Technical reference

@openclaw/ai package

@openclaw/ai is the publishable library form of OpenClaw's model execution layer: provider-neutral message/tool/stream contracts, validation, diagnostics, event streams, an isolated runtime registry, and lazy adapters for the eight built-in API families (Anthropic Messages, OpenAI Completions, OpenAI Responses, Azure OpenAI Responses, ChatGPT/Codex Responses, Google Generative AI, Google Vertex, Mistral Conversations).

It publishes alongside the root openclaw package on every release, pinned to the same version. Its exact-pinned direct dependencies resolve at install time; the package ships no npm lockfile. Installing openclaw installs the matching @openclaw/ai automatically, and library consumers can depend on it directly without any OpenClaw application code.

Quick start

js
import { createLlmRuntime } from "@openclaw/ai";import { registerBuiltInApiProviders } from "@openclaw/ai/providers"; const runtime = createLlmRuntime();registerBuiltInApiProviders(runtime.registry); const stream = runtime.streamSimple(model, { messages }, { apiKey });for await (const event of stream) {  if (event.type === "text_delta") process.stdout.write(event.delta);}const result = await stream.result();

A runnable version lives in the repository at examples/ai-chat.

Design contract

  • Instance-scoped by default. Importing the package registers nothing globally. createApiRegistry() / createLlmRuntime() return isolated instances; registerBuiltInApiProviders(registry) opts one registry into the built-in transports. Provider SDK modules load lazily on first use.
  • Host policy is injected, not bundled. Request fetch guarding (for example SSRF policy), secret redaction of tool-result replay text, OpenAI strict-tool defaults, and diagnostics logging are AiTransportHost ports configured with configureAiTransportHost. The library defaults are inert; OpenClaw installs its real implementations in its stream facade.
  • One event-stream identity. @openclaw/ai/event-stream is the canonical EventStream constructor shared by OpenClaw core, agent-core, and external consumers.
  • internal/* subpaths are not API. They exist for the OpenClaw application itself and carry no semver guarantee.
  • Provider ids, credentials, model catalogs, retries, and failover remain application concerns. OpenClaw layers those around this package; a library consumer supplies a Model object and options directly.

Subpath exports

Subpath Contents
. Contracts, createApiRegistry, createLlmRuntime, configureAiTransportHost
./providers registerBuiltInApiProviders, resetApiProviders
./types Model/message/tool/stream types
./validation Tool argument validation
./diagnostics Diagnostics contracts, transport logging, and sanitized URL formatting
./event-stream Shared EventStream implementation
./internal/* OpenClaw-internal, no semver guarantee

Use @openclaw/ai/diagnostics for emitModelTransportDebug, formatModelTransportDebugUrl, and formatModelTransportDebugBaseUrl when you only need logging helpers. This entrypoint keeps provider transport implementations out of the import graph.

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