A robust routing engine for OpenRouter that automates model selection, fallback logic, and cost management for multi-model AI workflows.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install open-router
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install open-router using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Open Router?
The Open Router skill is a sophisticated configuration layer for Openclaw Skills designed to streamline multi-model interactions via OpenRouter. It allows developers to define workload-specific routing, ensuring that high-stakes coding tasks use premium models while simple extraction tasks leverage cost-effective alternatives. By centralizing authentication, provider preferences, and incident tracking, it provides a stable foundation for building resilient AI-driven applications.
This skill focuses on reliability and transparency, offering granular control over how requests are dispatched. It mitigates the risks of single-provider downtime by implementing intelligent fallback chains across different model families. With built-in budget guardrails and cost-aware defaults, users can scale their AI operations within Openclaw Skills without fear of unexpected billing spikes.
Open Router Use Cases
- Configuring multi-model workflows that require task-specific routing such as coding versus summarization.
- Implementing cross-provider fallback logic to maintain uptime during API outages or latency spikes.
- Managing API budgets by routing low-priority tasks to cheaper inference endpoints automatically.
- Validating and standardizing authentication across multiple LLM providers via a single gateway within the Openclaw Skills ecosystem.
How Open Router Works
- Workload Classification: The skill analyzes the incoming task to determine the best model class based on requirements like context length or reasoning depth.
- Authentication Check: It verifies local environment variables for the required OPENROUTER_API_KEY to ensure secure connectivity.
- Routing Execution: Based on predefined rules in routing-rules.md, it selects the primary model or its designated fallback for the specific task.
- Inference Processing: The request is dispatched to the OpenRouter API with specific cost guardrails and token limits applied.
- State Logging: Results, latency, and any incidents are recorded in local memory for continuous workflow optimization.
Open Router Setup
To get started with this addition to your Openclaw Skills library, ensure you have curl and jq installed on your system. Set your API key as an environment variable and initialize the directory structure:
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"
mkdir -p ~/open-router/
touch ~/open-router/memory.md
Review the setup.md file within the skill directory to align activation boundaries and reliability goals before your first execution.
Open Router Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill maintains a structured local filesystem in ~/open-router/ to persist configuration and history, ensuring your Openclaw Skills data remains private:
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| memory.md | Active routing profiles and operational constraints. |
| providers.md | Registry of confirmed provider choices and authentication methods. |
| routing-rules.md | Maps task types to specific models and fallback policies. |
| incidents.md | Log of rate limits, outages, and recovery actions. |
| budgets.md | Spend guardrails and historical cost optimization data. |
Open Router Advanced Features
- Dynamic multi-family fallback chains to prevent cascading failures during provider-specific outages.
- Per-task class cost ceilings and token burn validation before large-scale rollouts.
- Automated incident tracking to identify and avoid unstable inference endpoints in real-time.
- Modular routing playbooks for complex workload synchronization within the Openclaw Skills framework.
SKILL.md
Loading
Related Openclaw Skills
Onboarding
A strategic framework for designing high-conversion user onboarding flows that prioritize activation and user value.
Office
A comprehensive skill set for mastering Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and office administration through AI-driven automation and expert workflows.
OAuth & OpenID Connect Security
A comprehensive security framework for implementing industry-standard OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect flows in modern applications.
Nuxt 3 Development
A comprehensive developer guide for building high-performance Vue 3 applications with Server-Side Rendering and efficient data fetching patterns.
Open Source
A structured framework for managing the entire open source lifecycle, from project discovery and evaluation to maintenance and publication.
OpenTable
A strategic AI-driven advisor for managing OpenTable restaurant operations, focusing on booking optimization, guest communication, and performance tracking.
Featured*
