openclaw-pwm

OpenClaw powered by PWM tokens — run the OpenClaw coding agent against Claude models, billed through the PWM token exchange instead of a direct Anthropic key.

OpenClaw natively supports custom providers (openclaw.json, merge mode), so no source patches are needed — this wrapper just injects the PWM provider config and your PWM key, then delegates to the real openclaw. Same approach as claude-pwm.

How it works

The PWM exchange exposes an Anthropic-compatible endpoint and accepts a PWM API key in place of an Anthropic key. OpenClaw is pointed at it as a custom provider:

OpenClaw  ──anthropic-messages──▶  https://physicsworldmodel.org/api/v1/exchange/anthropic
           (api key = sk-pwm-...)   → meters usage, settles against your PWM balance
                                     → routes to a live Anthropic credential

Install

npm install -g openclaw openclaw-pwm

That installs the OpenClaw agent and this wrapper (cross-platform: macOS, Linux, Windows). openclaw-pwm becomes a command on your PATH.

npm install -g openclaw     # still required
./install.sh                # installs the bash launcher to /usr/local/bin

On Windows, put bin/openclaw-pwm.cmd on your PATH.

Use

export PWM_API_KEY=sk-pwm-your_key_here     # from https://token.comparegpt.io
openclaw-pwm                                # any openclaw args are forwarded

On first run the launcher writes the PWM provider to ~/.config/openclaw/openclaw.json (merge mode — it augments, never replaces, your own OpenClaw config). If that file already exists without a pwm provider, the launcher tells you to add the block from openclaw.pwm.json yourself so your config is not clobbered.

Point at the dev/test exchange

export PWM_EXCHANGE_URL=https://test.physicsworldmodel.org/api/v1/exchange/anthropic

Manual setup (no launcher)

If you'd rather configure OpenClaw directly, merge this into your openclaw.json and set PWM_API_KEY — this is exactly what the launcher installs:

{
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      pwm: {
        baseUrl: "https://physicsworldmodel.org/api/v1/exchange/anthropic",
        apiKey: "${PWM_API_KEY}",
        api: "anthropic-messages",
        models: [
          { id: "claude-opus-4-8",   name: "Claude Opus 4.8 (PWM)" },
          { id: "claude-sonnet-4-6", name: "Claude Sonnet 4.6 (PWM)" },
          { id: "claude-haiku-4-5",  name: "Claude Haiku 4.5 (PWM)" }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "pwm/claude-opus-4-8" } } }
}

Models

Any Claude model your PWM exchange has a live credential for. Defaults ship with Opus 4.8, Sonnet 4.6, and Haiku 4.5; add more id entries as needed.

Notes

• User-Agent override (required today). The PWM edge (Cloudflare) blocks the Anthropic SDK's default User-Agent: Anthropic/JS … with 403 Your request was blocked. OpenClaw uses that SDK, so the config sets headers: { "User-Agent": "openclaw-pwm/1.0" } to get through. This is a client-side workaround — the proper fix is server-side: allowlist the /api/v1/exchange/* path in the Cloudflare WAF (or exempt Anthropic/* UAs) so the official SDKs work unmodified. Once that's done the header can be dropped.
• Beta headers. OpenClaw skips some provider-specific features on proxy routes. If you need Anthropic beta features (1M context, fast mode), set models.providers.pwm.headers["anthropic-beta"] in openclaw.json.
• Billing. Every request is metered and settled against your PWM balance; a 402 means your balance is empty — top up at https://token.comparegpt.io.
• Key format. Both sk-pwm-… and legacy pwm_… keys are accepted.

License

MIT