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Protocols and APIs

OpenAI Chat Completions

OpenClaw’s Gateway can serve a small OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions endpoint. This endpoint is disabled by default. Enable it in config first.

  • POST /v1/chat/completions
  • Same port as the Gateway (WS + HTTP multiplex): http://<gateway-host>:/v1/chat/completions

Under the hood, requests are executed as a normal Gateway agent run (same codepath as openclaw agent), so routing/permissions/config match your Gateway.

Authentication​

Uses the Gateway auth configuration. Send a bearer token:

  • Authorization: Bearer

Notes:

  • When gateway.auth.mode="token", use gateway.auth.token (or OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN).
  • When gateway.auth.mode="password", use gateway.auth.password (or OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PASSWORD).
  • If gateway.auth.rateLimit is configured and too many auth failures occur, the endpoint returns 429 with Retry-After.

Security boundary (important)​

Treat this endpoint as a full operator-access surface for the gateway instance.

  • HTTP bearer auth here is not a narrow per-user scope model.
  • A valid Gateway token/password for this endpoint should be treated like an owner/operator credential.
  • Requests run through the same control-plane agent path as trusted operator actions.
  • There is no separate non-owner/per-user tool boundary on this endpoint; once a caller passes Gateway auth here, OpenClaw treats that caller as a trusted operator for this gateway.
  • If the target agent policy allows sensitive tools, this endpoint can use them.
  • Keep this endpoint on loopback/tailnet/private ingress only; do not expose it directly to the public internet.

See Security and Remote access.

Choosing an agent​

No custom headers required: encode the agent id in the OpenAI model field:

  • model: "openclaw:" (example: "openclaw:main", "openclaw:beta")
  • model: "agent:" (alias)

Or target a specific OpenClaw agent by header:

  • x-openclaw-agent-id: (default: main)

Advanced:

  • x-openclaw-session-key: to fully control session routing.

Enabling the endpoint​

Set gateway.http.endpoints.chatCompletions.enabled to true:

{
  gateway: {
    http: {
      endpoints: {
        chatCompletions: { enabled: true },
      },
    },
  },
}

Disabling the endpoint​

Set gateway.http.endpoints.chatCompletions.enabled to false:

{
  gateway: {
    http: {
      endpoints: {
        chatCompletions: { enabled: false },
      },
    },
  },
}

Session behavior​

By default the endpoint is stateless per request (a new session key is generated each call). If the request includes an OpenAI user string, the Gateway derives a stable session key from it, so repeated calls can share an agent session.

Streaming (SSE)​

Set stream: true to receive Server-Sent Events (SSE):

  • Content-Type: text/event-stream
  • Each event line is data:
  • Stream ends with data: [DONE]

Examples​

Non-streaming:

curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:18789/v1/chat/completions \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-openclaw-agent-id: main' \
  -d '{
    "model": "openclaw",
    "messages": [{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]
  }'

Streaming:

curl -N http://127.0.0.1:18789/v1/chat/completions \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-openclaw-agent-id: main' \
  -d '{
    "model": "openclaw",
    "stream": true,
    "messages": [{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]
  }'

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