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Cohere provides OpenAI-compatible inference through its Compatibility API. OpenClaw ships the Cohere provider during its externalization transition and also publishes it as an official external plugin with the Command A model catalog.
PropertyValue
Provider idcohere
Pluginbundled during transition; official external package
Auth env varCOHERE_API_KEY
Onboarding flag--auth-choice cohere-api-key
Direct CLI flag--cohere-api-key <key>
APIOpenAI-compatible (openai-completions)
Base URLhttps://api.cohere.ai/compatibility/v1
Default modelcohere/command-a-03-2025

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Get started

  1. Cohere is included in current OpenClaw packages. If it is unavailable, install the external package and restart the Gateway:
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/cohere-provider
openclaw gateway restart
  1. Create a Cohere API key.
  2. Run onboarding:
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --auth-choice cohere-api-key \
  --cohere-api-key "$COHERE_API_KEY"
  1. Confirm the catalog is available:
openclaw models list --provider cohere
The default model is set only when no primary model is already configured.

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Environment-only setup

Make COHERE_API_KEY available to the Gateway process, then select the Cohere model: 
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "cohere/command-a-03-2025" },
    },
  },
}
If the Gateway runs as a daemon or in Docker, configure COHERE_API_KEY for that service. Exporting it only in an interactive shell does not make it available to an already-running Gateway.