Manifest — LLM Router & Observability for OpenClaw

Manifest is an OpenClaw plugin that:

Routes every request to the most cost-effective model via a 23-dimension scoring algorithm (<2ms latency)
Tracks costs and tokens in a real-time dashboard
Sets limits with email alerts and hard spending caps

Source: github.com/mnfst/manifest — MIT licensed. Homepage: manifest.build

Setup (Cloud — default)

Three commands, no coding:

openclaw plugins install manifest
openclaw config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.apiKey "mnfst_YOUR_KEY"
openclaw gateway restart

Get the API key at app.manifest.build → create an account → create an agent → copy the mnfst_* key.

After restart, the plugin auto-configures:

Adds manifest/auto to the model allowlist (does not change your current default)
Injects the manifest provider into ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
Starts exporting OTLP telemetry to app.manifest.build
Exposes three agent tools: manifest_usage, manifest_costs, manifest_health

Dashboard at app.manifest.build. Telemetry arrives within 10-30 seconds (batched OTLP export).

Verify connection

openclaw manifest

Shows: mode, endpoint reachability, auth validity, agent name.

Configuration Changes

On plugin registration, Manifest writes to these files:

File	Change	Reversible
`~/.openclaw/openclaw.json`	Adds `models.providers.manifest` provider entry; adds `manifest/auto` to `agents.defaults.models` allowlist	Yes — `openclaw plugins uninstall manifest`
`~/.openclaw/agents/*/agent/auth-profiles.json`	Adds `manifest:default` auth profile	Yes — uninstall removes it
`~/.openclaw/manifest/config.json`	Stores auto-generated API key (local mode only, file mode 0600)	Yes — delete `~/.openclaw/manifest/`
`~/.openclaw/manifest/manifest.db`	SQLite database (local mode only)	Yes — delete the file

No other files are modified. The plugin does not change your current default model.

Install Provenance

openclaw plugins install manifest installs the manifest npm package.

Source: github.com/mnfst/manifest (packages/openclaw-plugin/)
License: MIT
Author: MNFST Inc.

Verify before installing:

npm view manifest repository.url
npm view manifest dist.integrity

Setup (Local — offline alternative)

Use local mode only when data must never leave the machine.

openclaw plugins install manifest
openclaw config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.mode local
openclaw gateway restart

Dashboard opens at http://127.0.0.1:2099. Data stored locally in ~/.openclaw/manifest/manifest.db. No account or API key needed.

To expose over Tailscale (requires Tailscale on both devices, only accessible within your Tailnet): tailscale serve --bg 2099

What Manifest Answers

Manifest answers these questions about your OpenClaw agents — via the dashboard or directly in-conversation via agent tools:

Spending & budget

How much have I spent today / this week / this month?
What's my cost breakdown by model?
Which model consumes the biggest share of my budget?
Am I approaching my spending limit?

Token consumption

How many tokens has my agent used (input vs. output)?
What's my token trend compared to the previous period?
How much cache am I reading vs. writing?

Activity & performance

How many LLM calls has my agent made?
How long do LLM calls take (latency)?
Are there errors or rate limits occurring? What are the error messages?
Which skills/tools are running and how often?

Routing intelligence

What routing tier (simple/standard/complex/reasoning) was each request assigned?
Why was a specific tier chosen?
What model pricing is available across all providers?

Connectivity

Is Manifest connected and healthy?
Is telemetry flowing correctly?

Agent Tools

Three tools are available to the agent in-conversation:

Tool	Trigger phrases	What it returns
`manifest_usage`	"how many tokens", "token usage", "consumption"	Total, input, output, cache-read tokens + action count for today/week/month
`manifest_costs`	"how much spent", "costs", "money burned"	Cost breakdown by model in USD for today/week/month
`manifest_health`	"is monitoring working", "connectivity test"	Endpoint reachable, auth valid, agent name, status

Each accepts a period parameter: "today", "week", or "month".

All three tools are read-only — they query the agent's own usage data and never send message content.

