We report on triethylene glycol-based orthoformate cryptands, which adapt their bridgehead configurations in response to metal templates and intramolecular hydrogen bonding in a complex manner. In contrast to smaller 1.1.1-orthoformate cryptands, the inversion from out,out-2.2.2 to in,in-2.2.2 occurs spontaneously by thermal homeomorphic isomerization, i. e., without bond breakage. The global thermodynamic minimum of the entire network, which includes an unprecedented third isomer (in,out-2.2.2), could only be reached under conditions that facilitate dynamic covalent exchange. Both inversion processes were studied in detail, including DFT calculations and MD simulations, which were particularly helpful for explaining differences between equilibrium compositions in solvents chloroform and acetonitrile. Unexpectedly, the system could be driven to the in,out-2.2.2 state by using a metal template with a size mismatch with respect to the out,out-2.2.2 cage.Certain macrocycles and macrobicycles (e. g. cryptands [1] ) are subject to a type of stereoisomerism that results from different orientations of a substituent or lone pair at bridgehead atoms. [2] Many large macrocycles can, for instance, invert between out,out-and in,in-isomers via homeomorphic isomerization. [2a,3] [a] H. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.Scheme 1. a) Previous work on self-templated cryptand o-(H in ) 2 -1.1.1. [7] b) Synthesis and adaptive response of larger orthoformate 2.2.2-cryptands: out,out-, in,in-and in,out-cryptands. ChemPlusChem Communications