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Vercel AI Gateway

The Vercel AI Gateway provides a unified API to access hundreds of models through a single endpoint, with built-in observability and rate limiting.
Vercel AI Gateway does not host models itself. It proxies requests to underlying providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.). You still need a Vercel AI Gateway API key.

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Prerequisites

  • A Vercel account with AI Gateway enabled
  • An AI Gateway API key (AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY)

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Quick setup

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1. Get an API key

In the Vercel dashboard, enable AI Gateway and create an API key. Store it on the gateway host: 
echo 'AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY=your-key-here' >> ~/.openclaw/.env

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2. Run onboarding

openclaw onboard --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key
Or non-interactive: 
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key \
  --ai-gateway-api-key "$AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY"

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3. Configure

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      "vercel-ai-gateway": {
        apiKey: "AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY", // references the env var
      },
    },
  },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "vercel-ai-gateway/anthropic/claude-opus-4-6" },
    },
  },
}
apiKey is the name of the environment variable, not the key value itself. Keep secrets in .env, not in committed config files.

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Provider settings

SettingValue
Provider IDvercel-ai-gateway
APIAnthropic Messages compatible
Auth env varAI_GATEWAY_API_KEY

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Model ID format

Model IDs follow the Vercel AI Gateway routing format: vercel-ai-gateway/<upstream-provider>/<model-id>. WednesdayAI accepts Claude shorthand model refs and normalises them at runtime:
ShorthandResolved as
vercel-ai-gateway/claude-opus-4.6vercel-ai-gateway/anthropic/claude-opus-4-6
vercel-ai-gateway/opus-4.6vercel-ai-gateway/anthropic/claude-opus-4-6

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Verification

openclaw models status --probe-provider vercel-ai-gateway

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Troubleshooting

The API key is invalid or missing. Regenerate it in the Vercel dashboard and update ~/.openclaw/.env.
Confirm the model ID path matches the Vercel AI Gateway routing format. Check the Vercel AI Gateway docs for supported providers and model IDs.
Vercel AI Gateway forwards errors from the underlying provider. Verify the upstream provider is enabled in your Vercel AI Gateway configuration.