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Onboarding skips Model/Auth setup (agent unresponsive after install)

Fix a broken onboarding flow where OpenClaw defaults to a model without credentials, causing the agent to hang, by configuring provider auth manually or downgrading.

By CoClaw Team •

Symptoms

  • openclaw onboard finishes, but you were never asked to pick a model provider or enter an API key.
  • OpenClaw defaults to anthropic/claude-opus-4-6, but the agent never responds (TUI/WebChat shows “loading” indefinitely).
  • Re-running openclaw onboard does not bring back the missing Model/Auth step.

Cause

The onboarding wizard can be broken in some releases and skip the Model/Auth step entirely. When that happens, OpenClaw may default to a provider/model that requires credentials, but no credentials were configured, so the agent cannot complete requests.

Fix

1) Configure a provider API key after onboarding (fastest)

If you’re using Anthropic:

openclaw config set env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY "sk-ant-..."
openclaw gateway restart

If you’re using OpenAI instead, set env.OPENAI_API_KEY (or configure it via openclaw configure) and restart the gateway.

2) Run the interactive configurator

openclaw configure
openclaw gateway restart

3) Downgrade and re-run onboarding (workaround)

If you need the wizard flow to work end-to-end, install a known-good version, then rerun onboarding:

npm uninstall -g openclaw
npm install -g openclaw@2026.2.9
openclaw onboard

Verify

  • Send a message in TUI/WebChat; the agent responds normally.
  • Optional: openclaw models status --probe succeeds for your configured provider.
  • GitHub issue: #16134

Verification & references

  • Reviewed by:CoClaw Code Team
  • Last reviewed:March 14, 2026
  • Verified on: Linux · macOS · Windows

References

Official docs

  1. OpenClaw docs: /config
  2. OpenClaw docs: /start/wizard

Issue threads

  1. OpenClaw GitHub issue #16134
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