Venice.Ai Router Openclaw

Venice.ai Supreme Router

Smart, cost-optimized model routing for Venice.ai — the AI platform for people who don't want Big Tech watching over their shoulder.

Unlike OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google — where every prompt is logged, analyzed, and potentially used to train future models — Venice offers true privacy with zero data retention on private models. Your conversations stay yours. Venice is also uncensored: no content filters, no refusals, no "I can't help with that."

Setup

1. Get a Venice.ai API key from venice.ai/settings/api 2. Set the environment variable:

export VENICE_API_KEY="your-key-here"

Or configure in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "venice-router": {
        "enabled": true,
        "apiKey": "YOUR_VENICE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage

Route a prompt (auto-selects model)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --prompt "What is 2+2?"

Force a specific tier

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier cheap --prompt "Tell me a joke"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier budget-medium --prompt "Write a Python function"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier mid --prompt "Explain quantum computing"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier premium --prompt "Write a distributed systems architecture"

Stream output

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --stream --prompt "Write a poem about lobsters"

Web search (LLM searches the web and cites sources)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --web-search --prompt "Latest news on AI regulation"

Uncensored mode (prefer models with no content filters)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --uncensored --prompt "Write edgy creative fiction"

Private-only mode (zero data retention, no Big Tech proxying)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --private-only --prompt "Analyze this confidential contract"

Conversation-aware routing (multi-turn context)

# Save conversation history as JSON, then route follow-ups with context
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --conversation history.json --prompt "Can you add tests too?"

The router analyzes conversation history to keep context: trivial follow-ups ("thanks") go cheap, while follow-ups in complex code discussions stay at the right tier.

Function calling (tool use)

# Define tools in a JSON file (OpenAI tools format)
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tools tools.json --prompt "What's the weather in NYC?"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tools tools.json --tool-choice auto --prompt "Search for latest AI news"

Tool definitions use the standard OpenAI format. The router auto-bumps to mid tier minimum for function calling since it requires capable models.

Cost budget tracking

# Show current spending
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --budget-status
Track per-session costs
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --session-id my-project --prompt "help me code"

Set VENICE_DAILY_BUDGET and/or VENICE_SESSION_BUDGET to enforce spending limits. The router auto-downgrades tiers as you approach budget limits.

Classify only (no API call)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --classify "Explain the Riemann hypothesis"

List available models and tiers

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --list-models

Override model directly

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --model deepseek-v3.2 --prompt "Hello"

Tiers

| Tier | Models | Cost (input/output per 1M tokens) | Best For | |------|--------|-----------------------------------|----------| | cheap | Venice Small (qwen3-4b), GLM 4.7 Flash, GPT OSS 120B, Llama 3.2 3B | $0.05–$0.15 / $0.15–$0.60 | Simple Q&A, greetings, math, lookups | | budget | Qwen 3 235B, Venice Uncensored, GLM 4.7 Flash Heretic | $0.14–$0.20 / $0.75–$0.90 | Moderate questions, summaries, translations | | budget-medium | Grok Code Fast, DeepSeek V3.2, MiniMax M2.1 | $0.25–$0.40 / $1.00–$1.87 | Moderate-to-complex tasks, code snippets, structured output | | mid | DeepSeek V3.2, MiniMax M2.1/M2.5, Qwen3 Thinking 235B, Venice Medium, Llama 3.3 70B | $0.25–$0.70 / $1.00–$3.50 | Code generation, analysis, longer writing, reasoning | | high | GLM 5, Kimi K2 Thinking, Kimi K2.5, Grok 4.1 Fast, Hermes 3 405B, Gemini 3 Flash | $0.50–$1.10 / $1.25–$3.75 | Complex reasoning, multi-step tasks, code review | | premium | GPT-5.2, GPT-5.2 Codex, Gemini 3 Pro, Gemini 3.1 Pro (1M ctx), Claude Opus/Sonnet 4.5/4.6 | $2.19–$6.00 / $15.00–$30.00 | Expert-level analysis, architecture, research papers |

Routing Strategy

The router classifies each prompt using keyword + heuristic analysis:

