Problem

Some model providers (e.g. MiniMax) do not return usage data in the format OpenClaw expects. As a result:

• totalTokensFresh stays False for all sessions
• /status always shows Context: 0/205k (0%) — completely unusable
• Auto-compaction never triggers because OpenClaw does not know the current context size
• Users have no visibility into context consumption

Current behavior

• /status reads usage from the model API response
• When API returns {"input": 0, "output": 0, "totalTokens": 0}, OpenClaw gives up and shows 0%
• contextTokens in session store contains the model's max context window (e.g. 204800), not the actual usage

Proposed solution

When totalTokensFresh is False (API usage unavailable), OpenClaw should:

1. Parse the session JSONL file locally
2. Estimate token count from stored messages (chars / 4 or similar heuristic)
3. Display in /status with an [estimated] indicator, e.g. Context: ~194k/205k (95%) [estimated]
4. Use this estimate for auto-compaction threshold calculation

Evidence

• Session file was 600KB+ with 247+ messages
• Manually parsed: ~102k tokens (~50% of 204.8k context window)
• But /status still showed Context: 0/205k (0%)

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.3.24
• Model: minimax/MiniMax-M2.7
• The model's API does not return standard usage data
• OS: macOS (Darwin 25.4.0, arm64)