openclaw/docs/providers/openrouter.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Use OpenRouter's unified API to access many models in OpenClaw	You want a single API key for many LLMs You want to run models via OpenRouter in OpenClaw	OpenRouter

OpenRouter

OpenRouter provides a unified API that routes requests to many models behind a single endpoint and API key. It is OpenAI-compatible, so most OpenAI SDKs work by switching the base URL.

CLI setup

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

Config snippet

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

Notes

• Model refs are openrouter/<provider>/<model>.
• Onboarding defaults to openrouter/auto. Switch to a concrete model later with openclaw models set openrouter/<provider>/<model>.
• For more model/provider options, see /concepts/model-providers.
• OpenRouter uses a Bearer token with your API key under the hood.
• On real OpenRouter requests (https://openrouter.ai/api/v1), OpenClaw also adds OpenRouter's documented app-attribution headers: HTTP-Referer: https://openclaw.ai, X-OpenRouter-Title: OpenClaw, and X-OpenRouter-Categories: cli-agent.
• If you repoint the OpenRouter provider at some other proxy/base URL, OpenClaw does not inject those OpenRouter-specific headers.
• OpenRouter still 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.