Smart Model Switching

What this skill does

Auto-route tasks to the cheapest Claude model that works correctly. Three-tier progression: Haiku → Sonnet → Opus. Classify before responding. HAIKU (default): factual Q&A, greetings, reminders, status checks, lookups, simple file ops, heartbeats, casual chat, 1-2 sentence tasks. ESCALATE TO SONNET: code >10 lines, analysis, comparisons, planning, reports, multi-step reasoning, tables, long writing >3 paragraphs, summarization, research synthesis, most user conversations. ESCALATE TO OPUS: architecture decisions, complex debugging, multi-file refactoring, strategic planning, nuanced judgment, deep research, critical production decisions. Rule: If a human needs >30 seconds of focused thinking, escalate. If Sonnet struggles with complexity, go to Opus. Save 50-90% on API costs by starting cheap and escalating only when needed.

How to install Smart Model Switching

The easiest path is via the OpenClaw Easy desktop app — one click, no terminal required:

1. Download OpenClaw Easy for macOS or Windows (free, one-click installer, ~30 seconds).
2. Open the in-app Skills panel.
3. Search for smart-model-switching and click Install.
4. The skill activates automatically when an incoming message matches its description.

Manual install (advanced)

If you prefer manual installation:

1. Click the Download .zip button above to grab smart-model-switching-1.0.0.zip directly from our S3 mirror.
2. Unzip into ~/.openclaw/skills/smart-model-switching/ (create the directory if it does not exist).
3. Restart OpenClaw Easy (or the OpenClaw CLI gateway) so the new skill is discovered.

Related: more developer tools skills

If Smart Model Switching looks useful, you may also want to check out other developer tools skills in the OpenClaw catalog:

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