1. Length — longer prompts suggest more complex tasks 2. Keywords — domain-specific terms (e.g., "architecture", "optimize", "prove") signal complexity 3. Code markers — presence of code blocks, function names, or technical syntax 4. Instruction depth — multi-step instructions, comparisons, or "explain in detail" bump the tier 5. Conversational simplicity — greetings, yes/no, small talk stay on the cheapest tier 6. Conversation history — when --conversation is provided, analyzes full chat context: code in history boosts tier, trivial follow-ups ("thanks") downgrade, tool calls in history signal complexity 7. Function calling — --tools auto-bumps to at least mid tier (capable models required) 8. Thinking/reasoning mode — --thinking prefers chain-of-thought reasoning models (Qwen3 Thinking, Kimi K2) and bumps to at least mid tier 9. Budget constraints — progressive tier downgrade as spending approaches daily/session limits (95% → cheap, 80% → budget, 60% → mid, 40% → high)

The classifier errs on the side of cheaper models — it only escalates when there's strong signal for complexity.

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | Default | |----------|-------------|---------| | VENICE_API_KEY | Venice.ai API key (required) | — | | VENICE_DEFAULT_TIER | Minimum floor tier — auto-classification never goes below this. Valid: cheap, budget, budget-medium, mid, high, premium | budget | | VENICE_MAX_TIER | Maximum tier to ever use (cost cap) | premium | | VENICE_TEMPERATURE | Default temperature | 0.7 | | VENICE_MAX_TOKENS | Default max tokens | 4096 | | VENICE_STREAM | Enable streaming by default | false | | VENICE_UNCENSORED | Always prefer uncensored models | false | | VENICE_PRIVATE_ONLY | Only use private models (zero data retention) | false | | VENICE_WEB_SEARCH | Enable web search by default ($10/1K calls) | false | | VENICE_THINKING | Always prefer thinking/reasoning models | false | | VENICE_DAILY_BUDGET | Max daily spend in USD (0 = unlimited) | 0 | | VENICE_SESSION_BUDGET | Max per-session spend in USD (0 = unlimited) | 0 |

Why Venice.ai?

Tips

Route a prompt (auto-selects model)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --prompt "What is 2+2?"

Force a specific tier

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier cheap --prompt "Tell me a joke"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier budget-medium --prompt "Write a Python function"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier mid --prompt "Explain quantum computing"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tier premium --prompt "Write a distributed systems architecture"

Stream output

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --stream --prompt "Write a poem about lobsters"

Web search (LLM searches the web and cites sources)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --web-search --prompt "Latest news on AI regulation"

Uncensored mode (prefer models with no content filters)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --uncensored --prompt "Write edgy creative fiction"

Private-only mode (zero data retention, no Big Tech proxying)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --private-only --prompt "Analyze this confidential contract"

Conversation-aware routing (multi-turn context)

# Save conversation history as JSON, then route follow-ups with context
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --conversation history.json --prompt "Can you add tests too?"

The router analyzes conversation history to keep context: trivial follow-ups ("thanks") go cheap, while follow-ups in complex code discussions stay at the right tier.

Function calling (tool use)

# Define tools in a JSON file (OpenAI tools format)
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tools tools.json --prompt "What's the weather in NYC?"
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --tools tools.json --tool-choice auto --prompt "Search for latest AI news"

Tool definitions use the standard OpenAI format. The router auto-bumps to mid tier minimum for function calling since it requires capable models.

Cost budget tracking

# Show current spending
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --budget-status
Track per-session costs
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --session-id my-project --prompt "help me code"

Set VENICE_DAILY_BUDGET and/or VENICE_SESSION_BUDGET to enforce spending limits. The router auto-downgrades tiers as you approach budget limits.

Classify only (no API call)

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --classify "Explain the Riemann hypothesis"

List available models and tiers

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --list-models

Override model directly

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/venice-router.py --model deepseek-v3.2 --prompt "Hello"

1. Get a Venice.ai API key from venice.ai/settings/api 2. Set the environment variable:

export VENICE_API_KEY="your-key-here"

Or configure in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "venice-router": {
        "enabled": true,
        "apiKey": "YOUR_VENICE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}