openclaw/docs/concepts/model-providers.md

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summary read_when title
Model provider overview with example configs + CLI flows
You need a provider-by-provider model setup reference
You want example configs or CLI onboarding commands for model providers
Model Providers

Model providers

This page covers LLM/model providers (not chat channels like WhatsApp/Telegram). For model selection rules, see /concepts/models.

Quick rules

  • Model refs use provider/model (example: opencode/claude-opus-4-6).
  • If you set agents.defaults.models, it becomes the allowlist.
  • CLI helpers: openclaw onboard, openclaw models list, openclaw models set <provider/model>.
  • Fallback runtime rules, cooldown probes, and session-override persistence are documented in /concepts/model-failover.
  • models.providers.*.models[].contextWindow is native model metadata; models.providers.*.models[].contextTokens is the effective runtime cap.
  • Provider plugins can inject model catalogs via registerProvider({ catalog }); OpenClaw merges that output into models.providers before writing models.json.
  • Provider manifests can declare providerAuthEnvVars so generic env-based auth probes do not need to load plugin runtime. The remaining core env-var map is now just for non-plugin/core providers and a few generic-precedence cases such as Anthropic API-key-first onboarding.
  • Provider plugins can also own provider runtime behavior via normalizeConfig, resolveDynamicModel, prepareDynamicModel, normalizeResolvedModel, capabilities, prepareExtraParams, wrapStreamFn, formatApiKey, refreshOAuth, buildAuthDoctorHint, matchesContextOverflowError, classifyFailoverReason, isCacheTtlEligible, buildMissingAuthMessage, suppressBuiltInModel, augmentModelCatalog, isBinaryThinking, supportsXHighThinking, resolveDefaultThinkingLevel, applyConfigDefaults, isModernModelRef, prepareRuntimeAuth, resolveUsageAuth, and fetchUsageSnapshot.
  • Note: provider runtime capabilities is shared runner metadata (provider family, transcript/tooling quirks, transport/cache hints). It is not the same as the public capability model which describes what a plugin registers (text inference, speech, etc.).

Plugin-owned provider behavior

Provider plugins can now own most provider-specific logic while OpenClaw keeps the generic inference loop.

Typical split:

  • auth[].run / auth[].runNonInteractive: provider owns onboarding/login flows for openclaw onboard, openclaw models auth, and headless setup
  • wizard.setup / wizard.modelPicker: provider owns auth-choice labels, legacy aliases, onboarding allowlist hints, and setup entries in onboarding/model pickers
  • catalog: provider appears in models.providers
  • normalizeConfig: provider normalizes models.providers.<id> config before runtime uses it
  • resolveDynamicModel: provider accepts model ids not present in the local static catalog yet
  • prepareDynamicModel: provider needs a metadata refresh before retrying dynamic resolution
  • normalizeResolvedModel: provider needs transport or base URL rewrites
  • capabilities: provider publishes transcript/tooling/provider-family quirks
  • prepareExtraParams: provider defaults or normalizes per-model request params
  • wrapStreamFn: provider applies request headers/body/model compat wrappers
  • formatApiKey: provider formats stored auth profiles into the runtime apiKey string expected by the transport
  • refreshOAuth: provider owns OAuth refresh when the shared pi-ai refreshers are not enough
  • buildAuthDoctorHint: provider appends repair guidance when OAuth refresh fails
  • matchesContextOverflowError: provider recognizes provider-specific context-window overflow errors that generic heuristics would miss
  • classifyFailoverReason: provider maps provider-specific raw transport/API errors to failover reasons such as rate limit or overload
  • isCacheTtlEligible: provider decides which upstream model ids support prompt-cache TTL
  • buildMissingAuthMessage: provider replaces the generic auth-store error with a provider-specific recovery hint
  • suppressBuiltInModel: provider hides stale upstream rows and can return a vendor-owned error for direct resolution failures
  • augmentModelCatalog: provider appends synthetic/final catalog rows after discovery and config merging
  • isBinaryThinking: provider owns binary on/off thinking UX
  • supportsXHighThinking: provider opts selected models into xhigh
  • resolveDefaultThinkingLevel: provider owns default /think policy for a model family
  • applyConfigDefaults: provider applies provider-specific global defaults during config materialization based on auth mode, env, or model family
  • isModernModelRef: provider owns live/smoke preferred-model matching
  • prepareRuntimeAuth: provider turns a configured credential into a short lived runtime token
  • resolveUsageAuth: provider resolves usage/quota credentials for /usage and related status/reporting surfaces
  • fetchUsageSnapshot: provider owns the usage endpoint fetch/parsing while core still owns the summary shell and formatting

