Anthropic (Claude)

Anthropic builds the Claude model family and provides access via an API. In OpenClaw you can authenticate with an API key or a setup-token.

Option A: Anthropic API key

Best for: standard API access and usage-based billing. Create your API key in the Anthropic Console.

CLI setup

openclaw onboard
# choose: Anthropic API key

# or non-interactive
openclaw onboard --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"

Config snippet

{
  env: { ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: "sk-ant-..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5" } } }
}

Prompt caching (Anthropic API)

OpenClaw does not override Anthropic’s default cache TTL unless you set it. This is API-only; subscription auth does not honor TTL settings.

To set the TTL per model, use cacheControlTtl in the model params:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5": {
          params: { cacheControlTtl: "5m" } // or "1h"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

OpenClaw includes the extended-cache-ttl-2025-04-11 beta flag for Anthropic API requests; keep it if you override provider headers (see /gateway/configuration).

Option B: Claude setup-token

Best for: using your Claude subscription.

Where to get a setup-token

Setup-tokens are created by the Claude Code CLI, not the Anthropic Console. You can run this on any machine:

claude setup-token

Paste the token into OpenClaw (wizard: Anthropic token (paste setup-token)), or run it on the gateway host:

openclaw models auth setup-token --provider anthropic

If you generated the token on a different machine, paste it:

openclaw models auth paste-token --provider anthropic

CLI setup

# Paste a setup-token during onboarding
openclaw onboard --auth-choice setup-token

Config snippet

{
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5" } } }
}

Notes

Troubleshooting

401 errors / token suddenly invalid

  • Claude subscription auth can expire or be revoked. Re-run claude setup-token and paste it into the gateway host.
  • If the Claude CLI login lives on a different machine, use openclaw models auth paste-token --provider anthropic on the gateway host.

No API key found for provider “anthropic”

  • Auth is per agent. New agents don’t inherit the main agent’s keys.
  • Re-run onboarding for that agent, or paste a setup-token / API key on the gateway host, then verify with openclaw models status.

No credentials found for profile anthropic:default

  • Run openclaw models status to see which auth profile is active.
  • Re-run onboarding, or paste a setup-token / API key for that profile.

No available auth profile (all in cooldown/unavailable)

  • Check openclaw models status --json for auth.unusableProfiles.
  • Add another Anthropic profile or wait for cooldown.

More: /gateway/troubleshooting and /help/faq.