Piramilan Suthesakumaran

Full-Stack & AI Engineer

Published March 18, 2026Updated March 18, 20261 min readBy Piramilan Suthesakumaran

How to Clear All Fallback Models in OpenClaw

Use the dedicated clear command so you reset the fallback chain cleanly instead of hand-editing model config under pressure.

If your fallback chain has become noisy or misleading, clear it explicitly and rebuild only the backups you actually want. OpenClaw has a direct command for this, so there is no reason to edit the config file by hand.

Quick answer

Run openclaw models fallbacks clear, then confirm the result with openclaw models fallbacks list and openclaw models status.

Command line steps

1. Clear the chain in one shot

This removes the configured fallback list without touching the primary model.

Command

BASH

$openclaw models fallbacks clear

2. Verify that the chain is really empty

Check both the short list and the full status view.

Command

BASH

$openclaw models fallbacks list
$openclaw models status

3. Add back only the backups you want

Rebuild the chain deliberately instead of carrying forward stale providers.

Command

BASH

$openclaw models fallbacks add <provider/model>
$openclaw models status --probe

What to check if it still fails

  • If the same fallback reappears, another tool or wizard step may be re-writing the config. Reopen openclaw configure --section model and save once.
  • If a removed fallback still shows up in chat, you are probably looking at session-level model state rather than gateway config.
  • If status shows missing auth for a fallback you kept, fix the credentials now or the backup will not help during failures.

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