FreeRide (Prefix Fix) - Free AI for OpenClaw

📌 This is a community fork of the original FreeRide by Shaishav Pidadi.

What's fixed: Model ID prefix routing in the format_model_for_openclaw() function. The original skill wrote fallback model IDs without the openrouter/ routing prefix, causing OpenClaw to fail with "Unknown model" errors. This fork ensures all specific models are prefixed with openrouter/ while preserving the openrouter/free smart router ID.

What This Skill Does

Configures OpenClaw to use free AI models from OpenRouter. Sets the best free model as primary, adds ranked fallbacks so rate limits don't interrupt the user, and preserves existing config.

Prerequisites

1. OPENROUTER_API_KEY is set:

   export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."
   # Or persist it:
   openclaw config set env.OPENROUTER_API_KEY "sk-or-v1-..."
   

2. The freeride-fix CLI is installed:

   cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/free-ride-prefix-fix
   pip install -e .
   

Primary Workflow

# Step 1: Configure best free model + fallbacks
freeride-fix auto

# Step 2: Restart gateway
openclaw gateway restart

Commands Reference

After any config change, run openclaw gateway restart.

The Bug That Was Fixed

Before (broken):

{
  "primary": "openrouter/qwen/qwen3.6-plus-preview:free",  // ✅ had prefix
  "fallbacks": [
    "openrouter/free",                      // ✅ smart router (ID includes prefix)
    "nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b:free"  // ❌ missing openrouter/ prefix!
  ]
}

After (fixed):

{
  "primary": "openrouter/qwen/qwen3.6-plus-preview:free",  // ✅
  "fallbacks": [
    "openrouter/free",                      // ✅ preserved (no double-prefix)
    "openrouter/nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b:free"  // ✅ correct routing prefix
  ]
}

Code Change (main.py format_model_for_openclaw)

Original (buggy):

if with_provider_prefix:
    return f"openrouter/{base_id}"
return base_id  # ❌ fallbacks get NO prefix → "Unknown model" error

Fixed:

# openrouter/free is already a fully-qualified router ID, don't double-prefix
if model_id in ("openrouter/free", "openrouter/free:free"):
    return "openrouter/free"

# All other specific models need the routing prefix
# Remove existing prefix first, normalize, then add it back
if base_id.startswith("openrouter/"):
    base_id = base_id[len("openrouter/"):]
if append_free and ":free" not in base_id:
    base_id = f"{base_id}:free"

return f"openrouter/{base_id}"  # ✅ always prefixed (except smart router)

Troubleshooting

Attribution

• Original author: Shaishav Pidadi (FreeRide)
• License: MIT (unchanged from original)
• Fix by: rongtianhua (2026-04-01)