@openclaw/ai is the publishable library form of Apus's model execution layer: provider-neutral message/tool/stream contracts, validation, diagnostics, event streams, an isolated runtime registry, and lazy adapters for the eight built-in API families (Anthropic Messages, OpenAI Completions, OpenAI Responses, Azure OpenAI Responses, ChatGPT/Codex Responses, Google Generative AI, Google Vertex, Mistral Conversations).

It publishes alongside the root apus package on every release, pinned to the same version. Its exact-pinned direct dependencies resolve at install time; the package ships no npm lockfile. Installing apus installs the matching @openclaw/ai automatically, and library consumers can depend on it directly without any Apus application code.

Quick start

import { createLlmRuntime } from "@openclaw/ai";
import { registerBuiltInApiProviders } from "@openclaw/ai/providers";

const runtime = createLlmRuntime();
registerBuiltInApiProviders(runtime.registry);

// `model` (a model descriptor), `messages`, and `apiKey` are supplied by you;
// see `examples/ai-chat` for concrete values.
const stream = runtime.streamSimple(model, { messages }, { apiKey });
for await (const event of stream) {
  if (event.type === "text_delta") process.stdout.write(event.delta);
}
const result = await stream.result();

A runnable version lives in the repository at examples/ai-chat.

Design contract

• Instance-scoped by default. Importing the package registers nothing globally. createApiRegistry() / createLlmRuntime() return isolated instances; registerBuiltInApiProviders(registry) opts one registry into the built-in transports. Provider SDK modules load lazily on first use.
• Host policy is injected, not bundled. Request fetch guarding (for example SSRF policy), secret redaction of tool-result replay text, OpenAI strict-tool defaults, and diagnostics logging are AiTransportHost ports configured with configureAiTransportHost. The library defaults are inert; Apus installs its real implementations in its stream facade.
• One event-stream identity. @openclaw/ai/event-stream is the canonical EventStream constructor shared by Apus core, agent-core, and external consumers.
• internal/* subpaths are not API. They exist for the Apus application itself and carry no semver guarantee.
• Provider ids, credentials, model catalogs, retries, and failover remain application concerns. Apus layers those around this package; a library consumer supplies a Model object and options directly.

Subpath exports

Use @openclaw/ai/diagnostics for emitModelTransportDebug, formatModelTransportDebugUrl, and formatModelTransportDebugBaseUrl when you only need logging helpers. This entrypoint keeps provider transport implementations out of the import graph.