Files
openclaw/docs/providers/cohere.md
Vincent Koc c892a712e6 feat(plugins): externalize Cohere and Meta providers (#116662)
* feat(plugins): externalize Cohere and Meta providers

* docs(changelog): note provider externalization

* chore: keep changelog release-owned
2026-07-31 12:53:01 +08:00

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Cohere setup (auth + model selection) Cohere
You want to use Cohere with OpenClaw
You need the Cohere API key env var or CLI auth choice

Cohere provides OpenAI-compatible inference through its Compatibility API. OpenClaw provides Cohere as an official external plugin.

Property Value
Provider id cohere
Plugin @openclaw/cohere-provider
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-plus-05-2026
Context window 128,000 tokens

Built-in catalog

Model ref Visibility Input Context Max output Notes
cohere/command-a-plus-05-2026 visible text, image 128,000 64,000 Default; flagship agentic and reasoning model
cohere/command-a-03-2025 hidden text 256,000 8,000 Previous generation; replaced by Command A+
cohere/command-a-reasoning-08-2025 hidden text 256,000 32,000 Previous generation; replaced by Command A+
cohere/command-a-vision-07-2025 hidden text, image 128,000 8,000 Previous generation; replaced by Command A+
cohere/north-mini-code-1-0 visible text, image 256,000 64,000 Agentic coding; reasoning; free limits

Reasoning-capable Cohere models support two Compatibility API reasoning modes. OpenClaw maps off to none and every enabled thinking level to high. Command A Vision does not support tool use, so OpenClaw keeps agent tools disabled for that model.

Get started

  1. Install the official plugin and restart the Gateway:
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/cohere-provider
openclaw gateway restart
  1. Create a Cohere API key.
  2. Run onboarding:
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --auth-choice cohere-api-key \
  --cohere-api-key "$COHERE_API_KEY"
  1. Confirm the catalog is available:
openclaw models list --provider cohere

Onboarding only sets Cohere as the primary model when no primary model is already configured.

Environment-only setup

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

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "cohere/command-a-plus-05-2026" },
    },
  },
}
If the Gateway runs as a daemon or in Docker, set `COHERE_API_KEY` for that service. Exporting it only in an interactive shell does not make it available to an already-running Gateway.