Bug type

Regression (worked before, now fails) — the agents.defaults.models shape with agentRuntime.id: claude-cli is the post-5.12 recommended way to express "this canonical alias resolves through the CLI binary, not direct API" (see #82314), but /btw was never updated to honor it.

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

/btw throws Unknown model: <provider>/<modelId> when the agent's primary model is configured as a canonical alias (e.g. anthropic/claude-opus-4-7) routed via agents.defaults.models[].agentRuntime.id = "claude-cli", and the agent's discovered models.json does not contain a bare anthropic provider entry. The same model id works fine for the main turn. Repros 4/4 on 2026.6.5 (5181e4f).

Steps to reproduce

1. ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

   "agents.defaults": {
     "model": { "primary": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-7" },
     "models": {
       "anthropic/claude-opus-4-7": { "agentRuntime": { "id": "claude-cli" } }
     }
   }

2. ~/.openclaw/agents/main/agent/models.json does not contain an anthropic provider entry. (Either no API key has been registered for direct Anthropic, or the agent's only registered Anthropic-compatible providers are third-party proxies under different provider keys.)
3. Send a normal turn — works (the claude-cli runtime takes over via cli_runtime_passthrough_openclaw).
4. Send /btw <any question> in the same session.

Expected behavior

/btw resolves the same anthropic/claude-opus-4-7 ref the main turn just used and answers the side question. The configured agentRuntime.id = claude-cli should route BTW down the same cli_runtime_passthrough_openclaw path the main agent uses, instead of failing on a strict registry lookup that ignores the alias.

Actual behavior

⚠️ /btw failed: Unknown model: anthropic/claude-opus-4-7

Thrown at src/agents/btw.ts:267 from the resolveModelWithRegistry call at btw.ts:260.

OpenClaw version

2026.6.5 (5181e4f)

Operating system

macOS 15.4 (Darwin 25.4.0, arm64)

Install method

npm global

Model

anthropic/claude-opus-4-7 (with agentRuntime.id: claude-cli)

Provider / routing chain

openclaw → claude-cli runtime → claude binary

Additional provider/model setup details

• agents.defaults.models declares the canonical anthropic/* alias with agentRuntime: { id: "claude-cli" } — the dual-route shape recommended by [Feature]: Per-alias agentRuntime override to support dual-route model configurations (Anthropic CLI + API) #82314.
• ~/.openclaw/agents/main/agent/models.json only contains custom third-party Anthropic-compatible providers (different provider keys, e.g. my-proxy-anthropic); no bare anthropic provider is auto-discovered, by design — there is no direct Anthropic API key on this host, and the claude-cli runtime is supposed to handle it.

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

⚠️ /btw failed: Unknown model: anthropic/claude-opus-4-7

Resolver-path divergence (read in 2026.6.5 source):

• Main turn (works) — src/agents/embedded-agent-runner/run.ts:710-790 builds a multi-candidate provider list (selectedRuntimeProvider + canonical provider) and calls resolveModelAsync with allowBundledStaticCatalogFallback: pluginHarnessOwnsTransport. On miss it re-runs ensureOpenClawModelsJson and retries. Harness selection at src/agents/harness/selection.ts:181-191 honors cli_runtime_passthrough_openclaw so agentRuntime: claude-cli aliases are accepted as bare anthropic/* refs.
• BTW (fails) — src/agents/btw.ts:343 runs selectAgentHarness (correctly returns the OpenClaw harness via cli_runtime_passthrough_openclaw); because harness.runSideQuestion is undefined, control falls through to btw.ts:409 → resolveRuntimeModel → resolveModelWithRegistry at btw.ts:260. That call uses only the disk-discovered modelRegistry (single provider list, no selectedRuntimeProvider candidate, no bundled-catalog fallback). The bare anthropic provider isn't on disk → Unknown model at btw.ts:267.

The error message is also thinner than the main path produces — resolveModelAsync formats a richer "Found agents.defaults.models[...] but no matching models.providers[...]" message via buildUnknownModelError (embedded-agent-runner/model.ts:1383-1393); BTW's primitive path skips that.

Impact and severity

• Affected: Any user with agents.defaults.models[<canonical-alias>].agentRuntime.id set to a CLI runtime alias (the shape [Feature]: Per-alias agentRuntime override to support dual-route model configurations (Anthropic CLI + API) #82314 is asking for, and the only way to express "use the CLI binary, not the direct API" since canonical-namespace consolidation in 5.12). Main turns work; /btw is broken on every invocation.
• Severity: Annoying, blocks workflow — /btw is unusable; main turns continue to work, so the blast radius is limited to that one command.
• Frequency: 4/4 observed (deterministic given the config shape).
• Consequence: No side-question access in active sessions. Workaround forces users to either drop the canonical-alias indirection or skip /btw.

Additional information

• Sibling resolver-divergence reports: image/pdf tool: 'Unknown model' for every provider, while the same models work as agent models (2026.5.28 and 2026.6.5) #92104 (image/pdf tool: same "resolver instance can't see catalog/aliases" symptom on every provider) and [Feature]: Per-alias agentRuntime override to support dual-route model configurations (Anthropic CLI + API) #82314 (asks for the dual-route alias shape that this bug then fails to handle in /btw). Likely the same underlying lesson — every callsite that resolves a runtime model should use resolveModelAsync (with multi-candidate + bundled-catalog fallback), not the bare resolveModelWithRegistry.
• Suggested fix: Replace resolveModelWithRegistry in btw.ts:260 with resolveModelAsync (or at least mirror run.ts:730-790's selectedRuntimeProvider candidate list + allowBundledStaticCatalogFallback: pluginHarnessOwnsTransport + ensureOpenClawModelsJson retry on miss). Harness selection above already classifies the run correctly; only the model-resolver call is wrong.
• Workaround: Change agents.defaults.model.primary from anthropic/<model> to the explicit claude-cli/<model> (which models.json discovery does write). Cost: loses the canonical-alias indirection [Feature]: Per-alias agentRuntime override to support dual-route model configurations (Anthropic CLI + API) #82314 is steering users toward.
• Last known good version: unknown — the affected code path predates 2026.5.12 alias consolidation. Likely never worked under this config shape.