NemoClawChange the active inference model while the sandbox is running. You do not need to restart the sandbox.
PATH, which NemoClaw uses under the hood.Use nemohermes inference set with the provider and model that match the upstream you want to use.
The command updates the OpenShell inference route and synchronizes the running agent config.
For Hermes, it updates /sandbox/.hermes/config.yaml (model.default, model.base_url, and model.provider: custom) without rebuilding or restarting Hermes.
Pass --sandbox <name> when you do not want to use the default registered sandbox.
Under nemohermes, pass --sandbox <name> when you have registered more than one Hermes sandbox.
If you onboarded a custom compatible endpoint, switch models with the provider created for that endpoint:
For a NemoClaw-managed Hermes sandbox, use the Hermes alias with the registered Hermes Provider route:
If onboarding selected /v1/responses but the agent fails at runtime, re-run onboarding so the wizard re-probes the endpoint and bakes the correct API path into the image.
This can happen when the backend does not emit the streaming events OpenClaw requires.
Select the same provider and endpoint again.
The updated streaming probe detects incomplete /v1/responses support and selects /v1/chat/completions automatically.
For the compatible-endpoint provider, NemoClaw uses /v1/chat/completions by default, so you do not need an environment variable to keep the safe path.
To opt in to /v1/responses for a backend you have verified end to end, set NEMOCLAW_PREFERRED_API before onboarding:
NEMOCLAW_INFERENCE_API_OVERRIDE patches the config at container startup but does not update the Dockerfile ARG baked into the image.
If you recreate the sandbox without the override environment variable, the image reverts to the original API path.
A fresh nemohermes onboard is the reliable fix because it updates both the
session and the baked image.
Switching to a different provider family (for example, from NVIDIA Endpoints to Anthropic) also uses nemohermes inference set.
The command updates both the gateway route and /sandbox/.hermes/config.yaml.
If the Hermes config sync fails after the gateway route is updated, NemoClaw keeps the host registry aligned with the gateway and prints a rebuild hint.
Run the rebuild before relying on the running agent if the warning says the image config could not be patched.
Use --no-verify only when OpenShell cannot verify the provider at switch time but you have already confirmed the provider and credential.
The sandbox image bakes model metadata (context window, max output tokens, reasoning mode, and accepted input modalities) into openclaw.json at build time.
To change these values, set the corresponding environment variables before running nemohermes onboard so they patch into the Dockerfile before the image builds.
NemoClaw ignores invalid values and bakes the default into the image.
For Local Ollama, onboarding loads the selected model first and uses Ollama’s reported runtime context length when NEMOCLAW_CONTEXT_WINDOW is unset.
For local vLLM, onboarding uses the runtime max_model_len value when the server reports one and NEMOCLAW_CONTEXT_WINDOW is unset.
Use NEMOCLAW_INFERENCE_INPUTS=text,image only for a model that accepts image input through the selected provider.
NEMOCLAW_AGENT_TIMEOUT controls the per-request inference timeout baked into the Hermes sandbox image.
Increase it for slow local inference, such as CPU-only Ollama or vLLM on modest hardware.
Direct in-sandbox edits are not the supported or durable way to change NemoClaw-managed defaults.
Rebuild the sandbox with nemohermes onboard to apply a new value.
Hermes does not use OpenClaw’s HEARTBEAT.md wake-up mechanism.
Rebuild the sandbox with nemohermes onboard --resume to apply build-time inference metadata changes.
These variables are build-time settings. If you change them on an existing sandbox, recreate the sandbox so the new values bake into the image:
Use nemohermes inference get to print the provider and model the gateway is currently routing to.
Run it before nemohermes inference set to confirm the starting state, or after a switch to verify the new route.
Pass --json for machine-readable output.
The command exits non-zero with OpenShell inference route is not configured. when the gateway has no registered inference route.
Run nemohermes onboard to configure one.
Run the status command when you also need sandbox, service, and messaging health:
The status output includes the active provider, model, and endpoint with the rest of the sandbox state.
inference.local.nemohermes inference set patches the selected running Hermes sandbox config and recomputes its config hash.nemohermes onboard --resume --recreate-sandbox for build-time settings such as context window, max tokens, reasoning mode, heartbeat cadence, or image contents.OPENAI_API_KEY. Rebuilds of older local-inference sandboxes clear the stale OpenAI credential requirement automatically.