Current bundled examples:

  • anthropic: Claude 4.6 forward-compat fallback, auth repair hints, usage endpoint fetching, cache-TTL/provider-family metadata, and auth-aware global config defaults
  • amazon-bedrock: provider-owned context-overflow matching and failover reason classification for Bedrock-specific throttle/not-ready errors, plus Claude-only replay-policy guards on Anthropic traffic
  • anthropic-vertex: Claude-only replay-policy guards on Anthropic-message traffic
  • openrouter: pass-through model ids, request wrappers, provider capability hints, Gemini thought-signature sanitation on proxy Gemini traffic, proxy reasoning injection through the openrouter-thinking stream family, and cache-TTL policy
  • github-copilot: onboarding/device login, forward-compat model fallback, Claude-thinking transcript hints, runtime token exchange, and usage endpoint fetching
  • openai: GPT-5.4 forward-compat fallback, direct OpenAI transport normalization, Codex-aware missing-auth hints, Spark suppression, synthetic OpenAI/Codex catalog rows, thinking/live-model policy, usage-token alias normalization (input / output and prompt / completion families), the shared openai-responses-defaults stream family for native OpenAI/Codex wrappers, and provider-family metadata
  • google and google-gemini-cli: Gemini 3.1 forward-compat fallback, native Gemini replay validation, bootstrap replay sanitation, tagged reasoning-output mode, and modern-model matching; Gemini CLI OAuth also owns auth-profile token formatting, usage-token parsing, and quota endpoint fetching for usage surfaces
  • moonshot: shared transport, plugin-owned thinking payload normalization
  • kilocode: shared transport, plugin-owned request headers, reasoning payload normalization, proxy-Gemini thought-signature sanitation, and cache-TTL policy
  • zai: GLM-5 forward-compat fallback, tool_stream defaults, cache-TTL policy, binary-thinking/live-model policy, and usage auth + quota fetching
  • mistral: plugin-owned capability metadata
  • opencode and opencode-go: plugin-owned capability metadata plus proxy-Gemini thought-signature sanitation
  • byteplus, cloudflare-ai-gateway, huggingface, kimi, modelstudio, nvidia, qianfan, stepfun, synthetic, together, venice, vercel-ai-gateway, and volcengine: plugin-owned catalogs only
  • minimax: plugin-owned catalogs, hybrid Anthropic/OpenAI replay-policy selection, and usage auth/snapshot logic
  • xiaomi: plugin-owned catalogs plus usage auth/snapshot logic

The bundled openai plugin now owns both provider ids: openai and openai-codex.

That covers providers that still fit OpenClaw's normal transports. A provider that needs a totally custom request executor is a separate, deeper extension surface.

API key rotation

  • Supports generic provider rotation for selected providers.
  • Configure multiple keys via:
    • OPENCLAW_LIVE_<PROVIDER>_KEY (single live override, highest priority)
    • <PROVIDER>_API_KEYS (comma or semicolon list)
    • <PROVIDER>_API_KEY (primary key)
    • <PROVIDER>_API_KEY_* (numbered list, e.g. <PROVIDER>_API_KEY_1)
  • For Google providers, GOOGLE_API_KEY is also included as fallback.
  • Key selection order preserves priority and deduplicates values.
  • Requests are retried with the next key only on rate-limit responses (for example 429, rate_limit, quota, resource exhausted).
  • Non-rate-limit failures fail immediately; no key rotation is attempted.
  • When all candidate keys fail, the final error is returned from the last attempt.

