Cohere Provider Setup and Model Selection for OpenClaw
Learn how to configure the Cohere provider in OpenClaw using the Compatibility API, including authentication, model selection, and built-in catalog details.
Read this when
- You want to use Cohere with OpenClaw
- You need the Cohere API key env var or CLI auth choice
Cohere exposes OpenAI-compatible inference through its Compatibility API. OpenClaw ships Cohere support as an official external plugin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Provider id | cohere |
| Plugin | @openclaw/cohere-provider |
| 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 | Visibility | Input | Context | Max output | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
cohere/command-a-plus-05-2026 | visible | text, image | 128,000 | 64,000 | Default; flagship agentic and reasoning model |
cohere/command-a-03-2025 | hidden | text | 256,000 | 8,000 | Previous generation; replaced by Command A+ |
cohere/command-a-reasoning-08-2025 | hidden | text | 256,000 | 32,000 | Previous generation; replaced by Command A+ |
cohere/command-a-vision-07-2025 | hidden | text, image | 128,000 | 8,000 | Previous generation; replaced by Command A+ |
cohere/north-mini-code-1-0 | visible | text, image | 256,000 | 64,000 | Agentic coding; reasoning; free limits |
Cohere models that can reason support two reasoning modes within the Compatibility API. OpenClaw assigns none to off and high to any enabled thinking level. Tool use is not supported by Command A Vision, so OpenClaw leaves agent tools disabled for that model.
Get started
- Install the official plugin and restart the Gateway:
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/cohere-provider
openclaw gateway restart
- Create a Cohere API key.
- Run onboarding:
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk --skip-health \
--auth-choice cohere-api-key \
--cohere-api-key "$COHERE_API_KEY"
- Confirm 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 select 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.