Anthropic

Anthropic builds the Claude model family. OpenClaw supports two auth routes:

• API key - Anthropic API access with usage-based billing
• Claude CLI - reuse an existing Claude Code login through the installed executable on the same host

Choose a model route

The model picker can show Anthropic and Claude CLI separately. These are not interchangeable billing choices: anthropic/* is the canonical model identity and can run through either runtime; claude-cli/* selects the native Claude runtime explicitly.

• API / API · OpenClaw uses the configured Anthropic API connection.
• Claude CLI / Claude CLI · native runs through Claude Code, using its native login or a selected saved account.
• Configured route means the picker does not have a resolved runtime to show. The provider name alone is not proof of API or subscription billing. An Anthropic Default row also uses this label when it will clear a pinned session runtime: the current session route does not describe the configured route being restored.

The web picker shows route details on hover or keyboard focus. Telegram /models shows route guidance before selection and labels models when their runtime is known. Model IDs and explicit runtime choices remain unchanged.

Check the selected account as well as the runtime. An API key explicitly selected for Claude CLI still uses separate API billing. A Claude CLI selection does not silently switch to the direct API if the executable cannot run.

Usage and cost tracking

OpenClaw detects the available Anthropic credential and selects the matching usage surface:

• OpenClaw-managed subscription/setup credentials show quota windows and optional extra-usage budget.
• Native Claude CLI logins stay under Claude's exclusive refresh control, so OpenClaw does not poll their quota endpoint.
• ANTHROPIC_ADMIN_KEY or ANTHROPIC_ADMIN_API_KEY shows 30 days of provider-reported organization cost and Messages API usage in Control UI Usage, including daily spend, token/cache totals, top models, and cost categories.
• An sk-ant-admin... credential stored in the Anthropic provider profile is detected as an Admin API key automatically.

Admin API cost history comes from Anthropic's Usage and Cost API. It is actual provider billing, separate from OpenClaw's session-derived estimated cost.

Getting started

openclaw onboard# choose: Anthropic API key

openclaw onboard --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"

openclaw models list --provider anthropic

{  env: { vars: { ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: "example-anthropic-key-not-real" } },  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-5" } } },}

claude --versionclaude auth status --text

claude auth login

claude update

openclaw onboard# choose: Claude CLI

openclaw models list --provider anthropic

openclaw models auth login --provider anthropic --method setup-token

{  agents: {    defaults: {      model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-5" },      models: {        "anthropic/claude-opus-5": {          agentRuntime: { id: "claude-cli" },        },      },    },  },}

Use Claude Opus 5.5

After setting up either auth route above, select the canonical model ref:

openclaw models set anthropic/claude-opus-5-5

The bare opus alias and explicit aliases opus-5.5 / opus-5-5 select this model. Fresh API and Claude CLI setup defaults to Opus 5.5; existing version-pinned models and authored aliases remain unchanged.

For Claude CLI authentication, keep the canonical ref and select the CLI runtime:

{  agents: {    defaults: {      model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-5-5" },      models: {        "anthropic/claude-opus-5-5": {          agentRuntime: { id: "claude-cli" },        },      },    },  },}

The API and Claude CLI catalogs expose a 1,000,000-token context window and 128,000-token output limit. API pricing is $4/$20 per million input/output tokens, with $0.20 cache reads and $5 five-minute cache writes. See Anthropic's Opus 5.5 specifications.

Opus 5.5 always uses adaptive thinking. OpenClaw defaults to medium and offers low, medium, high, xhigh, and max. Stored off and minimal settings map to low; stored adaptive uses the medium default. Use /think low to reduce thinking effort. OpenClaw omits manual thinking budgets, custom sampling parameters, assistant prefills, and Priority Tier.

Forced tool choices become auto; state in the prompt when a particular tool must run. Opus 5.5 also binds retained thinking to its conversation prefix. OpenClaw applies the append-only context and retained-thinking repair described under Tool calls and retained thinking. See Anthropic's migration guide for model-switching and response-shape changes.

Use Claude Sonnet 5.5

After setting up either auth route above, select the canonical model ref:

openclaw models set anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5

The bare sonnet alias and explicit aliases sonnet-5.5 / sonnet-5-5 select this model. Fresh API and Claude CLI setup still defaults to Opus 5.5; select Sonnet 5.5 explicitly. Existing version-pinned models and authored aliases remain unchanged. Use sonnet-5 to keep Sonnet 5.

