Skip to content

Bug: Unexpected model fallback after successful response #9549

@vgoudschmidt

Description

@vgoudschmidt

Summary

Automatic model fallback triggered after a successful response from the primary model, not due to a failure.

Environment

  • OpenClaw version: latest (as of 2026-02-04)
  • Primary model: ollama/qwen3:32b
  • Fallback chain: [qwen3:32b, gpt-oss-agentic]

Timeline (from session transcript)

Time Event
10:58:33 Session start with qwen3:32b
10:58:54 First response (greeting, 21s)
11:03:11 Tool-call with validation error (missing action: param)
11:04:12 Retry succeeds with action: send (61s total turn)
11:04:58 Unexpected switch to gpt-oss-agentic (no model_change event, only model-snapshot)
11:05:07 gpt-oss responds (9s)

Expected Behavior

Model should remain on qwen3:32b since:

  1. The response was successful (tool call completed)
  2. No explicit /model command was issued
  3. No error or timeout occurred

Actual Behavior

Fallback to next model in chain triggered silently after successful completion.

Notes

  • No model_change event in transcript — only model-snapshot shows the switch
  • Gateway logs from that time are rotated/unavailable
  • Possibly related to the 61s response time? But that's not a timeout.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    bugSomething isn't workingstaleMarked as stale due to inactivity

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions