OpenAI Chat Completions (HTTP)
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>:<port>/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 <token>
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:<agentId>" (example: "openclaw:main", "openclaw:beta")
model: "agent:<agentId>" (alias)
Or target a specific OpenClaw agent by header:
x-openclaw-agent-id: <agentId> (default: main)
Advanced:
x-openclaw-session-key: <sessionKey> 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: <json>
- 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"}]
}'
Last modified on March 22, 2026