Kimi Search Provider Setup and Configuration

Kimi is a web_search provider backed by Moonshot's native web search. Instead of returning a ranked list of results, Moonshot produces a single answer with inline citations, similar to the grounded-response providers used by Gemini and Grok.

Setup

Create a key

Obtain an API key from Moonshot AI.

Store the key

Set KIMI_API_KEY or MOONSHOT_API_KEY in the Gateway environment (for a gateway installation, add it to ~/.openclaw/.env), or configure using:

openclaw configure --section web

Selecting Kimi during openclaw onboard or openclaw configure --section web also prompts for:

• the Moonshot API region: https://api.moonshot.ai/v1 or https://api.moonshot.cn/v1
• the web-search model (defaults to kimi-k2.6)

Config

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      moonshot: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "sk-...", // optional if KIMI_API_KEY or MOONSHOT_API_KEY is set
            baseUrl: "https://api.moonshot.ai/v1",
            model: "kimi-k2.6",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "kimi",
      },
    },
  },
}

tools.web.search.provider is detected automatically from available API keys when omitted; set it to kimi explicitly if multiple search credentials are configured.

Configure Kimi-specific apiKey, baseUrl, and model values under plugins.entries.moonshot.config.webSearch.

Defaults: baseUrl defaults to https://api.moonshot.ai/v1 when omitted, model defaults to kimi-k2.6.

If chat traffic uses the China host (models.providers.moonshot.baseUrl: https://api.moonshot.cn/v1), Kimi web_search reuses that host automatically when its own baseUrl is unset, so .cn keys do not accidentally hit the international endpoint (which returns HTTP 401 for those keys). Set an explicit Kimi baseUrl to override this inheritance.

Grounding requirement

OpenClaw only returns a Kimi web_search result after Moonshot's response includes native web-search grounding evidence, such as a $web_search tool-call replay, search_results, or citation URLs. If Kimi answers directly with no grounding (for example "I cannot browse the internet"), OpenClaw returns a kimi_web_search_ungrounded error instead of treating that text as a search result. Retry the query, switch to a structured provider such as Brave, or use web_fetch / the browser tool when you already have a target URL.

Tool parameters

Related

• Web Search overview - all providers and auto-detection
• Moonshot AI - Moonshot model + Kimi Coding provider docs
• Gemini Search - AI-synthesized answers via Google grounding
• Grok Search - AI-synthesized answers via xAI grounding