Anthropic recently tightened how third-party tools can use Claude through consumer subscriptions. If you're running OpenClaw or any self-hosted AI setup) on a $20 or $200 Claude plan, it's likely broken or about to be. The fix is switching your auth provider from Anthropic direct to OpenRouter. Why OpenRouter works: - Same Claude brain, routes through OpenRouter's layer instead - Far fewer restrictions on tool use and external calls - Instant fallback to Gemini 2.5 or GPT-4o if Claude blocks anything - One API key manages everything - Cost difference is negligible (~3% OpenRouter margin) The config change: 1. Get an OpenRouter API key (openrouter.ai - free to sign up) 2. In your OpenClaw config, swap the base URL from Anthropic's endpoint to OpenRouter's 3. Set your model to anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6 via OpenRouter 4. Add a fallback model (google/gemini-2.5-pro or openai/gpt-4o) 5. Test one agent, then roll it across Takes about 15-20 minutes if your config is clean. If you're already using OpenRouter for other things (Mercury 2, etc.) you likely have the API key already. Hit me in the comments if you get stuck anywhere.

When buying tokens on the Nous Portal be aware that unused tokens do not roll over to the next month. Each month starts at ZERO. My bots compared models and pricing between or OpenRouter and Nous and reported that the pricing is identical. Purchases on Open Router roll over at the end of each month so you don't start out at zero. You start out with whatever you had left at the end of the previous month. Post an update if this changes!

I am completely out of usage capability until Weds night when my weekly use rate resets. In the interim, Fable 5 use got extended and I have outstanding compute I need to work on. Here's what I asked in Claude Chat where I still have limited use available, and here's what Sonnet replied with: why is anthropic trying to drive people away from using their ai's? I have tokens available on my max plan but no ability to use them as i've run out of weekly use. I get why this feels frustrating — you're paying for Max and hitting a wall anyway. Here's the actual reason, not a conspiracy: Max isn't a token allowance, it's a usage cap system. Even on Max, Anthropic runs two overlapping limits: a rolling 5-hour session cap and a separate weekly cap. Once you hit the weekly cap, it doesn't matter that your 5-hour window has room or that you "have tokens left" in some abstract sense — the weekly ceiling blocks you regardless. It's not about driving people away — it's compute rationing. Anthropic doesn't have infinite GPU capacity, so usage plans are structured to prevent a small number of heavy users from degrading service for everyone else. This is standard practice across LLM providers (OpenAI does the same with ChatGPT Plus/Pro). If anything, the trend this year has gone the other direction: Anthropic doubled the 5-hour rate limits for Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans on May 6, 2026, and removed the reduced limits that used to apply during peak hours. Then on May 13, weekly limits were raised by 50%, a promotion that's been running through July 13, 2026 — which is today, so it may be expiring or already reverted. One more thing worth knowing: Pro and Max usage is a single shared pool across Claude.ai chat and Claude Code — heavy use in one eats into the other. If you've been using both, that's likely why you burned through the weekly cap faster than expected. If you want the exact current numbers for your specific plan tier, I'd check your usage dashboard in-app (Settings), since exact quotas aren't published and vary by account. Want me to pull up Anthropic's current official docs on this instead of third-party summaries?

6 more days guys...

Extended again!