LLM Routing

When the model is set to manifest/auto, the router scores each conversation across 23 dimensions and assigns one of 4 tiers:

Tier	Use case	Examples
Simple	Greetings, confirmations, short lookups	"hi", "yes", "what time is it"
Standard	General tasks, balanced quality/cost	"summarize this", "write a test"
Complex	Multi-step reasoning, nuanced analysis	"compare these architectures", "debug this stack trace"
Reasoning	Formal logic, proofs, critical planning	"prove this theorem", "design a migration strategy"

Each tier maps to a model. Default models are auto-assigned per provider, but overridable in the dashboard under Routing.

Short-circuit rules:

Messages <50 chars with no tools → Simple
Formal logic keywords → Reasoning
Tools present → floor at Standard
Context >50k tokens → floor at Complex

Dashboard Pages

Page	What it shows
Workspace	All connected agents as cards with sparkline activity charts
Overview	Per-agent cost, tokens, messages with trend badges and time-series charts
Messages	Full paginated message log with filters (status, model, cost range)
Routing	4-tier model config, provider connections, enable/disable routing
Limits	Email alerts and hard spending caps (tokens or cost, per hour/day/week/month)
Settings	Agent rename, delete, OTLP key management
Model Prices	Sortable table of 300+ model prices across all providers

Supported Providers

Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, xAI, Mistral AI, Qwen, MiniMax, Kimi, Amazon Nova, Z.ai, OpenRouter, Ollama. 300+ models total.

Uninstall

openclaw plugins uninstall manifest
openclaw gateway restart

This removes the plugin, provider config, and auth profiles. After uninstalling, manifest/auto is no longer available. If any agent uses it, switch to another model.

Troubleshooting

Telemetry not appearing: The gateway batches OTLP data every 10-30 seconds. Wait, then check openclaw manifest for connection status.

Auth errors in cloud mode: Verify the API key starts with mnfst_ and matches the key in the dashboard under Settings → Agent setup.

Port conflict in local mode: If port 2099 is busy, the plugin checks if the existing process is Manifest and reuses it. To change the port: openclaw config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.port <PORT>.

Plugin conflicts: Manifest conflicts with the built-in diagnostics-otel plugin. Disable it before enabling Manifest.

After backend restart: Always restart the gateway too (openclaw gateway restart) — the OTLP pipeline doesn't auto-reconnect.

Privacy

External Endpoints

Endpoint	When	Data Sent
`{endpoint}/v1/traces`	Every LLM call (batched 10-30s)	OTLP spans (see fields below)
`{endpoint}/v1/metrics`	Every 10-30s	Counters: request count, token totals, tool call counts — grouped by model/provider
`{endpoint}/api/v1/routing/resolve`	Only when model is `manifest/auto`	Last 10 non-system/non-developer messages (`{role, content}` only)
`https://eu.i.posthog.com`	On plugin register	Hashed machine ID, OS, Node version, plugin version, mode. No PII. Opt out: `MANIFEST_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1`

OTLP Span Fields

Exhaustive list of attributes sent per span:

openclaw.session.key — opaque session identifier
openclaw.message.channel — message channel name
gen_ai.request.model — model name (e.g. "claude-sonnet-4-20250514")
gen_ai.system — provider name (e.g. "anthropic")
gen_ai.usage.input_tokens — integer
gen_ai.usage.output_tokens — integer
gen_ai.usage.cache_read_input_tokens — integer
gen_ai.usage.cache_creation_input_tokens — integer
openclaw.agent.name — agent identifier
tool.name — tool name string
tool.success — boolean
manifest.routing.tier — routing tier (if routed)
manifest.routing.reason — routing reason (if routed)
Error status: agent errors truncated to 500 chars; tool errors include event.error.message untruncated

Not collected: user prompts, assistant responses, tool input/output arguments, file contents, or any message body.

Routing Data

Only active when model is manifest/auto
Excludes messages with role: "system" or role: "developer"
Sends only {role, content} — all other message properties are stripped (routing.ts:77)
3-second timeout, non-blocking
To avoid sending content: disable routing in the dashboard or set a fixed model

Credential Storage

Cloud mode: API key stored in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under plugins.entries.manifest.config.apiKey (managed by OpenClaw's standard plugin config)
Local mode: auto-generated key stored in ~/.openclaw/manifest/config.json with file mode 0600

Local Mode

All data stays on your machine. No external calls except optional PostHog analytics (opt out with MANIFEST_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1).

manifest-build

Installation