Built-in providers (pi-ai catalog)

OpenClaw ships with the piai catalog. These providers require no models.providers config; just set auth + pick a model.

OpenAI

  • Provider: openai
  • Auth: OPENAI_API_KEY
  • Optional rotation: OPENAI_API_KEYS, OPENAI_API_KEY_1, OPENAI_API_KEY_2, plus OPENCLAW_LIVE_OPENAI_KEY (single override)
  • Example models: openai/gpt-5.4, openai/gpt-5.4-pro
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice openai-api-key
  • Default transport is auto (WebSocket-first, SSE fallback)
  • Override per model via agents.defaults.models["openai/<model>"].params.transport ("sse", "websocket", or "auto")
  • OpenAI Responses WebSocket warm-up defaults to enabled via params.openaiWsWarmup (true/false)
  • OpenAI priority processing can be enabled via agents.defaults.models["openai/<model>"].params.serviceTier
  • /fast and params.fastMode map direct openai/* Responses requests to service_tier=priority on api.openai.com
  • Use params.serviceTier when you want an explicit tier instead of the shared /fast toggle
  • Hidden OpenClaw attribution headers (originator, version, User-Agent) apply only on native OpenAI traffic to api.openai.com, not generic OpenAI-compatible proxies
  • Native OpenAI routes also keep Responses store, prompt-cache hints, and OpenAI reasoning-compat payload shaping; proxy routes do not
  • openai/gpt-5.3-codex-spark is intentionally suppressed in OpenClaw because the live OpenAI API rejects it; Spark is treated as Codex-only
{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "openai/gpt-5.4" } } },
}

Anthropic

  • Provider: anthropic
  • Auth: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
  • Optional rotation: ANTHROPIC_API_KEYS, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_1, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_2, plus OPENCLAW_LIVE_ANTHROPIC_KEY (single override)
  • Example model: anthropic/claude-opus-4-6
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice apiKey or openclaw onboard --auth-choice anthropic-cli
  • Direct public Anthropic requests support the shared /fast toggle and params.fastMode, including API-key and OAuth-authenticated traffic sent to api.anthropic.com; OpenClaw maps that to Anthropic service_tier (auto vs standard_only)
  • Billing note: Anthropic changed third-party harness billing on April 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM BST. Anthropic says Claude subscription limits no longer cover OpenClaw, and Claude CLI traffic now requires Extra Usage billed separately from the subscription.
  • Existing legacy Anthropic token profiles still run if already configured, but new setup is no longer offered through onboarding or auth commands.
{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6" } } },
}

OpenAI Code (Codex)

  • Provider: openai-codex
  • Auth: OAuth (ChatGPT)
  • Example model: openai-codex/gpt-5.4
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice openai-codex or openclaw models auth login --provider openai-codex
  • Default transport is auto (WebSocket-first, SSE fallback)
  • Override per model via agents.defaults.models["openai-codex/<model>"].params.transport ("sse", "websocket", or "auto")
  • params.serviceTier is also forwarded on native Codex Responses requests (chatgpt.com/backend-api)
  • Hidden OpenClaw attribution headers (originator, version, User-Agent) are only attached on native Codex traffic to chatgpt.com/backend-api, not generic OpenAI-compatible proxies
  • Shares the same /fast toggle and params.fastMode config as direct openai/*; OpenClaw maps that to service_tier=priority
  • openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex-spark remains available when the Codex OAuth catalog exposes it; entitlement-dependent
  • openai-codex/gpt-5.4 keeps native contextWindow = 1050000 and a default runtime contextTokens = 272000; override the runtime cap with models.providers.openai-codex.models[].contextTokens
  • Policy note: OpenAI Codex OAuth is explicitly supported for external tools/workflows like OpenClaw.
{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "openai-codex/gpt-5.4" } } },
}
{
  models: {
    providers: {
      "openai-codex": {
        models: [{ id: "gpt-5.4", contextTokens: 160000 }],
      },
    },
  },
}

