Cohere provides OpenAI-compatible inference through its Compatibility API. OpenClaw includes a bundled Cohere provider plugin with the Command A model catalog.

Property	Value
Provider id	cohere
Plugin	bundled, enabledByDefault: true
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-03-2025

Get started

1. Create a Cohere API key.
2. Run onboarding:

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --auth-choice cohere-api-key \
  --cohere-api-key "$COHERE_API_KEY"

3. Confirm the catalog is available:

openclaw models list --provider cohere

The default model is set only when no primary model is already configured.

Environment-only setup

Make COHERE_API_KEY available to the Gateway process, then select the bundled model:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "cohere/command-a-03-2025" },
    },
  },
}

Note

If the Gateway runs as a daemon or in Docker, configure COHERE_API_KEY for that service. Exporting it only in an interactive shell does not make it available to an already-running Gateway.

Related

• Model providers
• Models CLI
• Provider directory