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Building plugins

Provider hook wiring

Wire individual provider hooks when a family builder does not cover the behavior. Part of the Building provider plugins guide; start with Provider hook families for the shared builders.

Model route policy

The lightweight provider-policy-api artifact resolves model routes through resolveModelRoutes. Its context and result types are exported by openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-model-types.

ProviderResolveModelRoutesContext.routeIntent carries prepared, secret-free consumer intent: an optional runtimeId, an optional authRequirement ("subscription" or "api-key"), and source ("explicit" or "inherited"). The host projects existing model/provider policy and inherited agent defaults; plugins must not reload config or credentials to reconstruct it. This fact does not grant credential access or change which runtimes can execute a route.

A ProviderModelRouteResolution with kind: "routes" can set preferredAuthRequirement. Core applies that preference only when both authentication classes have eligible profiles and selection is automatic. Preparation and availability apply the same precedence: required consumer or provider profile bindings select the account; configured provider authentication constrains automatic selection to that billing route; explicit auth order ranks the remaining eligible profiles. Inherited routeIntent and preferredAuthRequirement only break ties after those choices. An environment credential supplies fallback material without clearing configured authentication; its mode is inferred only when no mode is configured. A preference does not create a credential or make an unavailable or cooldown-blocked profile eligible. Single-class selection keeps its existing behavior.

Candidate order remains separate from credential precedence, and runtimePolicy.compatibleIds continues to describe execution compatibility. For example, OpenAI keeps both routes available for supported models using a legacy official Completions adapter, prefers subscription authentication when both kinds are eligible, and honors explicit API route intent. These are additive fields on the existing contract; they add no hook or user setting.

Credential lookup cancellation

Credential consumers using resolveApiKeyForProvider from openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-auth-runtime should pass their request's optional signal. It ends the caller's wait for queued admission, a profile lock, or OAuth settlement, not an already-claimed refresh's credential write. Started lock acquisition remains owned through cleanup. Preserve non-missing authentication errors rather than converting every failure into an absent API key.

buildTimeoutAbortSignal from openclaw/plugin-sdk/extension-shared combines a caller signal with an operation timeout. Start it before credential preparation when authentication shares the request budget, and call its cleanup in finally to release the timer.

OAuth refresh configuration

refreshOAuth(credential, config) receives the caller's effective OpenClaw config as an optional second argument. Use that captured config for checks such as regional endpoint compatibility instead of reloading global runtime config. Existing one-argument hooks remain compatible, and direct callers can omit config.

Hook examples

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,  };},

Custom headers

For providers that need custom request headers or body modifications:

typescript
// wrapStreamFn returns a StreamFn derived from ctx.streamFnwrapStreamFn: (ctx) => {  if (!ctx.streamFn) return undefined;  const inner = ctx.streamFn;  return (model, context, options) =>    inner(model, context, {      ...options,      headers: {        ...options?.headers,        "X-Acme-Version": "2",      },    });},

Existing wrappers may still pass the deprecated maxRetries stream option, including 0. Built-in text transports ignore it: the embedded runner owns retry budgeting, and SDK-internal retries stay disabled. New wrappers should omit the option. This shipped source contract is retained until a future Plugin SDK major release and a published-plugin reader sweep confirm removal is safe; it does not change image-generation or native-runtime retry policy.

Native transport identity

For providers that need native request/session headers or metadata on generic HTTP or WebSocket transports:

typescript
resolveTransportTurnState: (ctx) => ({  headers: {    "x-request-id": ctx.turnId,  },  metadata: {    session_id: ctx.sessionId ?? "",    turn_id: ctx.turnId,  },  websocket: {    headers: {      "x-session-id": ctx.sessionId ?? "",    },    degradeCooldownMs: 60_000,  },}),

The older resolveWebSocketSessionPolicy hook remains supported but is deprecated. Move its fields under resolveTransportTurnState.websocket; fields from the new hook take precedence during migration. The hook carries a TypeScript @deprecated annotation only: it has no compatibility-registry record and therefore no published removal date. See the removal timeline for the surfaces that do.

