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Building Provider Plugins

Provider Plugins

Step-by-step guide to building a model provider plugin for OpenClaw

You are building a new model provider plugin

You want to add an OpenAI-compatible proxy or custom LLM to OpenClaw

You need to understand provider auth, catalogs, and runtime hooks

Building Provider Plugins

This guide walks through building a provider plugin that adds a model provider (LLM) to OpenClaw. By the end you will have a provider with a model catalog, API key auth, and dynamic model resolution.

If you have not built any OpenClaw plugin before, read [Getting Started](/plugins/building-plugins) first for the basic package structure and manifest setup.

Walkthrough

```json package.json { "name": "@myorg/openclaw-acme-ai", "version": "1.0.0", "type": "module", "openclaw": { "extensions": ["./index.ts"], "providers": ["acme-ai"] } } ```

```json openclaw.plugin.json
{
  "id": "acme-ai",
  "name": "Acme AI",
  "description": "Acme AI model provider",
  "providers": ["acme-ai"],
  "providerAuthEnvVars": {
    "acme-ai": ["ACME_AI_API_KEY"]
  },
  "providerAuthChoices": [
    {
      "provider": "acme-ai",
      "method": "api-key",
      "choiceId": "acme-ai-api-key",
      "choiceLabel": "Acme AI API key",
      "groupId": "acme-ai",
      "groupLabel": "Acme AI",
      "cliFlag": "--acme-ai-api-key",
      "cliOption": "--acme-ai-api-key <key>",
      "cliDescription": "Acme AI API key"
    }
  ],
  "configSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "additionalProperties": false
  }
}
```
</CodeGroup>

The manifest declares `providerAuthEnvVars` so OpenClaw can detect
credentials without loading your plugin runtime.

A minimal provider needs an `id`, `label`, `auth`, and `catalog`:

```typescript index.ts
import { definePluginEntry } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/plugin-entry";
import { createProviderApiKeyAuthMethod } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-auth";

export default definePluginEntry({
  id: "acme-ai",
  name: "Acme AI",
  description: "Acme AI model provider",
  register(api) {
    api.registerProvider({
      id: "acme-ai",
      label: "Acme AI",
      docsPath: "/providers/acme-ai",
      envVars: ["ACME_AI_API_KEY"],

      auth: [
        createProviderApiKeyAuthMethod({
          providerId: "acme-ai",
          methodId: "api-key",
          label: "Acme AI API key",
          hint: "API key from your Acme AI dashboard",
          optionKey: "acmeAiApiKey",
          flagName: "--acme-ai-api-key",
          envVar: "ACME_AI_API_KEY",
          promptMessage: "Enter your Acme AI API key",
          defaultModel: "acme-ai/acme-large",
        }),
      ],

      catalog: {
        order: "simple",
        run: async (ctx) => {
          const apiKey =
            ctx.resolveProviderApiKey("acme-ai").apiKey;
          if (!apiKey) return null;
          return {
            provider: {
              baseUrl: "https://api.acme-ai.com/v1",
              apiKey,
              api: "openai-completions",
              models: [
                {
                  id: "acme-large",
                  name: "Acme Large",
                  reasoning: true,
                  input: ["text", "image"],
                  cost: { input: 3, output: 15, cacheRead: 0.3, cacheWrite: 3.75 },
                  contextWindow: 200000,
                  maxTokens: 32768,
                },
                {
                  id: "acme-small",
                  name: "Acme Small",
                  reasoning: false,
                  input: ["text"],
                  cost: { input: 1, output: 5, cacheRead: 0.1, cacheWrite: 1.25 },
                  contextWindow: 128000,
                  maxTokens: 8192,
                },
              ],
            },
          };
        },
      },
    });
  },
});
```

That is a working provider. Users can now
`openclaw onboard --acme-ai-api-key <key>` and select
`acme-ai/acme-large` as their model.

If your provider accepts arbitrary model IDs (like a proxy or router), add `resolveDynamicModel`:

```typescript
api.registerProvider({
  // ... id, label, auth, catalog from above

