How to Change the Primary or Default Model in OpenClaw

Changing the default model should be a small, explicit config change. OpenClaw exposes that directly through the models CLI, so you can switch the primary and validate it immediately.

Quick answer

Run openclaw models set <provider/model>, then confirm the resolved state with openclaw models status or reopen the interactive model section with openclaw configure --section model.

Command line steps

1. Inspect the current state first

This makes it obvious whether you are changing the primary, the allowlist, or both.

openclaw models status
openclaw models list

2. Set the new primary model

Use the fully-qualified provider/model ref so there is no ambiguity.

openclaw models set <provider/model>

3. Verify what the resolver now sees

The status output is the source of truth after a change like this.

openclaw models status
openclaw models status --probe

What to check if it still fails

• If the new primary is not allowed, reopen openclaw configure --section model and add it to the allowlist.
• If the old model keeps showing in chat, you may be looking at a session override instead of the gateway default.
• If auth is missing, switching models will not help until the provider credentials are fixed.