I run OpenClaw on a Hetzner CAX ARM VPS. It talks to me over Signal and does a morning press review. Three gotchas on that box are worth writing down: one money trap in the model-routing layer, and two silent failures that each left the briefing dead for days. In case someone is staring at the same thing.
OpenRouter can spend your credits on a provider you didn't pick
I use OpenRouter as the single door to a pile of models. Its BYOK (bring-your-own-key) feature has a trap. You add your own OpenAI key for a model, flip on "Always use for this provider," and read that as never spend OpenRouter credits. It doesn't mean that.
The toggle only guarantees they use your key for that provider. It does not stop OpenRouter routing to a different provider that serves the same model when your key fails or is unavailable — and that fallback spends your OpenRouter credits, at pay-per-token rates, on a provider you never picked. Working as designed. Just not the design in your head when you flip the toggle.
The setting that does what I wanted is the provider.only routing param. It tells OpenRouter to fail the request rather than fall back:
