agentmods.dev

openrouter-free-failover

openrouter-free-failover is a skill for Claude Code from chf3198/copilot-governance. It costs 64 tokens per session (3,773 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A configuration guide for OpenClaw, an automation system, that selects a preferred sequence of free AI models through OpenRouter. If one model is unavailable or returns an error, the system tries the next one.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to configure or refresh the free-model list, set the fallback order, and troubleshoot model availability and failover behavior.
Why use it?
It helps keep coding sessions running when a model reaches a rate limit, is down, refuses a request, or cannot handle the request size, without using paid models.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: disable-model-invocation in frontmatter. Also seen: positional $N argument; built for openclaw.

Needs its repository: it runs a file that does not travel with it, so clone the repository first. The line is node scripts/refresh-openclaw-models.js coding 10.

not rated 2repo 3mo ago A scan 64 tokens original MIT

Good fit Use it to configure or refresh the free-model list, set the fallback order, and troubleshoot model availability and failover behavior.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
View source ↗ chf3198/copilot-governance
Install

Getting it into your agent

It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/chf3198/copilot-governance
agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/chf3198/copilot-governance/openrouter-free-failover

Made for: Claude Code.

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README.md
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Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

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Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/chf3198/copilot-governance/openrouter-free-failover"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/chf3198/copilot-governance/openrouter-free-failover.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 64 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,773 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00064 $0.03773
Opus 5.5 $0.00026 $0.01509
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00013 $0.00755
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00377

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 33466b5bc6a0, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

openrouter-free-failover scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2mo ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

| Check rate limit status | When failures increase | `curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/auth/key -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY"` |
skills/openrouter-free-failover/SKILL.md · 328 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 328 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

OpenRouter Free Model Failover

Purpose

Ensure OpenClaw always uses free OpenRouter models with intelligent priority-based failover. No paid model should ever be invoked. The cascade is ranked by coding/agentic capability and falls over automatically on rate limits, downtime, moderation blocks, or context overflow.

Architecture (Two-Layer Failover)

Layer 1: OpenClaw-side fallback chain (primary)

OpenClaw's native failover via agents.defaults.model.primary + agents.defaults.model.fallbacks:

  • Tries primary model first
  • On ANY error (rate limit, auth, billing, timeout, overloaded), rotates to next fallback
  • Exponential cooldown: 1min → 5min → 25min → 1hr cap
  • Session-sticky: pins to working model until session reset or cooldown clears
  • FallbackSummaryError when all candidates exhausted (includes soonest cooldown expiry)

Layer 2: OpenRouter-side server failover (complementary)

OpenRouter's models array parameter handles per-request failover transparently:

  • If a model returns error (429, 503, moderation, context overflow), tries next in array
  • Pricing based on model actually used (all free = $0)
  • Works automatically with OpenAI-compatible API

Combined: OpenClaw chains across models; within each model attempt, OpenRouter can cascade if the models param is forwarded.

Rate Limits (Critical Constraints)

Constraint Limit
:free model requests per minute 20 req/min
Daily limit (< 10 credits purchased) 50 req/day
Daily limit (≥ 10 credits purchased) 1,000 req/day
Negative credit balance 402 errors even for free models

Implications:

  • Free tier (50/day) is extremely limited for agentic coding — consider purchasing 10 credits ($10 one-time) for 20x daily capacity
  • 20 req/min shared across ALL free model calls on the key
  • Multiple API keys do NOT bypass limits (governed globally per account)
  • Different models have different per-model rate limits (spreading across models helps)

Read the full file on GitHub · 328 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2mo ago First seen · 328 lines · 64 tokens per session scan A 33466b5bc6a0

Subscribe to this mod's changes

openrouter-free-failover is a skill published in the GitHub repository chf3198/copilot-governance (2 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 64 tokens to every session and 3,773 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

Data and AIDevOps and cloud
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