Other subscription-style hosted options

  • Qwen / Model Studio: Alibaba Cloud Standard pay-as-you-go and Coding Plan subscription endpoints
  • MiniMax: MiniMax Coding Plan OAuth or API key access
  • GLM Models: Z.AI Coding Plan or general API endpoints

OpenCode

  • Auth: OPENCODE_API_KEY (or OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY)
  • Zen runtime provider: opencode
  • Go runtime provider: opencode-go
  • Example models: opencode/claude-opus-4-6, opencode-go/kimi-k2.5
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice opencode-zen or openclaw onboard --auth-choice opencode-go
{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "opencode/claude-opus-4-6" } } },
}

Google Gemini (API key)

  • Provider: google
  • Auth: GEMINI_API_KEY
  • Optional rotation: GEMINI_API_KEYS, GEMINI_API_KEY_1, GEMINI_API_KEY_2, GOOGLE_API_KEY fallback, and OPENCLAW_LIVE_GEMINI_KEY (single override)
  • Example models: google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview, google/gemini-3-flash-preview
  • Compatibility: legacy OpenClaw config using google/gemini-3.1-flash-preview is normalized to google/gemini-3-flash-preview
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice gemini-api-key
  • Direct Gemini runs also accept agents.defaults.models["google/<model>"].params.cachedContent (or legacy cached_content) to forward a provider-native cachedContents/... handle; Gemini cache hits surface as OpenClaw cacheRead

Google Vertex and Gemini CLI

  • Providers: google-vertex, google-gemini-cli
  • Auth: Vertex uses gcloud ADC; Gemini CLI uses its OAuth flow
  • Caution: Gemini CLI OAuth in OpenClaw is an unofficial integration. Some users have reported Google account restrictions after using third-party clients. Review Google terms and use a non-critical account if you choose to proceed.
  • Gemini CLI OAuth is shipped as part of the bundled google plugin.
    • Enable: openclaw plugins enable google
    • Login: openclaw models auth login --provider google-gemini-cli --set-default
    • Default model: google-gemini-cli/gemini-3.1-pro-preview
    • Note: you do not paste a client id or secret into openclaw.json. The CLI login flow stores tokens in auth profiles on the gateway host.
    • If requests fail after login, set GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT or GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_ID on the gateway host.
    • Gemini CLI JSON replies are parsed from response; usage falls back to stats, with stats.cached normalized into OpenClaw cacheRead.

Z.AI (GLM)

  • Provider: zai
  • Auth: ZAI_API_KEY
  • Example model: zai/glm-5
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice zai-api-key
    • Aliases: z.ai/* and z-ai/* normalize to zai/*
    • zai-api-key auto-detects the matching Z.AI endpoint; zai-coding-global, zai-coding-cn, zai-global, and zai-cn force a specific surface

Vercel AI Gateway

  • Provider: vercel-ai-gateway
  • Auth: AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY
  • Example model: vercel-ai-gateway/anthropic/claude-opus-4.6
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key

Kilo Gateway

  • Provider: kilocode
  • Auth: KILOCODE_API_KEY
  • Example model: kilocode/kilo/auto
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice kilocode-api-key
  • Base URL: https://api.kilo.ai/api/gateway/
  • Static fallback catalog ships kilocode/kilo/auto; live https://api.kilo.ai/api/gateway/models discovery can expand the runtime catalog further.
  • Exact upstream routing behind kilocode/kilo/auto is owned by Kilo Gateway, not hard-coded in OpenClaw.

See /providers/kilocode for setup details.

