openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Guide: Restoring tool-calling after Anthropic dropped OC support (model migration to OpenRouter) [1 participants]

Context

On 2026-04-04, Anthropic dropped OpenClaw support. Agents that relied on Claude as their model lost tool-calling ability. This documents the root causes and fixes for migrating to OpenRouter models while keeping tools working.

Root Causes

1. Slug-generator timeout kills thinking models

OC's internal llm-slug-generator has a timeout (was 15s in older versions, 60s in 2026.4.5). Models with thinking/reasoning mode (like Kimi K2.5) exceed the timeout, which crashes the entire session lane — the agent goes completely silent.

Fix: Update to OC 2026.4.5+ (npm install -g openclaw@latest). The timeout was bumped to 60s.

2. Not all models actually emit tool calls

Some models technically "support" tools but never emit tool_call JSON through OpenRouter/OC:

3. compat.supportsTools must be set

OC 2026.4.5 requires compat.supportsTools: true on non-Anthropic model definitions in openclaw.json, otherwise tools are not passed to the model at all.

{
  "id": "openai/gpt-4.1-mini",
  "name": "GPT-4.1 Mini (OpenRouter)",
  "compat": {
    "supportsTools": true,
    "supportsStrictMode": false,
    "supportsStore": false,
    "supportsDeveloperRole": true
  }
}

4. Boot.md tool names must match OC's tools

If your boot.md references Claude Code tool names (Bash, WebFetch, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep), non-Anthropic models won't recognize them. OC's native tools are:

• read — read files
• write — write/create files
• exec — run shell commands
• web_search — search the web
• web_fetch — fetch URL content
• browser — headless browser automation

Update your boot.md to reference these names and explicitly instruct the model to call tools, not narrate them:

## Tool Access
Your tools are OC native tools: read, write, exec, web_search, web_fetch, browser.

Rules:
- Do NOT narrate tool calls as text — ACTUALLY CALL the tool
- If you want to check a file, call `read` with the path
- If you want to run a command, call `exec`
- Every response that involves files or commands MUST include actual tool calls

5. Missing memory files cause boot errors

The session-memory internal hook tries to read workspace/memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md on session start. If the file doesn't exist, it throws ENOENT on every boot. Create today's file:

mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory
touch ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md

Migration Steps

1. Update OC: npm install -g openclaw@latest (need 2026.4.5+)
2. Set model: In openclaw.json, set agents.defaults.model.primary to openrouter/openai/gpt-4.1-mini
3. Add compat flags: Add compat.supportsTools: true to your OpenRouter model definitions
4. Update boot.md: Replace Claude Code tool names with OC native tool names (see above)
5. Create memory file: touch ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md
6. Restart: pkill -f openclaw-gateway (launchd or systemd respawns it)
7. Test: Ask your agent to read a specific file path — confirm it returns actual file contents, not a narration

Don't Use

• Google direct API provider — returns 400/404 errors with OC's format
• DeepSeek V3 as primary — can chat but never calls tools
• Nexos — unreliable
• Anthropic direct — they dropped OC support

Environment

• OC 2026.4.5
• macOS (launchd-managed gateway)
• OpenRouter API for model access