stack/docs/providers/arcee.md

summary, title, read_when

summary	title	read_when
Arcee AI setup (auth + model selection)	Arcee AI	You want to use Arcee AI with OpenClaw You need the API key env var or CLI auth choice

Arcee AI provides the Trinity family of mixture-of-experts models through an OpenAI-compatible API. All Trinity models are Apache 2.0 licensed. Arcee is an official OpenClaw plugin, not bundled with core, so it needs an install step before onboarding.

Access Arcee models directly through the Arcee platform or through OpenRouter.

Property	Value
Provider	arcee
Auth	ARCEEAI_API_KEY (direct) or OPENROUTER_API_KEY (via OpenRouter)
API	OpenAI-compatible
Base URL	https://api.arcee.ai/api/v1 (direct) or https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 (OpenRouter)

Install plugin

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

Getting started

Create an API key at [Arcee AI](https://chat.arcee.ai/). ```bash openclaw onboard --auth-choice arceeai-api-key ``` ```json5 { agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "arcee/trinity-large-thinking" }, }, }, } ``` Create an API key at [OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai/keys). ```bash openclaw onboard --auth-choice arceeai-openrouter ``` ```json5 { agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "arcee/trinity-large-thinking" }, }, }, } ```

    The same model refs work for both direct and OpenRouter setups.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Non-interactive setup

```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk --skip-health \ --mode local \ --auth-choice arceeai-api-key \ --arceeai-api-key "$ARCEEAI_API_KEY" ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk --skip-health \ --mode local \ --auth-choice arceeai-openrouter \ --openrouter-api-key "$OPENROUTER_API_KEY" ```

Direct Arcee catalog

Model ref	Name	Input	Context	Max output	Cost (in/out per 1M)	Tools	Notes
arcee/trinity-large-thinking	Trinity Large Thinking	text	256K	80K	$0.25 / $0.90	No	Default model; extended thinking
arcee/trinity-large-preview	Trinity Large Preview	text	128K	16K	$0.25 / $1.00	Yes	General-purpose; 400B params, 13B active
arcee/trinity-mini	Trinity Mini 26B	text	128K	80K	$0.045 / $0.15	Yes	Fast and cost-efficient; function calling

The onboarding preset sets `arcee/trinity-large-thinking` as the default model.

OpenRouter catalog

OpenRouter onboarding exposes arcee/trinity-large-preview and arcee/trinity-large-thinking. OpenClaw keeps those provider-qualified model refs in config and sends OpenRouter's canonical arcee-ai/* runtime ids. Trinity Mini is no longer served by OpenRouter; use the direct Arcee API for that model.

Supported features

Feature	Supported
Streaming	Yes
Tool use / function calling	Yes (Trinity Mini, Trinity Large Preview)
Structured output (JSON mode and JSON schema)	Yes
Extended thinking	Yes (Trinity Large Thinking; tools disabled)

If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure `ARCEEAI_API_KEY` (or `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`) is available to that process, for example in `~/.openclaw/.env` or via `env.shellEnv`. OpenRouter uses the same `arcee/trinity-large-thinking` OpenClaw model ref. OpenClaw routes it with the canonical `arcee-ai/trinity-large-thinking` OpenRouter runtime id. See the [OpenRouter provider docs](/providers/openrouter) for OpenRouter-specific configuration details.

Related

Access Arcee models and many others through a single API key. Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.