OpenClaw integration - MaxAPI Developer

OpenClaw is a self-hosted AI assistant that connects chat channels such as Telegram, WhatsApp, and Discord to AI models and tools. This guide configures MaxAPI as an OpenAI-compatible provider.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need:

A MaxAPI API key
An available model ID
Node.js 22 or later
OpenClaw installed locally

Install OpenClaw

Install OpenClaw globally with npm, then start its onboarding flow.

npm install -g openclaw
openclaw onboard

Store the API key

Store your MaxAPI API key in an environment variable.

export MAXAPI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

Never commit a real API key to a configuration repository. Use environment variables or a secrets manager in production.

Add the MaxAPI provider

Add maxapi under models.providers in your OpenClaw configuration. Replace YOUR_MODEL_ID with an ID from the model list.

{
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      maxapi: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.maxapi.ai/v1",
        apiKey: "${MAXAPI_API_KEY}",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [
          {
            id: "YOUR_MODEL_ID",
            name: "MaxAPI model",
            input: ["text"],
            contextWindow: 128000,
            maxTokens: 8192
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: {
        primary: "maxapi/YOUR_MODEL_ID"
      }
    }
  }
}

Match contextWindow and maxTokens to the selected model. For a vision-capable model, set input to ["text", "image"].

Verify the configuration

Check model status, then select the MaxAPI model.

openclaw models status
openclaw models list
openclaw models set maxapi/YOUR_MODEL_ID

Troubleshooting

Invalid API key

Confirm that MAXAPI_API_KEY is available to the shell or service that starts OpenClaw, and that the key is active.

Model not found

Ensure models[].id exactly matches the MaxAPI model list. Select it using the maxapi/MODEL_ID format.

The request returns 400

Ensure api is set to openai-completions. Check whether the model supports tools, image input, or other advanced request fields.

The request times out

Add or increase timeoutSeconds in the provider configuration. Use asynchronous endpoints for video, image, and music generation.

​Prerequisites

​Troubleshooting

​Related documentation

Prerequisites

Troubleshooting

Related documentation