OpenRouter

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.

Getting started

In a private chat, send /login openrouter or select OpenRouter from /login. Choose Sign in with OpenRouter, approve access in your browser, and return to chat. OpenClaw receives the browser callback and saves the credential before reporting success. Use /login cancel to cancel a pending sign-in.

Login saves access without choosing a starter model. If current model restrictions hide OpenRouter models, choose Show all OpenRouter models or Keep current restrictions. The credential stays saved either way. In the Control UI, use Settings → Models → Connect for the same credential-only flow, then use the model menu to choose a model from the Gateway's catalog.

Chat browser sign-in uses the Gateway's managed Tailscale HTTPS address. With Tailscale Serve, your browser must have access to the same tailnet. If no managed HTTPS address is available, enable Serve and retry, or use the CLI flow below. The callback does not sign you in to the Control UI.

The Control UI receives the return automatically at the managed HTTPS address or when opened directly on the local Gateway's loopback address and port. Other addresses use manual redirect completion. If pasted input is incomplete or invalid, correct it in the same sign-in attempt and submit again.

openclaw onboard --auth-choice openrouter-oauth

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

openclaw onboard --auth-choice openrouter-api-key

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

Config example

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

Model references

Bundled starter models enrich a nonempty public catalog. A failed live request reports a discovery failure rather than substituting these rows; a successful empty response stays empty:

Any other openrouter/<provider>/<model> ref, including openrouter/openrouter/fusion (see Fusion router), resolves dynamically against OpenRouter's live model catalog.

Discovered models use OpenRouter's advertised tool support. When a model's supported_parameters list omits tools, OpenClaw sends requests without tool definitions or tool choice. Models without that metadata keep the default tool behavior.

Image generation

OpenRouter can back the image_generate tool. Set an OpenRouter image model under agents.defaults.mediaModels.image:

{  env: { vars: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." } },  agents: {    defaults: {      mediaModels: {        image: {          primary: "openrouter/google/gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview",          timeoutMs: 180000,        },      },    },  },}

OpenClaw sends canonical OpenRouter image requests to the dedicated image API (POST /api/v1/images). Gemini image models additionally receive aspect_ratio and resolution hints, and image edits pass source images as input_references. Generated images come back as base64 (b64_json) with an optional media_type; when media_type is absent, OpenClaw sniffs the image format from the bytes.

Configured custom OpenRouter baseUrl destinations retain the existing chat-completions image route for compatibility with proxies that do not expose the dedicated endpoint. Use agents.defaults.mediaModels.image.timeoutMs for slower models; the image_generate tool's per-call timeoutMs still wins.

Video generation

OpenRouter can back the video_generate tool through its asynchronous /videos API. Set an OpenRouter video model under agents.defaults.mediaModels.video:

{  env: { vars: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." } },  agents: {    defaults: {      mediaModels: {        video: {          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.

Music generation

OpenRouter can back the music_generate tool through chat-completions audio output. Set an OpenRouter audio model under agents.defaults.mediaModels.music:

{  env: { vars: { OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-..." } },  agents: {    defaults: {      mediaModels: {        music: {          primary: "openrouter/google/lyria-3-pro-preview",          timeoutMs: 180000,        },      },    },  },}

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. Streaming audio, transcript retention, and the derived SSE event envelope are bounded by agents.defaults.mediaMaxMb (the default audio cap is 16 MB).

Text-to-speech

OpenRouter can act as a TTS provider through its OpenAI-compatible /audio/speech endpoint.

{  tts: {    auto: "always",    provider: "openrouter",    providers: {      openrouter: {        model: "hexgrad/kokoro-82m",        speakerVoice: "af_alloy",        responseFormat: "mp3",      },    },  },}

If tts.providers.openrouter.apiKey is omitted, TTS falls back to models.providers.openrouter.apiKey, then OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

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: {      models: [        {          provider: "openrouter",          model: "openai/whisper-large-v3-turbo",          capabilities: ["audio"],        },      ],      audio: { enabled: true },    },  },}

OpenClaw sends OpenRouter STT requests as JSON with base64 audio under input_audio (OpenRouter's STT contract), not as multipart OpenAI form uploads.

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.vars.OPENROUTER_API_KEY line below.

{  env: { vars: { 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

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 oauthopenclaw models auth login --provider openrouter --method api-key

On requests to OpenRouter endpoints (openrouter.ai), OpenClaw adds OpenRouter's documented app-attribution headers. This applies to the bundled openrouter provider and to custom provider ids whose baseUrl points at OpenRouter:

Advanced configuration

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "openrouter/auto": {          params: {            responseCache: true,            responseCacheTtlSeconds: 300,          },        },      },    },  },}

{  models: {    providers: {      openrouter: {        params: {          provider: {            sort: "latency",            require_parameters: true,            data_collection: "deny",          },        },      },    },  },}

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "openrouter/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6": {          params: {            provider: {              order: ["anthropic"],              allow_fallbacks: false,            },          },        },      },    },  },}

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