---
summary: "Vercel AI Gateway setup (auth + model selection)"
read_when:
  - You want to use Vercel AI Gateway with Clawdbot
  - You need the API key env var or CLI auth choice
---
# Vercel AI Gateway


The [Vercel AI Gateway](https://vercel.com/ai-gateway) provides a unified API to access hundreds of models through a single endpoint. 

- Provider: `vercel-ai-gateway`
- Auth: `AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY`
- API: Anthropic Messages compatible

## Quick start

1) Set the API key (recommended: store it for the Gateway):

```bash
clawdbot onboard --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key
```

2) Set a default model:

```json5
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "vercel-ai-gateway/anthropic/claude-opus-4.5" }
    }
  }
}
```

## Non-interactive example

```bash
clawdbot onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key \
  --ai-gateway-api-key "$AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY"
```

## Environment note

If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure `AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY`
is available to that process (for example, in `~/.clawdbot/.env` or via
`env.shellEnv`).