Model Routing Baselines for Claude and OpenAI Usage
A developer on r/openclaw shared their current model routing baselines for working with Claude and OpenAI models. The setup assigns specific models to different task types based on complexity and cost considerations.
Primary Model Assignments
The routing table includes:
- Default/General tasks: Claude Haiku 4.5 - "Fast, cheap baseline for most tasks"
- Architecture & Design: Claude Sonnet 4.6 - "Complex reasoning needed"
- Security Analysis: Claude Sonnet 4.6 - "Injection resistance matters"
- Debugging: Claude Sonnet 4.6 - "After 2 failed Haiku attempts"
- Major Decisions: Claude Sonnet 4.6 - "Multi-project impact"
- All Coding Tasks: ChatGPT 5.3 Codex - "Writing, debugging, review, codebase architecture"
- Advanced Reasoning: Claude Opus 4.6 - "Only if Sonnet can't solve it"
Fallback Strategy
When Anthropic models are unavailable:
- Standard tasks → GPT-5 Mini
- Complex tasks → GPT-5.4
Cost Optimization Rules
The developer specifies never using premium models for:
- File reads/writes
- Simple questions
- Status updates
- Formatting
- Anything Haiku handles in one shot
📖 Read the full source: r/openclaw
👀 See Also
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