Runway Video Generation Setup

OpenClaw includes a preinstalled runway provider for cloud-hosted video creation, active by default, and wired to the videoGenerationProviders contract.

Property	Value
Provider id	`runway`
Plugin	bundled, `enabledByDefault: true`
Auth env vars	`RUNWAYML_API_SECRET` (canonical) or `RUNWAY_API_KEY`
Onboarding flag	`--auth-choice runway-api-key`
Direct CLI flag	`--runway-api-key <key>`
API	Runway task-based video generation (`GET /v1/tasks/{id}` polling)
Default model	`runway/gen4.5`

Getting started

Set the API key

openclaw onboard --auth-choice runway-api-key

Set Runway as the default video provider

openclaw config set agents.defaults.mediaModels.video.primary "runway/gen4.5"

Generate a video

Request a video from the agent and Runway gets selected automatically.

Supported modes and models

Seven Runway models are exposed by the provider, distributed over three modes. A single model id can apply to multiple modes, such as gen4.5, which handles both text-to-video and image-to-video.

Mode	Models	Reference input
Text-to-video	`gen4.5` (default), `veo3.1`, `veo3.1_fast`, `veo3`	None
Image-to-video	`gen4.5`, `gen4_turbo`, `gen3a_turbo`, `veo3.1`, `veo3.1_fast`, `veo3`	1 local or remote image
Video-to-video	`gen4_aleph`	1 local or remote video

Data URIs make it possible to pass local image and video references.

Aspect ratios	Allowed values
Text-to-video	`16:9`, `9:16`
Image and video edits	`1:1`, `16:9`, `9:16`, `3:4`, `4:3`, `21:9`

Warning

As of now, video-to-video demands runway/gen4_aleph. Any other Runway model id will turn down video reference inputs.

Note

Selecting a Runway model id from an incompatible column triggers a clear error before OpenClaw sends the API request. The provider checks model against the mode's allowlist (TEXT_ONLY_MODELS, IMAGE_MODELS, VIDEO_MODELS) inside extensions/runway/video-generation-provider.ts.

Configuration

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      mediaModels: {
        video: {
          primary: "runway/gen4.5",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Advanced configuration

Environment variable aliases

Both RUNWAYML_API_SECRET (canonical) and RUNWAY_API_KEY are accepted by OpenClaw. Either one serves to authenticate the Runway provider.

Task polling

Runway operates through a task-based API. Once a generation request is submitted, OpenClaw keeps polling GET /v1/tasks/{id} until the video finishes rendering. The polling behavior requires no extra setup.

Video generation, Tool parameters shared across providers, provider selection, and async behavior.
Configuration reference, Agent default settings covering mediaModels.video.