Personal & life admin Model routing & cost

Cheap heartbeat model, API fallbacks, aliases for /model

Route OpenClaw to a cheap heartbeat model with API fallbacks. Always-on personal agent user; living setup guide.

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what to steal

Run cron/heartbeat on a cheap model and keep the strong one for real work.

Our takeaway from the source, not a quote.

Drawn from this card's sourced fields. Amber = older model named by the source. Rose = cut or replaced.

justinflick-openclaw-routing.toml

# Route OpenClaw to a cheap heartbeat model with API fallbacks
# source: https://justinflick.com/2026/03/28/openclaw-setup-guide.html

[rig]
who     = "Always-on personal agent user; living setup guide"
author  = "Justin Flick"
date    = "2026-03-28"

harness = ["OpenClaw"]
models  = ["openai/gpt-5-4 (primary)", "google/gemini-3-flash-preview (fallback + heartbeat)", "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 (fallback)", "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 (on demand via /model)"]

[keep]
  - Multi-model routing in openclaw.json
  - Model aliases for /model switching
  - Agent security plugins
  - ACPX skill

⚠ openai/gpt-5-4, google/gemini-3-flash-preview, anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5, anthropic/claude-opus-4-6: older model(s), named by the source on 2026-03-28. See current models.

thing	status	why (per source)
Subscription-only access	hedged	Keeps API-based fallbacks configured in case subscription OAuth is revoked

Source: https://justinflick.com/2026/03/28/openclaw-setup-guide.html · checked 2026-10-14

OpenClaw and Hermes in separate VMs, so neither is a single point of failure

steal → Put each agent in its own snapshot-able VM; fix credentials next.

OpenClawHermes AgentCodex GPT-5.5Qwen3.6 27B / 35B Credentials in the age

by Eli Lap

~/rigs/vish-hermes-coordinator.toml2026-07

Hermes coordinates, Cursor builds, local models for sensitive work

steal → Use a persistent agent as the coordinator and delegate code to your IDE agent.

Hermes AgentCursorPi OpenRouterQwen and Gemma local v OpenClaw

by Vishwanath Subramanian

~/rigs/mrclaw207-openclaw-247.tomlundated

One OpenClaw agent 24/7 plus one research subagent

steal → Start with one main agent and one helper, not a swarm.

OpenClawClaude Code claude-sonnet-4-202505 Many agents up front

by mrclaw207 (DEV)