Build a Zero-Cost Web Automation Pipeline With OpenRouter, OpenClaw, and MediaUse | by yooiken | Jun, 2026 | Towards AISitemapOpen in appSign up<br>Sign in

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Build a Zero-Cost Web Automation Pipeline With OpenRouter, OpenClaw, and MediaUse

yooiken

12 min read·<br>21 hours ago

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I have become less interested in whether a cheap model can “browse the web” and more interested in whether it can run a boring workflow correctly every morning.<br>That is a different problem.<br>Most low-cost or free LLMs fail at web automation because the model has to do too much at once. It has to understand the goal, inspect the page, decide where to click, recover from layout changes, parse the result, and then write something useful. One weak link ruins the whole run.<br>The workaround is simple: do not ask the free model to operate the browser.<br>Use the free model as the dispatcher. Let MediaUse handle the browser work through site plugins. The model calls semantic commands like “get Hacker News top stories” or “read this Reddit thread.” MediaUse turns those commands into stable browser actions and returns structured JSON.<br>In this article, I will build a daily pipeline that:<br>Uses OpenClaw with OpenRouter’s free openrouter/owl-alpha model as the orchestrator.<br>Uses MediaUse Hacker News skill to find today’s technical stories.<br>Uses MediaUse Reddit skill to collect user reactions.<br>Uses MediaUse ChatGPT skill to turn the research into a Medium draft.<br>Saves the article draft locally.<br>Runs every day around 10:00 AM.<br>The result is a low-cost agent that does not depend on a frontier model for every step. The free model plans and routes. MediaUse performs the web operations. ChatGPT is optional and only used at the end because I want the final writing to be good.<br>If you want the strictest “zero API spend” version, skip the ChatGPT step and ask owl-alpha to write the draft from the collected JSON. If you already have access to ChatGPT through the web UI, the MediaUse ChatGPT skill can use that browser workflow instead of sending paid API calls.<br>Current caveat: OpenRouter lists openrouter/owl-alpha as free during its current availability window, with tool support and a large context window. Free model availability can change, so check the model page before relying on it in production.<br>Press enter or click to view image in full size

Why this works better than “LLM, please browse the web”<br>A general browser agent has to reason over pixels and HTML. A site plugin does not.<br>MediaUse skills package website actions into predictable commands. The Hacker News skill has commands like:<br>mediause hackernews get top --limit 20 --json<br>mediause hackernews read item --id --depth 2 --replies 20 --max-length 2000 --jsonThe Reddit skill has commands like:<br>mediause reddit search posts --query "open source AI agent" --subreddit "LocalLLaMA" --sort relevance --time day --limit 10 --json<br>mediause reddit read item --post-id --sort top --limit 30 --depth 3 --max-length 3000 --jsonThe LLM does not need to know where the Reddit search box is. It does not need to scroll through nested comments. It just asks for the operation.<br>That is the whole trick.<br>Low-quality models often struggle when the task is open-ended. They do much better when the action space is small, named, and structured. MediaUse gives them that smaller action space.<br>The pipeline<br>Here is the workflow I use:<br>10:00 AM<br>OpenClaw wakes up the workflow<br>OpenRouter owl-alpha chooses the plan<br>MediaUse Hacker News skill fetches today's top tech stories<br>MediaUse Reddit skill searches for matching user reactions<br>Research JSON is normalized into one brief<br>MediaUse ChatGPT skill writes a Medium draft<br>Draft is saved to ./drafts/YYYY-MM-DD-medium-draft.mdPress enter or click to view image in full size

Step 1: install and configure MediaUse<br>On Windows, install or update the MediaUse CLI:<br>powershell -C "iwr https://release.mediause.dev/install.ps1 -UseBasicParsing | iex"<br>mediause --versionConfigure your MediaUse key:<br>mediause manage key --jsonInstall the site plugins:<br>mediause plugin add hackernews --json<br>mediause plugin add reddit --json<br>mediause plugin add chatgpt --jsonBind the accounts:<br>mediause auth list --json# Hacker News supports guest read workflows.<br>mediause use account hackernews:guest --policy balanced --json# Reddit usually works best in visible mode.<br>mediause use account reddit: --policy balanced --show --json# ChatGPT needs your account context if you use it for writing.<br>mediause use account chatgpt: --policy balanced --json<br>mediause auth health --jsonPress enter or click to view image in full size

Step 2: configure OpenClaw to use OpenRouter Owl Alpha<br>Create an OpenRouter API key, then set it in your shell:<br>$env:OPENROUTER_API_KEY = ""Use...