For Claude CLI authentication, keep the canonical ref and select the CLI runtime:

{  agents: {    defaults: {      model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5" },      models: {        "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5": {          agentRuntime: { id: "claude-cli" },        },      },    },  },}

The API and Claude CLI catalogs expose a 1,000,000-token context window and 128,000-token output limit. Sonnet 5.5 supports image and PDF input. API pricing is $2/$10 per million input/output tokens, with $0.20 cache reads and $2.50 five-minute cache writes, the same rates as Sonnet 5. See Anthropic's Sonnet 5.5 specifications.

Sonnet 5.5 uses adaptive thinking at high effort by default. OpenClaw offers off, low, medium, high, xhigh, and max. /think off sends Anthropic's between_tools setting: it disables up-front thinking, while notes between tool calls still return as ordinary text. New /think minimal and /think adaptive directives are rejected with the supported choices; stored minimal maps to low, and stored adaptive uses the high default. Use /think default to restore that default. OpenClaw omits manual thinking budgets, custom sampling parameters, and assistant prefills. Sonnet 5.5 supports neither native fast mode nor Priority Tier.

Forced tool choices become auto, including with /think off; state in the prompt when a particular tool must run. Sonnet 5.5 binds retained thinking to its conversation prefix. OpenClaw applies the append-only context and retained-thinking repair described under Tool calls and retained thinking. A session moving onto Sonnet 5.5 keeps reasoning from Sonnet 5 or Claude 4.x models, but not from Opus 5, Opus 5.5, Fable, or Mythos. No other model reads Sonnet 5.5 reasoning. Direct API-key requests opt into Anthropic's safety fallback to Sonnet 5 for cyber and frontier_llm declines, at the same price. See Anthropic's migration guide for model-switching and response-shape changes.

Use Claude Fable 5.1

After setting up either auth route above, select the canonical model ref:

openclaw models set anthropic/claude-fable-5-1

For Claude CLI authentication, keep that same ref and select the CLI runtime:

{  agents: {    defaults: {      model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-fable-5-1" },      models: {        "anthropic/claude-fable-5-1": {          agentRuntime: { id: "claude-cli" },        },      },    },  },}

The API and Claude CLI catalogs expose a 1,000,000-token context window and 128,000-token output limit. Fable 5.1 always uses adaptive thinking. OpenClaw defaults to medium, with native low, medium, high, xhigh, and max effort available. For API-key billing, input and output remain $10/$50 per million tokens; cache reads cost $0.25 per million tokens, one quarter of Fable 5's rate. See Anthropic's Fable 5.1 specifications.

The bare fable alias now selects anthropic/claude-fable-5-1. Explicit fable-5 and anthropic/claude-fable-5 selections still use Fable 5; OpenClaw does not rewrite them to Fable 5.1.

Tool calls and retained thinking

Fable 5.1 accepts automatic or disabled tool use, not forced tool calls. OpenClaw's Anthropic adapter converts a forced tool choice to auto when thinking is enabled. State in the prompt when a particular tool must run; see Anthropic's migration guide.

Fable 5.1 binds retained thinking to the preceding system prompt, tools, and conversation history. Changing that prefix can invalidate later thinking blocks. Claude Code manages this history for the CLI runtime. OpenClaw's embedded runtime uses append-only context only for prefix-binding models such as Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, and Sonnet 5.5: it persists hidden runtime-context carriers after their user turn, keeps earlier carriers and inline inbound metadata in place, and preserves consecutive user turns on the Messages API. This also applies to matching Claude models on Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry, although Bedrock Converse still merges consecutive user turns. Carriers contain only the delimited context body; the instruction to use it privately lives once in the stable system prompt. Other Claude models keep transient carriers and normal user-turn merging. Transient carriers are the cheaper cache shape when thinking does not bind the prefix: old carriers consume no later context or repeated cache-read charges.

Direct Anthropic API-key requests with adaptive thinking send the thinking-binding-controls-2026-08-01 beta and thinking.block_binding.prefix_mismatch_behavior: "drop_block". Anthropic drops invalidated replayed thinking server-side, and OpenClaw logs a warning with the count and up to five affected paths. These controls are not sent for OAuth, proxies, Bedrock, Vertex, Foundry, or budget-based, disabled, or between_tools thinking. Client-side compaction removes stale thinking signatures; a provider-confirmed thinking rejection can still trigger one retry without prior thinking and persist the successful repair. Adaptive mode remains enabled, but a response may contain no thinking block. Integrations that build Messages API requests directly should follow Anthropic's preserved-thinking rules.

