Moonshot (Kimi): API works in browser but OpenClaw keeps failing (wrong endpoint)

Symptoms

• Moonshot/Kimi models time out, fail intermittently, or never return (while direct API calls seem fine).
• openclaw models status --probe fails for moonshot/....

Cause

Most often:

• The gateway is using the wrong Moonshot endpoint for your network/region, or
• MOONSHOT_API_KEY is set on your laptop but not on the gateway host (VPS/Docker).

Moonshot supports multiple endpoints:

• International: https://api.moonshot.ai/v1
• China: https://api.moonshot.cn/v1

If your gateway host can only reach one of them reliably, the other will fail.

Fix

1) Ensure the key exists on the gateway host

Run on the gateway host:

openclaw models status

If Moonshot shows as unauthenticated/missing, set MOONSHOT_API_KEY on the gateway host and restart the gateway.

2) Set the correct baseUrl for your region

Use openclaw configure (Model/auth → Moonshot) or set it in config:

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      moonshot: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.moonshot.cn/v1",
      },
    },
  },
}

Then restart the gateway.

3) Probe again

openclaw models status --probe

Verify

• Probes succeed for moonshot/....
• A test chat returns normally and logs show successful Moonshot requests.

Related

• Configuration overview (env vars, providers, probes): /guides/openclaw-configuration