luovicter-collab/openclaw-docs/free-ride

FreeRide - Free AI for OpenClaw

Configures OpenClaw to use free AI models from OpenRouter with automatic fallback switching.

Installation

If FreeRide is not installed, install it automatically:

npx clawhub@latest install freeride

Quick Start

# Set API key (free at openrouter.ai/keys)
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."
 
# Auto-configure best model + fallbacks
freeride auto

Commands

list - View available models

freeride list              # Top 15 models
freeride list -n 30        # More models
freeride list --refresh    # Force API refresh

auto - Auto-configure

freeride auto              # Best model + 5 fallbacks
freeride auto -f           # Fallbacks only (keep current primary)
freeride auto -c 10        # 10 fallbacks
freeride auto --setup-auth # Also configure auth profile

switch - Set specific model

freeride switch qwen3-coder         # Set as primary
freeride switch deepseek -f         # Add to fallbacks only
freeride switch nvidia/nemotron --no-fallbacks

status - Check configuration

freeride status

fallbacks - Update fallbacks only

freeride fallbacks         # 5 fallbacks
freeride fallbacks -c 10   # 10 fallbacks

refresh - Update model cache

freeride refresh

Behavior

Primary model: Best specific model (not router) for consistent responses.

First fallback: Always openrouter/free - OpenRouter's smart router that auto-selects based on request features (vision, tools, etc.).

Additional fallbacks: Ranked by quality score.

Config preservation: Only updates model-related sections; preserves gateway, channels, plugins, etc.

Model Ranking

Score (0-1) based on:

• Context length (40%)
• Capabilities (30%)
• Recency (20%)
• Provider trust (10%)

Flags

Config Output

Updates ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "openrouter/qwen/qwen3-coder:free",
        "fallbacks": [
          "openrouter/free:free",
          "nvidia/nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

"OPENROUTER_API_KEY not set": Export the key or add to shell profile.

Config not updating: Check file permissions on ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.

Changes not taking effect: Restart OpenClaw.