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) => {  // fetchAcmeUsage is your plugin's own vendor API call, not an SDK export.  return await fetchAcmeUsage(ctx.token, ctx.timeoutMs, {    fetch: ctx.fetchFn,    signal: ctx.signal,  });},

Both usage hooks receive an optional ctx.signal for collection cancellation. ctx.fetchFn already combines it with request cancellation; custom transports must forward ctx.signal to their I/O. Check cancellation before starting additional auth work after an await. An exhausted budget invokes neither hook and produces a visible Timeout snapshot. Core retains completed siblings and tracks unfinished work through cleanup, including auth-owned credential refresh.

resolveUsageAuth has three outcomes. Return { token, accountId?, subscriptionType?, rateLimitTier? } when the provider has a usage/billing credential (the optional fields carry non-secret plan metadata from the resolved profile into fetchUsageSnapshot). Return { handled: true } only when the provider has definitively handled usage auth but has no usable usage token, and OpenClaw must skip generic API-key/OAuth fallback. Return null or undefined when the provider did not handle the request and OpenClaw should continue with generic fallback.

Declare the provider id in contracts.usageProviders. When that manifest contract and both hooks are present, OpenClaw automatically includes the provider in usage collection without loading unrelated provider plugins. No core allowlist update is required. fetchUsageSnapshot returns the shared provider-neutral shape:

  • plan: provider-reported subscription or key label
  • windows: resettable quota windows as used percentages
  • billing: typed balance, spend, or budget entries; unit can be an ISO currency or a provider unit such as credits
  • summary: compact provider-specific context that does not fit those structured fields

Keep currency semantics exact. A provider credit is not USD unless the upstream contract says so. A plugin that implements only fetchUsageSnapshot remains available for explicit/synthetic callers but is not auto-discovered, because OpenClaw cannot resolve its usage credential.

Set supportsSystemPromptCacheBoundary: true on a provider registration only when its createStreamFn transport understands the stable/dynamic system-prompt boundary. Use splitSystemPromptCacheBoundary from openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-transport-runtime to checkpoint the stable prefix separately, and consume the marker before sending any payload. Use stripSystemPromptCacheBoundary when caching is disabled. By default, OpenClaw strips the marker before invoking a custom transport.

For custom createStreamFn transports that accumulate JSON tool arguments, use createToolArgumentPreviewSchedule() from openclaw/plugin-sdk/llm. Create one schedule per tool call and pass the accumulated raw string's length to it before calling parseStreamingJson. The returned function admits preview refreshes at geometric growth checkpoints, so intermediate arguments snapshots can remain unchanged while raw fragments arrive. Keep emitting every raw delta and validate the complete arguments at the transport's terminal boundary, even when the last preview was not refreshed.

Common provider hooks

OpenClaw calls hooks in roughly this order for model/provider plugins. Most providers only use 2-3. This is not the full ProviderPlugin contract - see Internals: Provider Runtime Hooks for the complete, currently-accurate hook list and fallback notes. Compatibility-only provider fields that OpenClaw no longer calls, such as ProviderPlugin.capabilities and suppressBuiltInModel, are not listed here.

Keep resolveSyntheticAuth synchronous and bounded. External process/network login checks belong in prepareSyntheticAuth, which receives the captured config, environment, and cancellation signal and returns a synthetic auth result or no result. OpenClaw retains completed availability within that preparation generation. Read-only workers receive the final provider-ref outcome (including unavailable), preserving alias precedence without rerunning external checks. Cancelled preparation must reject after cleanup, not report a missing login.