With contextPruning.mode: "cache-ttl", direct Anthropic API-key requests use server-side tool-result clearing. Anthropic's server-side clearing and compaction never invalidate Fable 5.1 thinking: the prefix check uses the history sent by the client, before those server edits. See Anthropic's context-editing contract. On other eligible routes, a client-side prune is a one-time prefix edit. OpenClaw retains that projection for later requests, so pruning does not flip back to the original bytes and invalidate newly created thinking. Earlier thinking affected by a client-side edit is handled by drop_block where the binding controls above apply, or by the existing rejection-and-repair path elsewhere.

Fable 5.1 thinking is also bound to the model that produced it. Switching a session from Fable 5.1 to any other model (Opus 5.5, Opus 5, Sonnet 5.5, Sonnet 5, Fable 5, or older) continues the visible conversation without Fable's earlier reasoning; Anthropic drops those blocks unbilled, and OpenClaw's embedded runtime omits them from the replay for the same result. The reverse move keeps compatible reasoning: Fable 5.1 reads thinking produced by Opus 5, Sonnet 5, Opus 4.8, and Fable 5, so a session that moves onto Fable 5.1 replays that history intact. It cannot read Sonnet 5.5 reasoning. Switching away and back does not restore the pre-switch Fable reasoning: the switch changes the system prompt, which invalidates every earlier Fable block. On direct API-key routes Anthropic drops those blocks server-side and OpenClaw logs the drop; elsewhere, organizations that enforce the prefix check reject the request once and the embedded runtime retries without prior thinking. Changing the thinking level with /think has the same effect. Pick the model and thinking level when you start the session when reasoning continuity matters.

Sonnet 5.5 preserves prior Sonnet 5 and Claude 4.x reasoning when a session moves onto it, but drops reasoning from Opus 5, Opus 5.5, Fable, and Mythos. Switching away from Sonnet 5.5 drops its reasoning on every other model.

Claude sessions across computers

The bundled Anthropic plugin adds a Claude Code group to the normal sessions sidebar. Rows open in the normal Chat pane. It discovers non-archived Claude Code sessions on the Gateway and on connected node hosts:

• Claude CLI sessions come from valid project-index records. For unindexed transcripts, a bounded metadata fallback recognizes concurrent non-sidechain interactive (cli) and headless Agent SDK CLI (sdk-cli) sessions under ~/.claude/projects/. Gateway-side discovery also recognizes bidirectional stream-json (sdk-ts) sessions; the native macOS node reader does not.
• Claude Desktop sessions use the Desktop title, activity time, and archive state when its metadata points to the same Claude Code session ID.
• A CLI-only session has no archive flag, so it remains visible while its transcript is present.

Claude Code /rename titles take precedence over automatic titles and the first prompt. /color imports the matching session color; cleared or unrecognized colors stay unset. Discovery reads a bounded transcript prefix and tail, so recent metadata appended to large transcripts is included without reading the entire history. Metadata outside those windows may be unavailable. Desktop rows retain their Desktop title and remain colorless.

No additional OpenClaw config is required for discovery. The Anthropic plugin is bundled and enabled by default; a native macOS node advertises the read-only Claude session commands when the local ~/.claude/projects/ directory exists. Approve the node pairing upgrade when those commands first appear.

The sidebar groups rows by their Gateway or paired-node host and shows each host's newest bounded page as soon as that computer answers. It reconciles again after host-connectivity changes, when the page regains focus, and at most every 30 seconds while visible, so Claude sessions created outside OpenClaw appear without a reload. A changed catalog gets a faster follow-up pass. Use Load more sessions below a catalog group to append the next page for every host that has more history; appended rows stay visible and are re-fetched to the same depth across refreshes. Catalog clients use sessions.catalog.list; opening a row uses sessions.catalog.read.

Those refreshes are cheap on the Gateway: the plugin watches ~/.claude/projects/ and the Desktop session store for changes instead of re-reading them on every poll, so an unchanged tree costs no disk access and a change re-reads only the affected project directory. It re-reads the whole tree at most every five minutes as a backstop, and falls back to per-request scanning if the platform cannot provide a file watcher. Desktop metadata also refreshes every 60 seconds to pick up custom-group changes outside the watched session store. Desktop metadata caching keeps only bounded catalog fields and PR summaries; unused MCP configurations and launch snapshots are discarded after each read. Gateway enumeration keeps each caller isolated; the plugin reuses its watched filesystem snapshot across those enumerations.