Other bundled provider plugins

  • OpenRouter: openrouter (OPENROUTER_API_KEY)
  • Example model: openrouter/auto
  • OpenClaw applies OpenRouter's documented app-attribution headers only when the request actually targets openrouter.ai
  • OpenRouter-specific Anthropic cache_control markers are likewise gated to verified OpenRouter routes, not arbitrary proxy URLs
  • OpenRouter remains on the proxy-style OpenAI-compatible path, so native OpenAI-only request shaping (serviceTier, Responses store, prompt-cache hints, OpenAI reasoning-compat payloads) is not forwarded
  • Kilo Gateway: kilocode (KILOCODE_API_KEY)
  • Example model: kilocode/kilo/auto
  • MiniMax: minimax (API key) and minimax-portal (OAuth)
  • Auth: MINIMAX_API_KEY for minimax; MINIMAX_OAUTH_TOKEN or MINIMAX_API_KEY for minimax-portal
  • Example model: minimax/MiniMax-M2.7 or minimax-portal/MiniMax-M2.7
  • MiniMax onboarding/API-key setup writes explicit M2.7 model definitions with input: ["text", "image"]; the bundled provider catalog keeps the chat refs text-only until that provider config is materialized
  • Moonshot: moonshot (MOONSHOT_API_KEY)
  • Example model: moonshot/kimi-k2.5
  • Kimi Coding: kimi (KIMI_API_KEY or KIMICODE_API_KEY)
  • Example model: kimi/kimi-code
  • Qianfan: qianfan (QIANFAN_API_KEY)
  • Example model: qianfan/deepseek-v3.2
  • Model Studio: modelstudio (MODELSTUDIO_API_KEY)
  • Example model: modelstudio/qwen3.5-plus
  • NVIDIA: nvidia (NVIDIA_API_KEY)
  • Example model: nvidia/nvidia/llama-3.1-nemotron-70b-instruct
  • StepFun: stepfun / stepfun-plan (STEPFUN_API_KEY)
  • Example models: stepfun/step-3.5-flash, stepfun-plan/step-3.5-flash-2603
  • Together: together (TOGETHER_API_KEY)
  • Example model: together/moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5
  • Venice: venice (VENICE_API_KEY)
  • Xiaomi: xiaomi (XIAOMI_API_KEY)
  • Example model: xiaomi/mimo-v2-flash
  • Vercel AI Gateway: vercel-ai-gateway (AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY)
  • Hugging Face Inference: huggingface (HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN or HF_TOKEN)
  • Cloudflare AI Gateway: cloudflare-ai-gateway (CLOUDFLARE_AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY)
  • Volcengine: volcengine (VOLCANO_ENGINE_API_KEY)
  • Example model: volcengine-plan/ark-code-latest
  • BytePlus: byteplus (BYTEPLUS_API_KEY)
  • Example model: byteplus-plan/ark-code-latest
  • xAI: xai (XAI_API_KEY)
  • Mistral: mistral (MISTRAL_API_KEY)
  • Example model: mistral/mistral-large-latest
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice mistral-api-key
  • Groq: groq (GROQ_API_KEY)
  • Cerebras: cerebras (CEREBRAS_API_KEY)
    • GLM models on Cerebras use ids zai-glm-4.7 and zai-glm-4.6.
    • OpenAI-compatible base URL: https://api.cerebras.ai/v1.
  • GitHub Copilot: github-copilot (COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN / GH_TOKEN / GITHUB_TOKEN)
  • Hugging Face Inference example model: huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1; CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice huggingface-api-key. See Hugging Face (Inference).

Providers via models.providers (custom/base URL)

Use models.providers (or models.json) to add custom providers or OpenAI/Anthropiccompatible proxies.

Many of the bundled provider plugins below already publish a default catalog. Use explicit models.providers.<id> entries only when you want to override the default base URL, headers, or model list.

Moonshot AI (Kimi)

Moonshot ships as a bundled provider plugin. Use the built-in provider by default, and add an explicit models.providers.moonshot entry only when you need to override the base URL or model metadata:

  • Provider: moonshot
  • Auth: MOONSHOT_API_KEY
  • Example model: moonshot/kimi-k2.5
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice moonshot-api-key or openclaw onboard --auth-choice moonshot-api-key-cn

Kimi K2 model IDs:

