Modelsense

ModelSense — The right model for the right job. Recommends the best LLM model and effort level for any task, based on benchmark data, task analysis, and the user's configured providers. Use when the user asks "which model should I use?", "what's the best model for X?", or wants help choosing between models/effort levels.

ModelSense Skill

Purpose

ModelSense helps users pick the optimal model and effort level for their task. It does NOT route automatically on every request (use a provider plugin for that). It's an on-demand advisor: ask it a question, get a clear recommendation with reasoning.

When to trigger

• User asks: "which model for X?", "should I use Opus or Sonnet?", "what effort level?"
• User wants to understand what a benchmark means
• User wants ModelSense to auto-switch the session model

Inputs to collect (infer from context, ask only if truly unclear)

1. Task description — what is the user trying to do?
2. Effort preference (optional): quick / balanced / deep / research
   • If not specified, infer from task urgency/complexity
3. Auto-switch? — does the user want ModelSense to apply the recommendation automatically?

Recommendation Process

Step 1 — Task Analysis

Classify the task across these dimensions:

• Domain: code, math, reasoning, writing, dialogue, document analysis, multimodal, research
• Complexity: simple / moderate / complex / research-grade
• Output type: text, code, JSON, long-form, structured data
• Context length needed: short (<8K), medium (8–32K), long (32K+), very long (100K+)
• Special requirements: function calling, thinking/CoT, multimodal, speed-sensitive

Step 2 — Benchmark Matching

Cross-reference task domain with relevant benchmarks from data/benchmarks.yaml.

Benchmark	Best for
HumanEval / SWE-bench	Code generation, debugging, engineering
GPQA	Graduate-level science & research
MATH / AIME	Mathematical reasoning
MMLU	General knowledge, multidomain QA
Needle-in-Haystack	Long-context retrieval
MT-Bench / Arena Elo	Dialogue, writing quality
BBH (Big-Bench Hard)	Complex reasoning, multi-step logic

Step 3 — Effort × Model Matrix

Effort	Target quality	Typical model tier
quick	Good enough, fast	Haiku / Flash / GLM
balanced	High quality, reasonable cost	Sonnet / GPT-4o
deep	Best available, thinking on	Opus / o3
research	No cost limit, maximum quality	Opus + thinking=high

Step 4 — Provider Filter

Check the user's available providers:

• Run: openclaw models list via exec tool (or read from context)
• Only recommend models the user can actually use
• Flag when a top pick requires a provider they haven't configured

Step 5 — Output the Recommendation

Format:

text

🎯 Recommended: <model>
⚡ Effort: <level>
📊 Why: <1-2 sentence benchmark-grounded rationale>
🔧 Special: <thinking on? function calling? etc.>
💰 Cost estimate: <rough $/M or relative>

Alternatives:
  - <model B> — if you want faster/cheaper
  - <model C> — if you want higher quality

Auto-Switch Behaviors

Option A: Advisory only (default)

Just output the recommendation. Tell user: "Run /model <name> to switch."

Option B: Switch current session

If user confirms or says "yes switch" / "apply it":

python

session_status(model="<provider/model>")

Notify user: "✅ Switched to X for this session. Run /model default to reset."

Option C: Delegate task to best model

If user says "just do it with the best model":

python

sessions_spawn(
  task="<original task>",
  model="<recommended model>",
  thinking="<level>"
)

Data Files

• data/benchmarks.yaml — benchmark definitions, score leaders, task mappings
• data/models.yaml — model catalog (updated via GitHub Actions weekly)

Examples

User: "I need to write a Solidity audit report" → Domain: code + security + long-form → Benchmarks: SWE-bench, HumanEval → Recommendation: claude-opus-4-6 with thinking=high, effort=deep

User: "Quick summary of this Slack thread" → Domain: dialogue, short → Recommendation: claude-haiku-4-5 or gemini-flash, effort=quick

User: "Prove this mathematical conjecture" → Domain: math, research-grade → Benchmarks: MATH, AIME, GPQA → Recommendation: o3 or claude-opus-4-6 with thinking=high, effort=research