacks add <provider/model>
openclaw models fallbacks remove <provider/model>
openclaw models fallbacks clear

openclaw models image-fallbacks list
openclaw models image-fallbacks add <provider/model>
openclaw models image-fallbacks remove <provider/model>
openclaw models image-fallbacks clear

openclaw models (no subcommand) is a shortcut for models status.

models list

Shows configured models by default. Useful flags:

Full catalog. Includes bundled provider-owned static catalog rows before auth is configured, so discovery-only views can show models that are unavailable until you add matching provider credentials. Local providers only. Filter by provider id, for example `moonshot`. Display labels from interactive pickers are not accepted. One model per line. Machine-readable output.

models status

Shows the resolved primary model, fallbacks, image model, and an auth overview of configured providers. It also surfaces OAuth expiry status for profiles found in the auth store (warns within 24h by default). --plain prints only the resolved primary model.

- OAuth status is always shown (and included in `--json` output). If a configured provider has no credentials, `models status` prints a **Missing auth** section. - JSON includes `auth.oauth` (warn window + profiles) and `auth.providers` (effective auth per provider, including env-backed credentials). `auth.oauth` is auth-store profile health only; env-only providers do not appear there. - Use `--check` for automation (exit `1` when missing/expired, `2` when expiring). - Use `--probe` for live auth checks; probe rows can come from auth profiles, env credentials, or `models.json`. - If explicit `auth.order.` omits a stored profile, probe reports `excluded_by_auth_order` instead of trying it. If auth exists but no probeable model can be resolved for that provider, probe reports `status: no_model`. Auth choice is provider/account dependent. For always-on gateway hosts, API keys are usually the most predictable; Claude CLI reuse and existing Anthropic OAuth/token profiles are also supported.

Example (Claude CLI):

claude auth login
openclaw models status

Scanning (OpenRouter free models)

openclaw models scan inspects OpenRouter's free model catalog and can optionally probe models for tool and image support.

Skip live probes (metadata only). Minimum parameter size (billions). Skip older models. Provider prefix filter. Fallback list size. Set `agents.defaults.model.primary` to the first selection. Set `agents.defaults.imageModel.primary` to the first image selection. The OpenRouter `/models` catalog is public, so metadata-only scans can list free candidates without a key. Probing and inference still require an OpenRouter API key (from auth profiles or `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`). If no key is available, `openclaw models scan` falls back to metadata-only output and leaves config unchanged. Use `--no-probe` to request metadata-only mode explicitly.

Scan results are ranked by:

1. Image support
2. Tool latency
3. Context size
4. Parameter count

Input:

• OpenRouter /models list (filter :free)
• Live probes require OpenRouter API key from auth profiles or OPENROUTER_API_KEY (see Environment variables)
• Optional filters: --max-age-days, --min-params, --provider, --max-candidates
• Request/probe controls: --timeout, --concurrency

When live probes run in a TTY, you can select fallbacks interactively. In non-interactive mode, pass --yes to accept defaults. Metadata-only results are informational; --set-default and --set-image require live probes so OpenClaw does not configure an unusable keyless OpenRouter model.

Models registry (models.json)

Custom providers in models.providers are written into models.json under the agent directory (default ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent/models.json). This file is merged by default unless models.mode is set to replace.

Merge mode precedence for matching provider IDs:

- Non-empty `baseUrl` already present in the agent `models.json` wins.
- Non-empty `apiKey` in the agent `models.json` wins only when that provider is not SecretRef-managed in current config/auth-profile context.
- SecretRef-managed provider `apiKey` values are refreshed from source markers (`ENV_VAR_NAME` for env refs, `secretref-managed` for file/exec refs) instead of persisting resolved secrets.
- SecretRef-managed provider header values are refreshed from source markers (`secretref-env:ENV_VAR_NAME` for env refs, `secretref-managed` for file/exec refs).
- Empty or missing agent `apiKey`/`baseUrl` fall back to config `models.providers`.
- Other provider fields are refreshed from config and normalized catalog data.

Marker persistence is source-authoritative: OpenClaw writes markers from the active source config snapshot (pre-resolution), not from resolved runtime secret values. This applies whenever OpenClaw regenerates `models.json`, including command-driven paths like `openclaw agent`.

Related

• Agent runtimes — PI, Codex, and other agent loop runtimes
• Configuration reference — model config keys
• Image generation — image model configuration
• Model failover — fallback chains
• Model providers — provider routing and auth
• Music generation — music model configuration
• Video generation — video model configuration