Cerebras

Cerebras provides high-speed OpenAI-compatible inference on custom inference hardware. The plugin discovers native model metadata and pricing, with a bundled catalog for offline fallback.

Property	Value
Provider id	cerebras
Plugin	official external package (@openclaw/cerebras-provider)
Auth env var	CEREBRAS_API_KEY
Onboarding flag	--auth-choice cerebras-api-key
Direct CLI flag	--cerebras-api-key <key>
API	OpenAI-compatible (openai-completions)
Base URL	https://api.cerebras.ai/v1
Default model	cerebras/gemma-4-31b

Install plugin

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/cerebras-provider
openclaw gateway restart

Getting started

1. Get an API key

   Create an API key in the Cerebras Cloud Console.

2. Run onboarding

   Onboarding

   openclaw onboard --auth-choice cerebras-api-key
   
3. Verify models are available

   openclaw models list --provider cerebras
   

   Lists the configured Cerebras models. If CEREBRAS_API_KEY is unresolved, openclaw models status --json reports the missing credential under auth.unusableProfiles.

Non-interactive setup

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk --skip-health \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice cerebras-api-key \
  --cerebras-api-key "$CEREBRAS_API_KEY"

Discovery and pricing

When Cerebras auth is configured and the inference base URL is the canonical https://api.cerebras.ai/v1, OpenClaw reads GET /public/v1/models. This request uses public headers only: inference API keys and discovery credentials are never sent to the metadata endpoint. A custom base URL skips this public discovery rather than mixing a proxy’s catalog with Cerebras metadata. Without a Cerebras credential, the runtime provider stays inactive. Public metadata listing does not establish account entitlement.

Live rows supply the native context and completion limits, reasoning and vision capabilities, and prompt/completion prices. Cerebras returns those prices as USD per-token strings; OpenClaw converts them to USD per million tokens. The public feed does not provide cache tariffs. Zero cache fields in OpenClaw’s runtime estimate are not a claim about enterprise caching or billing.

Successful catalogs are cached for 60 seconds. If discovery fails, returns an empty catalog, or has no usable model rows, OpenClaw uses the bundled offline seed. In the default models.mode: "merge", fresh onboarding does not copy generated model rows or prices into your config, allowing prices to refresh. Explicitly authored model rows and costs remain intact. In models.mode: "replace", discovery is disabled and onboarding keeps the offline seed as explicit config instead.

Built-in catalog

The three offline fallback models have a 131,072-token context window and a 40,960-token max output. Prices for models still present in the native public feed were refreshed from its August 31, 2026 response; absent legacy references retain their seed snapshots.

Model ref	Name	Reasoning	Notes
cerebras/zai-glm-4.7	Z.ai GLM 4.7	yes	Deprecated August 17, 2026; retained for explicit configs
cerebras/gpt-oss-120b	GPT OSS 120B	yes	Production reasoning model
cerebras/gemma-4-31b	Gemma 4 31B	yes	Default; preview; text-and-image input

Cerebras’s deprecation notice marks zai-glm-4.7 deprecated without naming a replacement. OpenClaw keeps the shipped reference rather than deleting it or rewriting existing selections; retention does not guarantee upstream availability.

Fresh onboarding follows Cerebras’s current Gemma 4 recommendation. Cerebras describes Gemma 4 31B as its reference medium-size model for equal-or-higher intelligence than GPT OSS, with multimodal agentic support. It is a public-preview model and may change or be discontinued on shorter notice than the production GPT OSS endpoint; existing OpenClaw configurations keep their selected model.

Manual config

Most setups only need the API key. Use explicit models.providers.cerebras config to override model metadata in mode: "merge"; leave models empty to use discovered rows without pinning generated prices:

{
  env: { vars: { CEREBRAS_API_KEY: "csk-..." } },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "cerebras/gemma-4-31b" },
    },
  },
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      cerebras: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.cerebras.ai/v1",
        apiKey: "${CEREBRAS_API_KEY}",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [],
      },
    },
  },
}

If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd, systemd, Docker), make sure CEREBRAS_API_KEY is available to that process — for example in ~/.openclaw/.env or through env.shellEnv. A key exported only in an interactive shell will not help a managed service unless the env is imported separately.

Related

Model providers

Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.

Thinking modes

Reasoning effort levels for the Cerebras models.

Configuration reference

Agent defaults and model configuration.

Models FAQ

Auth profiles, switching models, and resolving “no profile” errors.