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OpenClaw is an open-source, self-hosted AI gateway that connects messaging platforms (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, iMessage, Slack) to AI models. Venice AI is available as a built-in provider, giving you access to private and uncensored models from any connected channel.

Official Venice Provider Guide

Full setup instructions, model list, and configuration options on the OpenClaw docs.

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Setup

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1. Install OpenClaw

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

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2. Run the onboarding wizard

openclaw onboard --auth-choice venice-api-key
The wizard will prompt you for your Venice API key. Get one from venice.ai/settings/api if you don’t have one yet. You can also set it as an environment variable: 
export VENICE_API_KEY="your-api-key"

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3. Pick a model

During onboarding, OpenClaw shows all available Venice models. Some recommendations:
Use caseModelPrivacy
Generalvenice/zai-org-glm-5Private
Reasoningvenice/kimi-k2-5Private
Codingvenice/claude-opus-4-6Anonymized
Visionvenice/qwen3-vl-235b-a22bPrivate
Uncensoredvenice/venice-uncensoredPrivate
Change your default model anytime: 
openclaw models set venice/zai-org-glm-5
List all available models: 
openclaw models list | grep venice

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4. Start chatting

Open the terminal UI: 
openclaw tui
Or the web dashboard: 
openclaw dashboard
Or connect a messaging channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, etc.): 
openclaw channels login
openclaw gateway

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Privacy modes

Venice models in OpenClaw follow the same privacy tiers as the Venice API:
  • Private models (GLM, Qwen, DeepSeek, Llama, Venice Uncensored) run on Venice’s GPU fleet. Prompts are never stored or logged.
  • Anonymized models (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok) are proxied through Venice with all identifying information stripped. The third-party provider sees Venice as the customer, not you.

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Image and video generation

Install the Venice AI Media skill for image and video generation: 
openclaw skills install nhannah/venice-ai-media

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Resources

OpenClaw Docs

Official documentation

Venice Provider Guide

Full Venice setup reference