  resolveDynamicModel: (ctx) => ({
    id: ctx.modelId,
    name: ctx.modelId,
    provider: "acme-ai",
    api: "openai-completions",
    baseUrl: "https://api.acme-ai.com/v1",
    reasoning: false,
    input: ["text"],
    cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
    contextWindow: 128000,
    maxTokens: 8192,
  }),
});
```

If resolving requires a network call, use `prepareDynamicModel` for async
warm-up — `resolveDynamicModel` runs again after it completes.

Most providers only need `catalog` + `resolveDynamicModel`. Add hooks incrementally as your provider requires them.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Token exchange">
    For providers that need a token exchange before each inference call:

    ```typescript
    prepareRuntimeAuth: async (ctx) => {
      const exchanged = await exchangeToken(ctx.apiKey);
      return {
        apiKey: exchanged.token,
        baseUrl: exchanged.baseUrl,
        expiresAt: exchanged.expiresAt,
      };
    },
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Custom headers">
    For providers that need custom request headers or body modifications:

    ```typescript
    // wrapStreamFn returns a StreamFn derived from ctx.streamFn
    wrapStreamFn: (ctx) => {
      if (!ctx.streamFn) return undefined;
      const inner = ctx.streamFn;
      return async (params) => {
        params.headers = {
          ...params.headers,
          "X-Acme-Version": "2",
        };
        return inner(params);
      };
    },
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Usage and billing">
    For providers that expose usage/billing data:

    ```typescript
    resolveUsageAuth: async (ctx) => {
      const auth = await ctx.resolveOAuthToken();
      return auth ? { token: auth.token } : null;
    },
    fetchUsageSnapshot: async (ctx) => {
      return await fetchAcmeUsage(ctx.token, ctx.timeoutMs);
    },
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

<Accordion title="All 21 available hooks">
  OpenClaw calls hooks in this order. Most providers only use 2-3:

  | # | Hook | When to use |
  | --- | --- | --- |
  | 1 | `catalog` | Model catalog or base URL defaults |
  | 2 | `resolveDynamicModel` | Accept arbitrary upstream model IDs |
  | 3 | `prepareDynamicModel` | Async metadata fetch before resolving |
  | 4 | `normalizeResolvedModel` | Transport rewrites before the runner |
  | 5 | `capabilities` | Transcript/tooling metadata |
  | 6 | `prepareExtraParams` | Default request params |
  | 7 | `wrapStreamFn` | Custom headers/body wrappers |
  | 8 | `formatApiKey` | Custom runtime token shape |
  | 9 | `refreshOAuth` | Custom OAuth refresh |
  | 10 | `buildAuthDoctorHint` | Auth repair guidance |
  | 11 | `isCacheTtlEligible` | Prompt cache TTL gating |
  | 12 | `buildMissingAuthMessage` | Custom missing-auth hint |
  | 13 | `suppressBuiltInModel` | Hide stale upstream rows |
  | 14 | `augmentModelCatalog` | Synthetic forward-compat rows |
  | 15 | `isBinaryThinking` | Binary thinking on/off |
  | 16 | `supportsXHighThinking` | `xhigh` reasoning support |
  | 17 | `resolveDefaultThinkingLevel` | Default `/think` policy |
  | 18 | `isModernModelRef` | Live/smoke model matching |
  | 19 | `prepareRuntimeAuth` | Token exchange before inference |
  | 20 | `resolveUsageAuth` | Custom usage credential parsing |
  | 21 | `fetchUsageSnapshot` | Custom usage endpoint |

  For detailed descriptions and real-world examples, see
  [Internals: Provider Runtime Hooks](/plugins/architecture#provider-runtime-hooks).
</Accordion>

A provider plugin can register speech, media understanding, image generation, and web search alongside text inference:

```typescript
register(api) {
  api.registerProvider({ id: "acme-ai", /* ... */ });

  api.registerSpeechProvider({
    id: "acme-ai",
    label: "Acme Speech",
    isConfigured: ({ config }) => Boolean(config.messages?.tts),
    synthesize: async (req) => ({
      audioBuffer: Buffer.from(/* PCM data */),
      outputFormat: "mp3",
      fileExtension: ".mp3",
      voiceCompatible: false,
    }),
  });

  api.registerMediaUnderstandingProvider({
    id: "acme-ai",
    capabilities: ["image", "audio"],
    describeImage: async (req) => ({ text: "A photo of..." }),
    transcribeAudio: async (req) => ({ text: "Transcript..." }),
  });

  api.registerImageGenerationProvider({
    id: "acme-ai",
    label: "Acme Images",
    generate: async (req) => ({ /* image result */ }),
  });
}
```

OpenClaw classifies this as a **hybrid-capability** plugin. This is the
recommended pattern for company plugins (one plugin per vendor). See
[Internals: Capability Ownership](/plugins/architecture#capability-ownership-model).

```typescript src/provider.test.ts import { describe, it, expect } from "vitest"; // Export your provider config object from index.ts or a dedicated file import { acmeProvider } from "./provider.js";

describe("acme-ai provider", () => {
  it("resolves dynamic models", () => {
    const model = acmeProvider.resolveDynamicModel!({
      modelId: "acme-beta-v3",
    } as any);
    expect(model.id).toBe("acme-beta-v3");
    expect(model.provider).toBe("acme-ai");
  });

  it("returns catalog when key is available", async () => {
    const result = await acmeProvider.catalog!.run({
      resolveProviderApiKey: () => ({ apiKey: "test-key" }),
    } as any);
    expect(result?.provider?.models).toHaveLength(2);
  });

  it("returns null catalog when no key", async () => {
    const result = await acmeProvider.catalog!.run({
      resolveProviderApiKey: () => ({ apiKey: undefined }),
    } as any);
    expect(result).toBeNull();
  });
});
```

File structure

extensions/acme-ai/
├── package.json              # openclaw.providers metadata
├── openclaw.plugin.json      # Manifest with providerAuthEnvVars
├── index.ts                  # definePluginEntry + registerProvider
└── src/
    ├── provider.test.ts      # Tests
    └── usage.ts              # Usage endpoint (optional)

Catalog order reference

catalog.order controls when your catalog merges relative to built-in providers:

Order	When	Use case
`simple`	First pass	Plain API-key providers
`profile`	After simple	Providers gated on auth profiles
`paired`	After profile	Synthesize multiple related entries
`late`	Last pass	Override existing providers (wins on collision)

Next steps

Channel Plugins — if your plugin also provides a channel
SDK Runtime — api.runtime helpers (TTS, search, subagent)
SDK Overview — full subpath import reference
Plugin Internals — hook details and bundled examples

12 KiB Raw Blame History

Building Provider Plugins

Walkthrough

File structure

Catalog order reference

Next steps

12 KiB

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