Custom providers and local runtimes

Providers via models.providers (custom/base URL)

Use models.providers (or models.json) to add custom providers or OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible 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.

Bundled and catalog-known routes take their compat capabilities from the owning provider plugin. A config compat block is for a custom provider/model or a different api/baseUrl route whose endpoint contract you have verified; see the custom-provider capability guide. Doctor removes legacy values that merely repeat the catalog and leaves divergent values visible for operator review.

Gateway model capability checks also read explicit models.providers.<id>.models[] metadata. If a custom or proxy model accepts images, set input: ["text", "image"] on that model so WebChat and node-origin attachment paths pass images as native model inputs instead of text-only media refs.

agents.defaults.models["provider/model"] controls aliases and per-model metadata for agents. It neither restricts overrides nor registers a new runtime model by itself. For custom provider models, also add models.providers.<provider>.models[] with at least the matching id; use agents.defaults.modelPolicy.allow separately when you want an override restriction.

Moonshot AI (Kimi)

Install @openclaw/moonshot-provider before onboarding. 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-k3
• CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice moonshot-api-key or openclaw onboard --auth-choice moonshot-api-key-cn

Kimi model IDs:

• moonshot/kimi-k2.6
• moonshot/kimi-k3
• moonshot/kimi-k2.7-code
• moonshot/kimi-k2.7-code-highspeed
• moonshot/kimi-k2.5

{  agents: {    defaults: { model: { primary: "moonshot/kimi-k2.6" } },  },  models: {    mode: "merge",    providers: {      moonshot: {        baseUrl: "https://api.moonshot.ai/v1",        apiKey: "${MOONSHOT_API_KEY}",        api: "openai-completions",        models: [{ id: "kimi-k2.6", name: "Kimi K2.6" }],      },    },  },}

See Moonshot AI (Kimi + Kimi Coding) for the full setup guide.

Kimi Coding

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

• Provider: kimi
• Auth: KIMI_API_KEY
• Kimi K3: kimi/k3 (up to 1M, tier-gated) or kimi/k3-256k (256K, lower quota use)
• Kimi Code: kimi/kimi-for-coding
• Kimi Code HighSpeed: kimi/kimi-for-coding-highspeed

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

Kimi K3 uses adaptive thinking. --thinking minimal|low selects low effort, --thinking medium|high|adaptive selects high effort, and --thinking xhigh|max selects max effort. Catalog pricing is $3/MTok input, $15/MTok output, and $0.30/MTok cache reads. Legacy kimi/kimi-code and kimi/k2p5 remain accepted as compatibility model ids and normalize to Kimi's stable API model id; the previously published kimi/k3[1m] ref normalizes to kimi/k3 for existing configs.

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.

BytePlus (International)

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

• Plugin: @openclaw/byteplus-provider
• Provider: byteplus (coding: byteplus-plan)
• Auth: BYTEPLUS_API_KEY
• Example model: byteplus-plan/ark-code-latest
• CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice byteplus-api-key

Install the official plugin and restart the Gateway:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/byteplus-provideropenclaw gateway restart

{  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.

Synthetic

Synthetic provides Anthropic-compatible models behind the synthetic provider:

• Provider: synthetic
• Auth: SYNTHETIC_API_KEY
• Example model: synthetic/hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3
• CLI: openclaw onboard --auth-choice synthetic-api-key

{  agents: {    defaults: { model: { primary: "synthetic/hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3" } },  },  models: {    mode: "merge",    providers: {      synthetic: {        baseUrl: "https://api.synthetic.new/anthropic",        apiKey: "${SYNTHETIC_API_KEY}",        api: "anthropic-messages",        models: [{ id: "hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3", name: "MiniMax M3" }],      },    },  },}

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.

Plugin-owned capability split:

• Text/chat defaults stay on minimax/MiniMax-M3
• 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

llama.cpp

The bundled llama-cpp plugin provides one local text provider with two setup choices:

• Managed local server installs and supervises a verified llama-server and local GGUF files.
• Existing llama-server connects to a server that you operate and discovers its models.

Install the plugin once for either path:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/llama-cpp-provider

Both use llama-cpp/<model> references. See llama.cpp for setup, discovery, authentication, and managed local embeddings.

LM Studio

LM Studio ships as a bundled provider plugin which uses the native API:

• Provider: lmstudio
• Auth: LM_API_TOKEN
• Default inference base URL: http://localhost:1234/v1

Then set a model (replace with one of the IDs returned by http://localhost:1234/api/v1/models):

{  agents: {    defaults: { model: { primary: "lmstudio/openai/gpt-oss-20b" } },  },}

OpenClaw uses LM Studio's native /api/v1/models and /api/v1/models/load for discovery + auto-load, with /v1/chat/completions for inference by default. If you want LM Studio JIT loading, TTL, and auto-evict to own model lifecycle, set models.providers.lmstudio.params.preload: false. See /providers/lmstudio for setup and troubleshooting.

Ollama

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

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

# 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 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.

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 (OpenAI-compatible):

{  agents: {    defaults: {      model: { primary: "lmstudio/my-local-model" },      models: { "lmstudio/my-local-model": { alias: "Local" } },    },  },  models: {    providers: {      lmstudio: {        baseUrl: "http://localhost:1234/v1",        apiKey: "${LM_API_TOKEN}",        api: "openai-completions",        timeoutSeconds: 300,        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,          },        ],      },    },  },}