Summary

When using free or cheap models with openclaw, the application often fails to respond without clear feedback about why. There's no visibility into whether the model is responding, how long it takes, or if the request failed entirely. This makes it difficult to diagnose issues and choose reliable models.

Proposed solution

Add a "Model Ping" or "Health Check" feature that provides:

1. Response time tracking - Display how long each model takes to respond
2. Success/Failure indicators - Show whether the model responded successfully or failed
3. Threshold configuration - Allow users to set a timeout threshold (e.g., 10s, 30s) after which the request is considered failed
4. Model status dashboard - A view showing the health status of configured models
5. Automatic fallback (optional) - If the primary model fails/times out, automatically try a backup model

Potential UI elements:

• A "Test Model" button in model configuration
• Response time displayed next to model name
• Color-coded status indicators (green = healthy, yellow = slow, red = failed)
• Logs showing request/response times and errors

Alternatives considered

• Manual testing via API clients - Requires switching tools and doesn't integrate with openclaw's configuration
• Adding more expensive models - Not ideal when trying to use free/cheap options for certain tasks
• Trial and error - Current approach, but wastes time and provides no diagnostic data

Additional context

This feature would help users:

• Make informed decisions about which free/cheap models are reliable
• Debug issues when models stop responding
• Set up reliable fallback configurations
• Understand if the problem is with the model provider vs openclaw