Cohere Provider Setup: Auth, Models, and Configuration
Learn how to set up the Cohere provider in OpenClaw, including authentication via API key and selecting from built-in models. This guide is for developers integrating Cohere's OpenAI-compatible API.
Read this when
- You want to use Cohere with OpenClaw
- You need the Cohere API key env var or CLI auth choice
Cohere offers OpenAI-compatible inference through its Compatibility API. OpenClaw includes the Cohere provider during its externalization transition and also distributes it as an official external plugin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Provider id | cohere |
| Plugin | bundled during transition; official external package |
| Auth env var | COHERE_API_KEY |
| Onboarding flag | --auth-choice cohere-api-key |
| Direct CLI flag | --cohere-api-key <key> |
| API | OpenAI-compatible (openai-completions) |
| Base URL | https://api.cohere.ai/compatibility/v1 |
| Default model | cohere/command-a-plus-05-2026 |
| Context window | 128,000 tokens |
Built-in catalog
| Model ref | Input | Context | Max output | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
cohere/command-a-plus-05-2026 | text, image | 128,000 | 64,000 | Default; flagship agentic and reasoning model |
cohere/command-a-03-2025 | text | 256,000 | 8,000 | Previous Command A model |
cohere/command-a-reasoning-08-2025 | text | 256,000 | 32,000 | Agentic reasoning and tool use |
cohere/command-a-vision-07-2025 | text, image | 128,000 | 8,000 | Vision and document analysis; no tool use |
cohere/north-mini-code-1-0 | text, image | 256,000 | 64,000 | Agentic coding; reasoning; free limits |
Cohere models with reasoning capabilities support two Compatibility API reasoning modes. OpenClaw maps off to none and every enabled thinking level to high. Command A Vision does not support tool use, so OpenClaw disables agent tools for that model.
Get started
- Cohere is included with current OpenClaw packages. If it is missing, install the external package and restart the Gateway:
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/cohere-provider
openclaw gateway restart
- Create a Cohere API key.
- Run onboarding:
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
--auth-choice cohere-api-key \
--cohere-api-key "$COHERE_API_KEY"
- Verify the catalog is available:
openclaw models list --provider cohere
Onboarding only sets Cohere as the primary model when no primary model is already configured.
Environment-only setup
Make COHERE_API_KEY available to the Gateway process, then choose the Cohere model:
{
agents: {
defaults: {
model: { primary: "cohere/command-a-plus-05-2026" },
},
},
}
Note
If the Gateway runs as a daemon or in Docker, set
COHERE_API_KEYfor that service. Exporting it only in an interactive shell does not make it available to an already-running Gateway.