  • moonshot/kimi-k2.5
  • moonshot/kimi-k2-thinking
  • moonshot/kimi-k2-thinking-turbo
  • moonshot/kimi-k2-turbo
{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "moonshot/kimi-k2.5" } },
  },
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      moonshot: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.moonshot.ai/v1",
        apiKey: "${MOONSHOT_API_KEY}",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [{ id: "kimi-k2.5", name: "Kimi K2.5" }],
      },
    },
  },
}

Kimi Coding

Kimi Coding uses Moonshot AI's Anthropic-compatible endpoint:

  • Provider: kimi
  • Auth: KIMI_API_KEY
  • Example model: kimi/kimi-code
{
  env: { KIMI_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "kimi/kimi-code" } },
  },
}

Legacy kimi/k2p5 remains accepted as a compatibility model id.

Volcano Engine (Doubao)

Volcano Engine (火山引擎) provides access to Doubao and other models in China.

  • Provider: volcengine (coding: volcengine-plan)
  • Auth: VOLCANO_ENGINE_API_KEY
  • Example model: volcengine-plan/ark-code-latest
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice volcengine-api-key
{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "volcengine-plan/ark-code-latest" } },
  },
}

Onboarding defaults to the coding surface, but the general volcengine/* catalog is registered at the same time.

In onboarding/configure model pickers, the Volcengine auth choice prefers both volcengine/* and volcengine-plan/* rows. If those models are not loaded yet, OpenClaw falls back to the unfiltered catalog instead of showing an empty provider-scoped picker.

Available models:

  • volcengine/doubao-seed-1-8-251228 (Doubao Seed 1.8)
  • volcengine/doubao-seed-code-preview-251028
  • volcengine/kimi-k2-5-260127 (Kimi K2.5)
  • volcengine/glm-4-7-251222 (GLM 4.7)
  • volcengine/deepseek-v3-2-251201 (DeepSeek V3.2 128K)

Coding models (volcengine-plan):

  • volcengine-plan/ark-code-latest
  • volcengine-plan/doubao-seed-code
  • volcengine-plan/kimi-k2.5
  • volcengine-plan/kimi-k2-thinking
  • volcengine-plan/glm-4.7

BytePlus (International)

BytePlus ARK provides access to the same models as Volcano Engine for international users.

  • Provider: byteplus (coding: byteplus-plan)
  • Auth: BYTEPLUS_API_KEY
  • Example model: byteplus-plan/ark-code-latest
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice byteplus-api-key
{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "byteplus-plan/ark-code-latest" } },
  },
}

Onboarding defaults to the coding surface, but the general byteplus/* catalog is registered at the same time.

In onboarding/configure model pickers, the BytePlus auth choice prefers both byteplus/* and byteplus-plan/* rows. If those models are not loaded yet, OpenClaw falls back to the unfiltered catalog instead of showing an empty provider-scoped picker.

Available models:

  • byteplus/seed-1-8-251228 (Seed 1.8)
  • byteplus/kimi-k2-5-260127 (Kimi K2.5)
  • byteplus/glm-4-7-251222 (GLM 4.7)

Coding models (byteplus-plan):

  • byteplus-plan/ark-code-latest
  • byteplus-plan/doubao-seed-code
  • byteplus-plan/kimi-k2.5
  • byteplus-plan/kimi-k2-thinking
  • byteplus-plan/glm-4.7

Synthetic

Synthetic provides Anthropic-compatible models behind the synthetic provider:

  • Provider: synthetic
  • Auth: SYNTHETIC_API_KEY
  • Example model: synthetic/hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.5
  • CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice synthetic-api-key
{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "synthetic/hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.5" } },
  },
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      synthetic: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.synthetic.new/anthropic",
        apiKey: "${SYNTHETIC_API_KEY}",
        api: "anthropic-messages",
        models: [{ id: "hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.5", name: "MiniMax M2.5" }],
      },
    },
  },
}

MiniMax

MiniMax is configured via models.providers because it uses custom endpoints:

  • MiniMax OAuth (Global): --auth-choice minimax-global-oauth
  • MiniMax OAuth (CN): --auth-choice minimax-cn-oauth
  • MiniMax API key (Global): --auth-choice minimax-global-api
  • MiniMax API key (CN): --auth-choice minimax-cn-api
  • Auth: MINIMAX_API_KEY for minimax; MINIMAX_OAUTH_TOKEN or MINIMAX_API_KEY for minimax-portal

See /providers/minimax for setup details, model options, and config snippets.