Catalog visibility follows the authenticated Gateway profile. Admin connections see every discovered Claude row, and solo or shared-secret Gateways remain unfiltered. On a multi-user Gateway, a non-admin sees only rows already adopted by their durable profile; unattributed host-discovered Claude CLI and Desktop rows stay hidden. This is a privacy control within one trusted Gateway domain; see Multi-user mode.

Terminal takeover resolves claude from the owning host user's login-shell PATH before the service/daemon PATH. This keeps app-launched sessions aligned with the Claude CLI the operator gets in a normal terminal.

Selecting a row reads the newest transcript page first. Load older transcript items follows an opaque byte cursor and reads another bounded section from the JSONL file instead of loading the entire history. Normal user, assistant, reasoning, tool-call, and tool-result content is preserved. An individual item larger than the node/Gateway safety ceiling is clearly marked as truncated.

For a Gateway-local claude-cli row, typing in the normal composer calls sessions.catalog.continue. OpenClaw re-resolves the local catalog record, creates or reuses a model-locked native session, imports at most 200 visible items or 512 KiB, and seeds the Claude CLI binding. The first turn resumes with --fork-session; Claude assigns the fork a new session ID, so later turns use the fork and the source session stays untouched.

The new OpenClaw session starts with the catalog title and color. Continuing an already adopted session preserves any title or color changes made in OpenClaw.

A headless node host can also make its Claude CLI rows continuable by enabling the node-local setting below and restarting the node host:

{  nodeHost: {    agentRuns: {      claude: { enabled: true },    },  },}

The node advertises agent.cli.claude.run.v1 only when the setting is enabled and its local claude executable resolves. OpenClaw re-resolves the catalog record on that node, imports the same bounded history, and binds the adopted session to the node and catalog-reported working directory. Each turn runs the node's real claude -p process using that node's Claude files and login. The node's exec approval policy still applies; the Gateway cannot force the opt-in.

Node continuation v1 is one-shot only. It omits Gateway loopback MCP config and Gateway skills plugin arguments, does not reseed from a Gateway transcript, and rejects attachments and images. Claude Desktop rows remain view-only. Native macOS app nodes also remain view-only until the app advertises the run command.

See Nodes: Claude sessions and transcripts for the node command and security boundary.

Live model discovery

With an Anthropic API key configured, OpenClaw refreshes the Claude catalog from Anthropic's models endpoint, so newly published snapshots of supported model families appear without an OpenClaw release. Models the shipped catalog already describes always keep their published metadata and pricing.

A newly discovered model is only offered when Anthropic's advertised capabilities match the request shaping OpenClaw would apply to it. A brand-new model generation therefore stays hidden until OpenClaw adds support for it, rather than appearing in the picker and failing every request. Discovery is advisory: without an API key, or if the endpoint is unreachable, the shipped catalog is used unchanged.

Thinking defaults (Claude 5.5, 5, 4.8, and 4.6)

Bare family aliases are rolling: opus currently resolves to anthropic/claude-opus-5-5, and sonnet resolves to anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5. Upgrading OpenClaw can move either alias onto a newer model generation. Pin a version to opt out: opus-5, sonnet-5, claude-opus-5, claude-sonnet-5, and other explicit versioned selections keep their own model.

anthropic/claude-opus-5 uses adaptive thinking at high effort by default. Use /think off to disable thinking, or /think xhigh|max for the model's higher native effort levels. OpenClaw omits manual thinking budgets, custom sampling parameters, assistant prefills, and Priority Tier for Opus 5 because Anthropic does not support those request features on this model. The catalog publishes its 1,000,000-token context window, 128,000-token output limit, image input, and $5/$25 input/output pricing.

anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 uses the same adaptive-thinking defaults and request restrictions. The catalog uses Anthropic's standard $2/$10 input/output pricing per million tokens. Anthropic canceled the previously scheduled September 2026 increase; see current model pricing.

anthropic/claude-fable-5-1 and anthropic/claude-fable-5 always use adaptive thinking. OpenClaw defaults both versions to medium effort. Anthropic does not allow thinking to be disabled for these models, so stored off and minimal settings map to low effort instead. OpenClaw also omits caller-selected sampling parameters for both Fable versions.

