LongCat API Setup for LongCat-2.0 in OpenClaw
This page covers how to set up the LongCat API for LongCat-2.0, a reasoning model for coding and agent tasks. It includes installation, API key creation, and verification steps for OpenClaw users.
Read this when
- You want to use LongCat-2.0 with OpenClaw
- You need the LongCat API key or model limits
LongCat offers a hosted API for LongCat-2.0, a reasoning model designed for coding and agent tasks. OpenClaw ships the official longcat plugin for LongCat's OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Provider | longcat |
| Auth | LONGCAT_API_KEY |
| API | OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions |
| Base URL | https://api.longcat.chat/openai |
| Model | longcat/LongCat-2.0 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens |
| Input | Text |
Install plugin
Install the official package, then restart Gateway:
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/longcat-provider
openclaw gateway restart
Getting started
Create an API key
Log into the LongCat API Platform and generate a key on the API Keys page.
Run onboarding
openclaw onboard --auth-choice longcat-api-key
Verify the model
openclaw models list --provider longcat
Onboarding adds the hosted catalog and picks longcat/LongCat-2.0 when no
primary model is already set.
Non-interactive setup
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
--mode local \
--auth-choice longcat-api-key \
--longcat-api-key "$LONGCAT_API_KEY"
Reasoning behavior
LongCat exposes binary thinking control. OpenClaw maps enabled thinking levels
to thinking: { type: "enabled" } and /think off to
thinking: { type: "disabled" }. LongCat does not currently document
reasoning_effort, so OpenClaw omits it.
LongCat returns reasoning in reasoning_content. OpenClaw keeps that field
when replaying assistant tool-call turns so multi-turn agent sessions retain
the provider's expected message shape.
Pricing
The built-in catalog uses LongCat's pay-as-you-go list prices in USD per million tokens: $0.75 uncached input, $0.015 cached input, and $2.95 output. LongCat may offer temporary discounts; the pricing page and your billing records are authoritative.
Self-hosted LongCat-2.0
The longcat provider targets LongCat's hosted API. For the open weights on
Hugging Face, serve the
model through an OpenAI-compatible runtime and use OpenClaw's existing
vLLM or SGLang provider instead.
Keep the runtime's exact model identifier in the self-hosted provider catalog;
do not route a local deployment through longcat/LongCat-2.0.
Troubleshooting
The key works in a shell but not in the Gateway
Daemon-managed Gateway processes do not inherit every interactive shell
variable. Put LONGCAT_API_KEY in ~/.openclaw/.env, configure it through
onboarding, or use an approved secret reference.
Requests fail with 402 or 429
402 means the account has insufficient token quota. 429 means the API
key hit a rate limit. Check LongCat usage
and retry rate-limited requests after the provider's backoff window.
The model does not appear
Run openclaw plugins list and confirm the longcat plugin is
enabled, then run openclaw models list --provider longcat.
Related
-
Model providers, Provider configuration, model refs, and failover behavior.
-
LongCat API docs, Hosted API endpoints, authentication, limits, and examples.
-
LongCat-2.0 model card, Architecture, deployment guidance, and model details.
-
Secrets, Store provider credentials without embedding plaintext in config.