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>.

Built-in providers (pi-ai catalog)

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

OpenAI

Provider: openai
Auth: OPENAI_API_KEY
Example model: openai/gpt-5.1-codex
CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice openai-api-key

{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "openai/gpt-5.1-codex" } } },
}

Anthropic

Provider: anthropic
Auth: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or claude setup-token
Example model: anthropic/claude-opus-4-6
CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice token (paste setup-token) or openclaw models auth paste-token --provider anthropic

{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6" } } },
}

OpenAI Code (Codex)

Provider: openai-codex
Auth: OAuth (ChatGPT)
Example model: openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex
CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice openai-codex or openclaw models auth login --provider openai-codex

{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex" } } },
}

OpenCode Zen

Provider: opencode
Auth: OPENCODE_API_KEY (or OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY)
Example model: opencode/claude-opus-4-6
CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice opencode-zen

{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "opencode/claude-opus-4-6" } } },
}

Google Gemini (API key)

Provider: google
Auth: GEMINI_API_KEY
Example model: google/gemini-3-pro-preview
CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice gemini-api-key

Google Vertex, Antigravity, and Gemini CLI

Providers: google-vertex, google-antigravity, google-gemini-cli
Auth: Vertex uses gcloud ADC; Antigravity/Gemini CLI use their respective auth flows
Antigravity OAuth is shipped as a bundled plugin (google-antigravity-auth, disabled by default).
- Enable: openclaw plugins enable google-antigravity-auth
- Login: openclaw models auth login --provider google-antigravity --set-default
Gemini CLI OAuth is shipped as a bundled plugin (google-gemini-cli-auth, disabled by default).
- Enable: openclaw plugins enable google-gemini-cli-auth
- Login: openclaw models auth login --provider google-gemini-cli --set-default
- 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.

Z.AI (GLM)

Provider: zai
Auth: ZAI_API_KEY
Example model: zai/glm-4.7
CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice zai-api-key
- Aliases: z.ai/* and z-ai/* normalize to zai/*

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

Other built-in providers

OpenRouter: openrouter (OPENROUTER_API_KEY)
Example model: openrouter/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5
xAI: xai (XAI_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.
Mistral: mistral (MISTRAL_API_KEY)
GitHub Copilot: github-copilot (COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN / GH_TOKEN / GITHUB_TOKEN)
Hugging Face Inference: huggingface (HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN or HF_TOKEN) — OpenAI-compatible router; 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/Anthropic‑compatible proxies.

Moonshot AI (Kimi)

Moonshot uses OpenAI-compatible endpoints, so configure it as a custom provider:

Provider: moonshot
Auth: MOONSHOT_API_KEY
Example model: moonshot/kimi-k2.5

Kimi K2 model IDs:

moonshot/kimi-k2.5
moonshot/kimi-k2-0905-preview
moonshot/kimi-k2-turbo-preview
moonshot/kimi-k2-thinking
moonshot/kimi-k2-thinking-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-coding
Auth: KIMI_API_KEY
Example model: kimi-coding/k2p5

{
  env: { KIMI_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "kimi-coding/k2p5" } },
  },
}

Qwen OAuth (free tier)

Qwen provides OAuth access to Qwen Coder + Vision via a device-code flow. Enable the bundled plugin, then log in:

openclaw plugins enable qwen-portal-auth
openclaw models auth login --provider qwen-portal --set-default

Model refs:

qwen-portal/coder-model
qwen-portal/vision-model

See /providers/qwen for setup details and notes.

Synthetic

Synthetic provides Anthropic-compatible models behind the synthetic provider:

Provider: synthetic
Auth: SYNTHETIC_API_KEY
Example model: synthetic/hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.1
CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice synthetic-api-key

{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "synthetic/hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.1" } },
  },
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      synthetic: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.synthetic.new/anthropic",
        apiKey: "${SYNTHETIC_API_KEY}",
        api: "anthropic-messages",
        models: [{ id: "hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.1", name: "MiniMax M2.1" }],
      },
    },
  },
}

MiniMax

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

MiniMax (Anthropic‑compatible): --auth-choice minimax-api
Auth: MINIMAX_API_KEY

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

Ollama

Ollama is a local LLM runtime that provides an OpenAI-compatible API:

Provider: ollama
Auth: None required (local server)
Example model: ollama/llama3.3
Installation: https://ollama.ai

# Install Ollama, then pull a model:
ollama pull llama3.3

{
  agents: {
    defaults: { model: { primary: "ollama/llama3.3" } },
  },
}

Ollama is automatically detected when running locally at http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1. See /providers/ollama for model recommendations and custom configuration.

vLLM

vLLM is a local (or self-hosted) OpenAI-compatible server:

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 doesn’t 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.

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

Example (OpenAI‑compatible):

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "lmstudio/minimax-m2.1-gs32" },
      models: { "lmstudio/minimax-m2.1-gs32": { alias: "Minimax" } },
    },
  },
  models: {
    providers: {
      lmstudio: {
        baseUrl: "http://localhost:1234/v1",
        apiKey: "LMSTUDIO_KEY",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [
          {
            id: "minimax-m2.1-gs32",
            name: "MiniMax M2.1",
            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.

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.

Overview

Model concepts

Configuration

Providers

Model Providers

Model providers

Quick rules

Built-in providers (pi-ai catalog)

OpenAI

Anthropic

OpenAI Code (Codex)

OpenCode Zen

Google Gemini (API key)

Google Vertex, Antigravity, and Gemini CLI

Z.AI (GLM)

Vercel AI Gateway

Other built-in providers

Providers via `models.providers` (custom/base URL)

Moonshot AI (Kimi)

Kimi Coding

Qwen OAuth (free tier)

Synthetic

MiniMax

Ollama

vLLM

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

CLI examples

​Model providers

​Quick rules

​Built-in providers (pi-ai catalog)

​OpenAI

​Anthropic

​OpenAI Code (Codex)

​OpenCode Zen

​Google Gemini (API key)

​Google Vertex, Antigravity, and Gemini CLI

​Z.AI (GLM)

​Vercel AI Gateway

​Other built-in providers

​Providers via models.providers (custom/base URL)

​Moonshot AI (Kimi)

​Kimi Coding

​Qwen OAuth (free tier)

​Synthetic

​MiniMax

​Ollama

​vLLM

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

​CLI examples

Model providers

Quick rules

Built-in providers (pi-ai catalog)

OpenAI

Anthropic

OpenAI Code (Codex)

OpenCode Zen

Google Gemini (API key)

Google Vertex, Antigravity, and Gemini CLI

Z.AI (GLM)

Vercel AI Gateway

Other built-in providers

Providers via `models.providers` (custom/base URL)

Moonshot AI (Kimi)

Kimi Coding

Qwen OAuth (free tier)

Synthetic

MiniMax

Ollama

vLLM

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

CLI examples