Fable effort controls offer low, medium, high, xhigh, and max, matching Anthropic's effort levels. Adaptive thinking is always on; it is not a separate effort choice. Existing stored adaptive selections resolve to OpenClaw's medium default. Custom anthropic-messages providers use the same profile, including model IDs with routing namespaces such as Claude Gateway/claude-fable-5-1.

anthropic/claude-mythos-5 is a limited-access model with the same always-on adaptive-thinking and five-effort contract. OpenClaw defaults to high, maps stored off and minimal settings to low, and omits caller-selected sampling parameters. The catalog publishes its 1,000,000-token context window, 128,000-token output limit, image input, and $10/$50 input/output pricing.

For Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Fable, and Mythos, new /think minimal and /think adaptive directives are rejected with the supported choices. Use /think low in place of minimal, and /think default to use the model's default effort. The remapping above applies to previously stored settings.

Claude Opus 4.8 keeps thinking off by default in OpenClaw. When you explicitly enable adaptive thinking with /think high|xhigh|max, OpenClaw sends Anthropic's Opus 4.8 effort values; Claude 4.6 models (Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6) default to adaptive.

Override per-message with /think:<level> or in model params:

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "anthropic/claude-opus-5": {          params: { thinking: "high" },        },      },    },  },}

Safety refusal fallback (Claude Opus, Sonnet 5.5, and Fable)

Why this exists

Opus 5.5, Opus 5, Sonnet 5.5, and Fable classifiers return stop_reason: "refusal" on requests in restricted domains. Without a fallback, the turn ends with an error even when Anthropic has a recommended model for that refusal category.

How it works

1. For every direct API-key request to anthropic/claude-opus-5-5, anthropic/claude-opus-5, anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5, anthropic/claude-fable-5-1, or anthropic/claude-fable-5, OpenClaw sends the server-side-fallback-2026-07-01 beta header plus fallbacks: "default". Anthropic selects the recommended model for the reported refusal category. Sonnet 5.5 falls back to Sonnet 5 for cyber and frontier_llm declines.
2. Only a safety-classifier decline triggers the fallback. Rate limits, overloads, and server errors behave exactly as before and go through OpenClaw's normal model failover.
3. The rescue happens inside the same call. A decline before any output is invisible apart from latency; the whole answer comes from the serving model. On a mid-stream decline the partial text is kept as the prefix the fallback model continues from, while the declined model's reasoning and tool calls are discarded per Anthropic's replay rules (they must not be echoed back or executed).
4. If the recommended model declines as well, the turn surfaces the refusal as an error. OpenClaw does not retry a final refusal or advance to another configured model.

The fallback happens at the Anthropic API level, so the serving model does not need to be in your configured OpenClaw fallback chain.

Observability and billing

• A fallback-served turn records a provider_fallback diagnostic on the assistant message naming fromModel and toModel, and the message's responseModel reports the model that answered.
• Anthropic bills the fallback attempt at the serving model's rates. OpenClaw prices known Opus 4.8 fallback-served turns at Opus 4.8 rates. Sonnet 5.5 fallback-served turns on Sonnet 5 keep the requested cost because their rates are identical.
• A mid-stream decline additionally bills the already-streamed primary-model partial on Anthropic's side; that portion is reported in the API's per-attempt usage but not folded into OpenClaw's per-turn estimate.

Scope

Applies to anthropic/claude-opus-5-5, anthropic/claude-opus-5, anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5, anthropic/claude-fable-5-1, and anthropic/claude-fable-5 with API-key auth against api.anthropic.com. OAuth (including Claude CLI subscription reuse), proxy base URLs, Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry requests are unchanged and still surface refusals as errors there.

See Anthropic's refusals and fallback guide for the underlying behavior.

Prompt caching

OpenClaw supports Anthropic's prompt caching feature for API-key auth.

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": {          params: { cacheRetention: "long" },        },      },    },  },}

{  agents: {    defaults: {      model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6" },      models: {        "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": {          params: { cacheRetention: "long" },        },      },    },    entries: {      research: { default: true },      alerts: { params: { cacheRetention: "none" } },    },  },}

Advanced configuration

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "anthropic/claude-opus-5": {          params: { fastMode: true },        },      },    },  },}

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6": {          params: { anthropicServerCompaction: true },        },      },    },  },}

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6": {          params: {            anthropicServerCompaction: true,            anthropicCompactThreshold: 120000,          },        },      },    },  },}

{  agents: {    defaults: {      models: {        "anthropic/claude-opus-5": {},        "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5": {},        "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5": {},        "anthropic/claude-mythos-5": {},        "anthropic/claude-opus-4-8": {},      },    },  },}

Troubleshooting

claude auth status --textclaude auth loginopenclaw gateway restart

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