Connecting OpenRouter to OpenClaw — one command, done

If you're running OpenClaw and haven't connected it to OpenRouter yet, you're either spending more than you need to on API calls or you just haven't tried it yet. OpenRouter lets you route requests across dozens of models (including Qwen 3.6 Plus, which is currently free with a 1M token context) from a single API key.

Here's the command to get it set up:

openclaw onboard --install-daemon --auth-choice apiKey --token-provider openrouter --token "sk-or-your-key-here"

Replace sk-or-your-key-here with your actual OpenRouter API key (grab one at openrouter.ai if you don't have one — takes about 60 seconds).

A few things to check if it doesn't work first time:

Your key starts with sk-or- — OpenRouter keys have that prefix. OpenAI keys start with sk- and won't work here.

OpenClaw is installed globally and current: npm install -g openclaw@latest

The daemon has permission to run — on macOS you may need to approve it the first time.

Once connected, you can switch models per-command or set Qwen 3.6 Plus as your default to keep costs near zero while you're experimenting.

What models are you routing through OpenRouter? Drop yours below — always curious what the community's running for different tasks.

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