OpenClaw

Verification note: this config follows OpenClaw's documented generic OpenAI-compatible provider shape. If OpenClaw changes its schema, keep the baseUrl, apiKey, and models[].id values below, then adjust only the surrounding OpenClaw-specific field names.

OpenClaw uses JSON5 config with an OpenAI-compatible generic provider shape. Drop-in works against NI's /v1 endpoint.

Config file

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  env: { NI_API_KEY: "ni_live_YOUR_KEY_HERE" },
  models: {
    providers: {
      northerninference: {
        baseUrl: "https://northerninference.ca/v1",
        apiKey: "${NI_API_KEY}",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [
          {
            id: "azure/DeepSeek-V3.2",
            name: "azure/DeepSeek-V3.2 (NI)",
            reasoning: true,
            input: ["text"],
            contextWindow: 200000,
            maxTokens: 64000,
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "northerninference/azure/DeepSeek-V3.2" },
    },
  },
}

Env vars (alternative)

Put the API key in an env file OpenClaw reads at startup:

# ~/.openclaw/.env
NI_API_KEY=ni_live_YOUR_KEY_HERE

Precedence (OpenClaw reads in this order, last wins): process env, ./.env, ~/.openclaw/.env, openclaw.json's env block.

Choosing model IDs

models[].id is the NI routing key. It must match the model value you would send to https://northerninference.ca/v1/chat/completions.

List live routing keys:

curl https://northerninference.ca/api/billing/models | jq '.models[].model_id'

Use the exact returned string, case-sensitive. Friendly display names are not routing keys.

Privacy tier handling

OpenClaw does not forward extra_body to custom base URLs, and has no documented hook for adding custom HTTP headers. So you cannot set a per-request privacy_tier through OpenClaw.

Two ways to pin a tier when using OpenClaw:

1. Issue a key with a default tier baked in. NI portal. Keys. Create

key. Set Default privacy tier to managed_canadian_cloud (or whichever tier you want all OpenClaw traffic on). Every request from that key lands at that tier regardless.

1. Use tier-suffixed model IDs. NI exposes variants like

anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5:tier-provider_api. Register that model ID directly in OpenClaw's models list if you want a specific non default tier on a specific model.

Quirks

• OpenClaw strips OpenAI-only request shaping on custom base URLs

(service_tier, store, reasoning compatibility hints). Harmless for NI. those fields are not part of NI's contract.

• OpenClaw's model.id must match NI's model field verbatim, whatever

/api/billing/models returns. Case-sensitive.

• NI exposes region-suffixed variants of each model

(e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5-ca for Canadian, -us for US direct). Use the suffixed form when you want to make jurisdiction explicit in your config. Unsuffixed names still work as aliases.

• Fallback and PII substitution toggles come from the NI key settings,

not per-request. Configure them on the key in the portal.