Telegram Routing

Manage how OpenClaw routes Telegram messages to different Claude model backends. Switch between CLI and API providers with simple config changes.

/telegram-routing — Telegram Message Routing Manager

Manage how Telegram messages are routed between different Claude model backends in OpenClaw.

Usage

/telegram-routing status       # Show current routing config
/telegram-routing model <ref>  # Switch primary model (e.g. opus, sonnet, haiku)
/telegram-routing logs         # Show recent message processing logs
/telegram-routing fallback     # Switch to lightweight API mode
/telegram-routing restore      # Restore default CLI-based routing

Config Location

All settings live in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under agents.defaults.

Key fields:

• model.primary — The primary model/provider reference
• model.fallbacks — Ordered fallback chain when primary is unavailable

Commands

status

Read the OpenClaw config and display current routing settings including:

• Active primary model
• Configured fallback models
• Whether CLI backend is active

model <ref>

Switch the primary model. Valid shorthand references:

Shorthand	Resolves to
opus	claude-cli/opus
sonnet	claude-cli/sonnet
haiku	anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5

Steps:

1. Read ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
2. Update agents.defaults.model.primary to the resolved model reference
3. Write the updated config
4. Restart the gateway service
5. Verify via gateway logs

logs

Show recent Telegram message processing activity from the gateway log.

fallback

Quick switch to API-only mode for faster, lightweight responses.

restore

Restore the default CLI-based routing configuration.

Architecture

Messages flow through the OpenClaw Gateway, which reads the configured model provider and dispatches to the appropriate backend. CLI-based providers use the local Claude Code installation, while API providers make direct API calls.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
Config errors on restart	Run openclaw doctor to validate config
Slow responses	Try switching to sonnet for faster responses
Gateway issues	Check ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway.log for details
Falling back to secondary model	Primary backend may be unavailable — check logs