On MiniMax's Anthropic-compatible streaming path, OpenClaw disables thinking by default unless you explicitly set it, and /fast on rewrites MiniMax-M2.7 to MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed.

Plugin-owned capability split:

  • Text/chat defaults stay on minimax/MiniMax-M2.7
  • Image generation is minimax/image-01 or minimax-portal/image-01
  • Image understanding is plugin-owned MiniMax-VL-01 on both MiniMax auth paths
  • Web search stays on provider id minimax

Ollama

Ollama ships as a bundled provider plugin and uses Ollama's native API:

# Install Ollama, then pull a model:
ollama pull llama3.3
{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "ollama/llama3.3" } },
  },
}

Ollama is detected locally at http://127.0.0.1:11434 when you opt in with OLLAMA_API_KEY, and the bundled provider plugin adds Ollama directly to openclaw onboard and the model picker. See /providers/ollama for onboarding, cloud/local mode, and custom configuration.

vLLM

vLLM ships as a bundled provider plugin for local/self-hosted OpenAI-compatible servers:

  • Provider: vllm
  • Auth: Optional (depends on your server)
  • Default base URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1

To opt in to auto-discovery locally (any value works if your server doesnt enforce auth):

export VLLM_API_KEY="vllm-local"

Then set a model (replace with one of the IDs returned by /v1/models):

{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "vllm/your-model-id" } },
  },
}

See /providers/vllm for details.

SGLang

SGLang ships as a bundled provider plugin for fast self-hosted OpenAI-compatible servers:

  • Provider: sglang
  • Auth: Optional (depends on your server)
  • Default base URL: http://127.0.0.1:30000/v1

To opt in to auto-discovery locally (any value works if your server does not enforce auth):

export SGLANG_API_KEY="sglang-local"

Then set a model (replace with one of the IDs returned by /v1/models):

{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "sglang/your-model-id" } },
  },
}

See /providers/sglang for details.

Local proxies (LM Studio, vLLM, LiteLLM, etc.)

Example (OpenAIcompatible):

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "lmstudio/my-local-model" },
      models: { "lmstudio/my-local-model": { alias: "Local" } },
    },
  },
  models: {
    providers: {
      lmstudio: {
        baseUrl: "http://localhost:1234/v1",
        apiKey: "LMSTUDIO_KEY",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [
          {
            id: "my-local-model",
            name: "Local Model",
            reasoning: false,
            input: ["text"],
            cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
            contextWindow: 200000,
            maxTokens: 8192,
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
}

Notes:

  • For custom providers, reasoning, input, cost, contextWindow, and maxTokens are optional. When omitted, OpenClaw defaults to:
    • reasoning: false
    • input: ["text"]
    • cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 }
    • contextWindow: 200000
    • maxTokens: 8192
  • Recommended: set explicit values that match your proxy/model limits.
  • For api: "openai-completions" on non-native endpoints (any non-empty baseUrl whose host is not api.openai.com), OpenClaw forces compat.supportsDeveloperRole: false to avoid provider 400 errors for unsupported developer roles.
  • Proxy-style OpenAI-compatible routes also skip native OpenAI-only request shaping: no service_tier, no Responses store, no prompt-cache hints, no OpenAI reasoning-compat payload shaping, and no hidden OpenClaw attribution headers.
  • If baseUrl is empty/omitted, OpenClaw keeps the default OpenAI behavior (which resolves to api.openai.com).
  • For safety, an explicit compat.supportsDeveloperRole: true is still overridden on non-native openai-completions endpoints.

CLI examples

openclaw onboard --auth-choice opencode-zen
openclaw models set opencode/claude-opus-4-6
openclaw models list

See also: /gateway/configuration for full configuration examples.