Hook When to use
catalog Model catalog or base URL defaults
applyConfigDefaults Provider-owned global defaults during config materialization
normalizeModelId Legacy/preview model-id alias cleanup before lookup
normalizeTransport Provider-family api / baseUrl cleanup before generic model assembly
normalizeConfig Normalize models.providers.<id> config
applyNativeStreamingUsageCompat Native streaming-usage compat rewrites for config providers
resolveConfigApiKey Provider-owned env-marker auth resolution
resolveSyntheticAuth Local/self-hosted or config-backed synthetic auth
prepareSyntheticAuth Asynchronously verify external auth before synchronous availability reads
resolveExternalAuthProfiles Overlay provider-owned external auth profiles for CLI/app-managed credentials
shouldDeferSyntheticProfileAuth Lower synthetic stored-profile placeholders behind env/config auth
resolveDynamicModel Accept arbitrary upstream model IDs
prepareDynamicModel Return an asynchronously discovered model, or warm reusable metadata before sync resolution
normalizeResolvedModel Transport rewrites before the runner
normalizeToolSchemas Provider-owned tool-schema cleanup before registration
inspectToolSchemas Provider-owned tool-schema diagnostics
resolveReasoningOutputMode Tagged vs native reasoning-output contract
prepareExtraParams Default request params
createStreamFn Fully custom StreamFn transport
wrapStreamFn Custom headers/body wrappers on the normal stream path
reconcileLocalService Cheap managed-service repair safe to repeat after health and before every request
resolveTransportTurnState Native per-turn headers/metadata and WebSocket headers/cool-down
resolveWebSocketSessionPolicy Deprecated WebSocket compatibility hook; use resolveTransportTurnState
formatApiKey Custom runtime token shape
loginOAuth Callback-based OAuth login for the session SDK AuthStorage API
refreshOAuth Custom OAuth refresh
buildAuthDoctorHint Auth repair guidance
matchesContextOverflowError Provider-owned overflow detection
classifyFailoverReason Provider-owned rate-limit/overload classification
isCacheTtlEligible Prompt cache TTL gating
buildMissingAuthMessage Custom missing-auth hint
augmentModelCatalog Synthetic forward-compat rows (deprecated - prefer registerModelCatalogProvider)
resolveThinkingProfile Model-specific /think option set
isBinaryThinking Binary thinking on/off compatibility (deprecated - prefer resolveThinkingProfile)
supportsXHighThinking xhigh reasoning support compatibility (deprecated - prefer resolveThinkingProfile)
resolveDefaultThinkingLevel Default /think policy compatibility (deprecated - prefer resolveThinkingProfile)
isModernModelRef Live/smoke model matching
prepareRuntimeAuth Token exchange before inference
resolveUsageAuth Custom usage credential parsing
fetchUsageSnapshot Custom usage endpoint
createEmbeddingProvider Provider-owned embedding adapter for memory/search
buildReplayPolicy Custom transcript replay/compaction policy
sanitizeReplayHistoryAsync Provider-specific replay rewrites with awaited transcript metadata after generic cleanup
sanitizeReplayHistory Deprecated third-party replay compatibility hook; migrate to sanitizeReplayHistoryAsync
validateReplayTurns Strict replay-turn validation before the embedded runner
onModelSelected Post-selection callback (e.g. telemetry)

reconcileLocalService is called only for a configured local service, including a healthy process reused by a restarted Gateway. Honor its abort signal and reject when reconciliation fails; OpenClaw blocks the provider request and releases the request lease.

Runtime fallback notes:

  • isCacheTtlEligible(ctx) receives provider, modelId, optional modelApi, and the resolved route facts baseUrl and supportsPromptCacheKey. The same bounded context is used when installing cache-TTL pruning and recording cache touches; it does not include the full model, headers, or extra request parameters. OpenAI defaults to eligible on official Platform and Codex endpoints, honors an explicit supportsPromptCacheKey: false, and requires explicit opt-in for custom proxy routes. This controls client-side idle pruning, not a guarantee of a provider cache hit.
  • Error classification uses the prepared provider owner or already loaded provider hooks. matchesContextOverflowError and classifyFailoverReason never trigger plugin discovery while handling an error; provider preparation owns loading those hooks.
  • Config assembly calls normalizeConfig only through the owning bundled provider's lightweight policy surface, without loading provider runtime or scanning other providers. Google's own hook normalizes google / google-vertex / google-antigravity config entries through that surface.
  • Config assembly likewise uses the lightweight policy surface for resolveConfigApiKey. Amazon Bedrock keeps AWS env-marker resolution in its provider plugin; runtime auth itself still uses the AWS SDK default chain when configured with auth: "aws-sdk".
  • resolveThinkingProfile(ctx) receives the selected provider, modelId, optional catalog route facts api and baseUrl, optional merged reasoning catalog hint, and optional merged model compat facts. Use compat only to select the provider's thinking UI/profile.
  • normalizeResolvedModel(ctx) can set compactionThinkingDefault on the returned ProviderRuntimeModel when the provider has a preferred embedded-summary effort. This is prepared runtime metadata, not an operator setting or catalog field. Explicit agents.defaults.compaction.thinkingLevel takes precedence; otherwise the host uses this preference and then low. The chosen effort is still clamped to the actual compaction candidate.
  • resolveSystemPromptContribution lets a provider inject cache-aware system-prompt guidance for a model family. Prefer it over the legacy plugin-wide before_prompt_build hook when the behavior belongs to one provider/model family and should preserve the stable/dynamic cache split.

