Cloudflare AI Gateway sits in front of provider APIs and adds analytics, caching, and controls. For Anthropic, Apus uses the Anthropic Messages API through your Gateway endpoint.

Property Value
Provider cloudflare-ai-gateway
Plugin official external package (@openclaw/cloudflare-ai-gateway-provider)
Base URL https://gateway.ai.cloudflare.com/v1/<account_id>/<gateway_id>/anthropic
Default model cloudflare-ai-gateway/claude-sonnet-4-6
API key CLOUDFLARE_AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY (your provider API key for requests through the Gateway)

For Anthropic models routed through Cloudflare AI Gateway, use your Anthropic API key as the provider key.

When thinking is enabled for Anthropic Messages models, Apus strips trailing assistant prefill turns before sending the payload through Cloudflare AI Gateway. Anthropic rejects response prefilling with extended thinking, while ordinary non-thinking prefill remains available.

Install plugin

Install the official plugin:

apus plugins install @openclaw/cloudflare-ai-gateway-provider

Installation applies to a running Gateway automatically; otherwise it takes effect on the next startup. See Apply changes and inspect.

Getting started

Set the provider API key and Gateway details

Run onboarding and choose the Cloudflare AI Gateway auth option:

```bash
apus onboard --auth-choice cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key
```

This prompts for your account ID, gateway ID, and API key.

Set a default model

Add the model to your Apus config:

```json5
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "cloudflare-ai-gateway/claude-sonnet-4-6" },
    },
  },
}
```

Verify the model is available

```bash
apus models list --provider cloudflare-ai-gateway
```

Non-interactive example

For scripted or CI setups, pass all values on the command line:

apus onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk --skip-health \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key \
  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-account-id "your-account-id" \
  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-gateway-id "your-gateway-id" \
  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key "$CLOUDFLARE_AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY"

Advanced configuration

Authenticated gateways 
If you enabled Gateway authentication in Cloudflare, add the `cf-aig-authorization` header. This is **in addition to** your provider API key.

```json5
{
  models: {
    providers: {
      "cloudflare-ai-gateway": {
        headers: {
          "cf-aig-authorization": "Bearer <cloudflare-ai-gateway-token>",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
```

The `cf-aig-authorization` header authenticates with the Cloudflare Gateway itself, while the provider API key (for example, your Anthropic key) authenticates with the upstream provider.
Environment note 
If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure `CLOUDFLARE_AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY` is available to that process.

A key exported only in an interactive shell will not help a launchd/systemd daemon unless that environment is imported there as well. Set the key in `~/.apus/.env` or via `env.shellEnv` to ensure the gateway process can read it.

Related

Model selection

Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.

Troubleshooting

General troubleshooting and FAQ.