Claude Haiku 5.5: Hermes and OpenClaw Setup

What Haiku 5.5 is for

Claude Haiku 5.5 launched on October 7, 2026. It suits short, frequent tasks: classify incoming tickets, extract fields from a document, summarize a conversation, or give a larger agent a focused research task. For complex coding projects, keep Sonnet 5.5 or Opus 5.5 available. This is Anthropic’s positioning in its launch announcement, rather than a promise about your workload.

It accepts text and images and returns text, with a 1M-token context window and up to 128K output tokens. Adaptive thinking is enabled by default; effort controls the tradeoff between speed, cost, and depth. See the model specifications.

Pricing: the 100K threshold matters

These are Claude API prices in US dollars per million tokens, checked October 7, 2026. The tier depends on the request’s input length; a 1M context window does not mean every request receives the lower price.

For an uncached request with 10,000 input tokens and 1,000 output tokens, the base-tier token cost is about $0.0015, before taxes or other charges. This is a token example, not a guaranteed cost per agent task: tool loops, history, and thinking can increase usage. Check the official pricing and your provider’s billing terms.

Switch a managed Hermes or OpenClaw instance

Both frameworks use the same instance-card model selector on OpenClaw Launch. The featured shortlist may still show Haiku 4.5; search the full catalog.

1. Open the dashboard and find your instance.
2. Click its current Text or Model selection.
3. Choose OpenRouter, then search for Haiku 5.5.
4. Select anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 if it appears, wait for the switch to finish, and confirm the model name on the card.
5. Start a fresh conversation if an existing session still uses the previous model.

OpenRouter lists the new model. Availability in your picker depends on the live catalog and your plan; trials have a restricted selection. If it is missing, keep your existing model and recheck the catalog rather than selecting Haiku 4.5 by mistake.

OpenRouter usage spends your platform credit unless you have saved your own OpenRouter key on the API keys page; with that key, your OpenRouter account pays. Both frameworks also offer direct Anthropic access through the Anthropic / Your key route when your own Anthropic key is configured and Haiku 5.5 appears in the live catalog. A picker entry is not a substitute for checking that the installed adapter supports the new request parameters.

Self-hosted Hermes Agent

Run hermes model to configure your provider and credentials. With your own Anthropic API key, merge this model section into ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

model:
  provider: anthropic
  default: claude-haiku-5-5

For OpenRouter, configure your OpenRouter key and use its slug instead:

model:
  provider: openrouter
  default: anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5

Hermes keeps provider and model in separate fields. Use a new session after changing the default; if you need to restart the messaging gateway, run hermes gateway restart. See the upstream config example and our Hermes Anthropic guide.

Self-hosted OpenClaw

Configure the OpenRouter key using the setup wizard, then set the model:

openclaw onboard --auth-choice openrouter-api-key
openclaw models set openrouter/anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5

The model field in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json is:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": { "primary": "openrouter/anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5" }
    }
  }
}

Merge this into your existing configuration; keep the credentials set by onboarding. For direct Anthropic, run openclaw onboard, choose Anthropic API key, and use anthropic/claude-haiku-5-5, provided your runtime supports the new model and request parameters. See the upstream OpenRouter provider docs and Anthropic provider docs, plus our OpenClaw Anthropic guide.

Upgrading API code from Haiku 4.5

A model-name swap alone can break a custom client. Anthropic’s migration guide identifies these checks:

• Replace manual thinking budgets with adaptive thinking. Read response blocks by type, not by position.
• Omit temperature, top_p, and top_k; remove final assistant prefills.
• Recount tokens with the new model and revisit output limits.
• Keep replayed conversations append-only, preserve thinking blocks, and handle stop_reason: "refusal".

This is a direct Claude Messages API request, not a Hermes or OpenClaw config block:

{
  "model": "claude-haiku-5-5",
  "max_tokens": 4096,
  "thinking": { "type": "adaptive" },
  "output_config": { "effort": "medium" },
  "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Summarize this document in five bullets." }]
}

Use low effort for simple extraction and compare it with medium on your own examples. Ask a coding agent to report what it tested before it declares a task complete. Anthropic’s prompting guide discusses both patterns. Update older clients or adapters that still send unsupported parameters.

Choose hosting or your own server

Self-hosting gives you control of credentials and updates; you handle the server, configuration, and troubleshooting. Managed Hermes hosting or OpenClaw hosting starts at $3 for the first month, then $6/month for the entry plan. Model usage is separately metered against credits or your own provider account. See pricing for plan details.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Haiku 5.5 work with Hermes Agent and OpenClaw?

Both can use the OpenRouter route when the model is available to the account. Hermes also supports direct Anthropic configuration; OpenClaw direct access requires a compatible runtime and model definition.

Is the model ID the same on every route?

No. The Claude API uses claude-haiku-5-5. OpenRouter uses anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. OpenClaw adds its routing prefix for OpenRouter: openrouter/anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5.

Does the $3 hosting price include unlimited Haiku usage?

No. The entry hosting plan is $3 for the first month and $6/month afterward. Model usage is metered against credits or your own provider account.