Bundled HTTP adapters can preserve numeric response status with createProviderHttpError from the private-local openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-http entrypoint. Adapters that already bound and redact their diagnostics can construct ProviderHttpError(message, { status }). Keep that error instance when adjusting its message so status and retry metadata survive; search tools use those fields for safe authentication and quota guidance without exposing response bodies.

The same entrypoint exposes runHttpTlsPreflight(url, options) for a non-redirecting reachability probe. It distinguishes certificate failures from other network failures, accepts cancellation and a current-authority callback, and requests best-effort cancellation of unread response bodies. Any HTTP status means the endpoint is reachable; this is not a credential or account check.

Bundled and trusted official provider policies can use resolveEffortThinkingProfile(compat?.supportedReasoningEfforts) from the private openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-thinking-runtime helper. It accepts exact off, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, and max values, maps none to off, and prepends off while preserving the first occurrence of each remaining level. The default preference is medium, high, low, then off. Missing, null, or empty metadata returns undefined; a nonempty list without supported values returns an off-only profile. Keep model-specific overrides and API fallbacks in the provider policy.

Provider stream adapters can call resolveOpenAIRequestReasoning(model, level) from openclaw/plugin-sdk/llm to resolve declared efforts, native-label maps, logical Off, and scalar-effort disablement through the shared transport owner. Translate its effort and thinkingEnabled results into the provider's wire dialect instead of defining another effort ladder. Read the level from each stream call's options before falling back to the wrapper context.

Bundled and trusted official plugins can also export resolveToolSearchMode(ctx) from their lightweight provider-policy-api artifact. The context contains the final provider, modelId, api, and optional baseUrl; its type is exported from openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-model-types. Return "tools" to prefer structured Tool Search, false to veto the managed-local-service default, or undefined to leave that decision to the host. The host records the result on the resolved runtime model rather than writing configuration. Explicit tools.toolSearch settings take precedence. This hook changes schema exposure, not tool permissions or availability.

resolveNativeWebSearch(ctx) can be exported from the same policy artifact when a provider supplies hosted search. Its ProviderNativeWebSearchPolicyContext (from openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-model-types) contains config, provider, optional modelId, api, and baseUrl. Return true only when that route will inject hosted search; share this policy with payload construction. Keep the hook synchronous and free of runtime activation or credential checks. The host applies tool permissions independently and removes managed web_search before building Tool Search and Code Mode catalogs. Explicit managed-provider selection must remain authoritative.

resolveFastModeSupport(ctx) can be exported from the same policy artifact and registered on the provider. Return false only for a confirmed no-op Fast choice, true for an applicable local request mapping, or undefined when facts are missing. ProviderFastModePolicyContext carries the selected model, route, auth mode, runtime, request parameters and transport policy; credentials are not included. Share the policy with request construction. The host publishes only supportsFastMode, preserving unknown behavior and clearing saved preferences. This describes local applicability, not upstream entitlement or fulfillment, and does not reject /fast commands.

resolveServiceTiers(ctx) can publish known model/route tier restrictions through the same lightweight artifact and provider registration. It receives ProviderFastModePolicyContext; return undefined when the provider has no restriction to add. The API-key OpenAI Responses catalog intersects a returned list with account observations or its route defaults, preserving "default" as Standard processing. A false Fast capability together with ["default"] keeps the Control UI on disabled Standard controls without confusing an explicit configured tier with a model limitation. Share this capability decision with the provider request builder; it does not itself alter configuration or grant access.

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