stack/docs/providers/huggingface.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Hugging Face Inference setup (auth + model selection)	You want to use Hugging Face Inference with OpenClaw You need the HF token env var or CLI auth choice	Hugging Face (inference)

Hugging Face Inference Providers exposes an OpenAI-compatible chat completions router in front of many hosted models (DeepSeek, Llama, and more) under one token. OpenClaw talks to the chat completions endpoint only; for text-to-image, embeddings, or speech use the HF inference clients directly.

Property	Value
Provider id	huggingface
Plugin	bundled (enabled by default, no install step)
Auth env var	HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN or HF_TOKEN (fine-grained token)
API	OpenAI-compatible (https://router.huggingface.co/v1)
Billing	Single HF token; pricing follows provider rates with a free tier

Getting started

Go to [Hugging Face Settings Tokens](https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens/new?ownUserPermissions=inference.serverless.write&tokenType=fineGrained) and create a new fine-grained token.

<Warning>
The token must have the **Make calls to Inference Providers** permission enabled or API requests will be rejected.
</Warning>

Choose **Hugging Face** in the provider dropdown, then enter your API key when prompted:

```bash
openclaw onboard --auth-choice huggingface-api-key
```

In the **Default Hugging Face model** dropdown, pick a model. The list loads from the Inference API when your token is valid; otherwise OpenClaw shows the built-in catalog below. Your choice is saved as `agents.defaults.model.primary`:

```json5
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1" },
    },
  },
}
```

```bash openclaw models list --provider huggingface ```

Non-interactive setup

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

Sets huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1 as the default model.

Model IDs

Model refs use the form huggingface/<org>/<model> (Hub-style IDs). OpenClaw's built-in catalog:

Model	Ref (prefix with huggingface/)
DeepSeek R1	deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1
DeepSeek V3.1	deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1
GPT-OSS 120B	openai/gpt-oss-120b

When your token is valid, OpenClaw also discovers any other model from **GET** `https://router.huggingface.co/v1/models` at onboarding time and Gateway startup, so your catalog can include far more than the three models above. You can append `:fastest` or `:cheapest` to any model id; HF's router routes to the matching inference provider. Set your default provider order in [Inference Provider settings](https://hf.co/settings/inference-providers).

Advanced configuration

OpenClaw discovers models with:

```bash
GET https://router.huggingface.co/v1/models
Authorization: Bearer $HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN   # or $HF_TOKEN
```

The response is OpenAI-style: `{ "object": "list", "data": [ { "id": "Qwen/Qwen3-8B", "owned_by": "Qwen", ... }, ... ] }`.

With a configured key (onboarding, `HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN`, or `HF_TOKEN`), the **Default Hugging Face model** dropdown during interactive setup is populated from this endpoint. Gateway startup repeats the same call to refresh the catalog. Matching built-in models supply metadata such as context window and cost. Failed discovery produces a catalog failure outcome; a successful empty response stays empty. Without a key, the static catalog remains available without starting discovery.

Disable discovery without removing the provider:

```bash
openclaw config set plugins.entries.huggingface.config.discovery.enabled false
```

- **Name from API:** discovered models use the API's `name`, `title`, or `display_name` when present; otherwise OpenClaw derives a name from the model id (e.g. `deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1` becomes "DeepSeek R1"). - **Override display name:** set a custom label per model in config:

```json5
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1": { alias: "DeepSeek R1 (fast)" },
        "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1:cheapest": { alias: "DeepSeek R1 (cheap)" },
      },
    },
  },
}
```

- **Policy suffixes:** `:fastest` and `:cheapest` are HF router conventions, not something OpenClaw rewrites: the suffix is sent verbatim as part of the model id and HF's router picks the matching inference provider. Add each variant as its own entry under `models.providers.huggingface.models` (or in `model.primary`) if you want a distinct alias per suffix.
- **Config merge:** existing entries in `models.providers.huggingface.models` (e.g. in `models.json`) are kept on config merge, so any custom `name`, `alias`, or model options you set there persist across restarts.

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

<Note>
OpenClaw accepts both `HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN` and `HF_TOKEN`. If both are set, `HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN` takes precedence.
</Note>

```json5 { agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1", fallbacks: ["huggingface/openai/gpt-oss-120b"], }, models: { "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1": { alias: "DeepSeek R1" }, "huggingface/openai/gpt-oss-120b": { alias: "GPT-OSS 120B" }, }, }, }, } ``` ```json5 { agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1" }, models: { "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1": { alias: "DeepSeek R1" }, "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1:cheapest": { alias: "DeepSeek R1 (cheapest)" }, "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1:fastest": { alias: "DeepSeek R1 (fastest)" }, }, }, }, } ``` ```json5 { agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1", fallbacks: ["huggingface/openai/gpt-oss-120b"], }, models: { "huggingface/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1": { alias: "DeepSeek V3.1" }, "huggingface/openai/gpt-oss-120b": { alias: "GPT-OSS 120B" }, }, }, }, } ```

Related

Overview of all providers, model refs, and failover behavior. How to choose and configure models. Official Hugging Face Inference Providers documentation. Full config reference.