Custom provider

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Video Walkthrough

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When to use a custom provider

• your preferred vendor is not in the built-in provider list
• you use an OpenAI-compatible proxy or gateway
• you route traffic through a private or self-hosted endpoint
• you want multiple external providers behind one custom base URL

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Step 1: Gather the provider details

1. The provider base URL, for example https://your-provider.example.com/v1
2. The API compatibility type:
   • OpenAI-compatible
   • Anthropic-compatible
   • Unknown, if you want OpenClaw to auto-detect
3. The API key, if required
4. The model ID you want to use
5. An endpoint ID or label so you can recognize this provider later

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Step 2: Open your Agent 37 instance

1. Go to the Agent 37 dashboard and sign in.
2. Open an existing instance, or create a new one.
3. Open Terminal.

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Step 3: Start the configuration flow

openclaw configure

1. Where will the gateway run? → Local
2. Select Section to Configure? → Model
3. Model / Auth Provider → Custom Provider

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Step 4: Enter the custom provider details

1. API Base URL → your provider’s base API URL, such as: https://your-provider.example.com/v1 Example: https://api.minimax.io/v1

2. How do you want to provide this API key now? → Paste API key now
3. Endpoint-compatibility
   • Choose OpenAI-compatible if your provider exposes an OpenAI-style /v1 API
   • Choose Anthropic-compatible if it uses Anthropic’s Messages API
   • Choose Unknown if you want OpenClaw to auto-detect compatibility
4. Enter API key → paste the API key you copied from your provider
5. Model ID → enter the exact upstream model name Example: Minimax-M2.7
6. Alias (optional) → enter a friendly display name for the model
7. Endpoint ID → enter a short provider identifier such as: myproxy or minimax

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Step 5: Continue and verify the model

openclaw models list

openclaw models set minimax/Minimax-M2.7

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Optional: Understand the underlying config

• baseUrl
• apiKey
• api
• models

{
  "models": {
    "mode": "merge",
    "providers": {
      "custom-proxy": {
        "baseUrl": "http://localhost:4000/v1",
        "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
        "api": "openai-completions",
        "models": [
          {
            "id": "llama-3.1-8b",
            "name": "Llama 3.1 8B"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

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Troubleshooting tips

• Confirm that the base URL includes the correct API path, often /v1
• Make sure the model ID exactly matches the provider catalog
• Recheck whether the endpoint is OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-compatible
• Verify that your API key has active billing or access

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What to do next