The core issue was that OpenClaw’s built-in “Ollama” provider is designed specifically for local servers.
When you try to point it at a cloud URL, it tries to “discover” models using local-only commands,
which causes the Gateway service to crash.

The Solution: Use the OpenAI Provider

Instead of using the ollama provider type, we used the openai-completions type.
This tells OpenClaw to treat Ollama Cloud as a standard cloud API, bypassing the local discovery logic.

Correct Configuration (~/.openclaw/openclaw.json)

Ensure your models.providers section looks like this:

• /v1 is what makes it OpenAI-compatible, as opposed to /api.
• ollama-cloud instead of ollama because ollama is reserved. Does it have to say ollama-cloud? No, write butts-cloud for all I care.

"models":{"providers":{"ollama-cloud":{"baseUrl":"https://ollama.com/v1","apiKey":"YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY","api":"openai-completions","models":[{"id":"kimi-k2.5:cloud","name":"Kimi K2.5 Cloud","contextWindow":128000,"maxTokens":4096},{"id":"minimax-m2.5:cloud","name":"MiniMax M2.5 Cloud","contextWindow":128000,"maxTokens":4096},{"id":"glm-5:cloud","name":"GLM-5 Cloud","contextWindow":128000,"maxTokens":4096}]}}}

Key Troubleshooting Tips

• The “76B5208” Code: This is just the version number of OpenClaw (2026.1.30), not an error code. If you see it, the program is running!
• The “Invalid Input” Error: This happens if the api field is set to anything other than openai-completions.
• Using openclaw after this may act weird: Turn off the gateway with openclaw gateway stop and restart it with openclaw gateway.
• Starting a Chat: Use the --session-id flag to give your conversation a name so OpenClaw knows where to send the message.

Example commands to start openclaw:

• openclaw agent --message "testing 123" --session-id test-cloud (You can replace test-cloud with whatever)
• openclaw tui

Sample Config

{"meta":{...Bunchofshityoudon'tneedtotouch...},"wizard":{...Moreautogeneratedstuff...},"models":{"providers":{"ollama-cloud":{"baseUrl":"https://ollama.com/v1","apiKey":"<GET YOUR OLLAMA API KEY AND PUT IT HERE>","api":"openai-completions","models":[{"id":"kimi-k2.5:cloud","name":"Kimi K2.5 Cloud","contextWindow":128000,"maxTokens":4096},{"id":"minimax-m2.5:cloud","name":"MiniMax M2.5 Cloud","contextWindow":128000,"maxTokens":4096},{"id":"glm-5:cloud","name":"GLM-5 Cloud","contextWindow":128000,"maxTokens":4096}]}}},"agents":{"defaults":{"model":{"primary":"ollama-cloud/kimi-k2.5:cloud"},...WhateverOpenClawhadalreadyputhere,keepit...}},"messages":{...Notouchy...},"commands":{...LookIjustwantyoutoknowwhereyourshitissupposedtogo...},"hooks":{...},"channels":{...Someofthesedependonthethingsyouchoseduringonboarding...},"gateway":{...},"tailscale":{...}},"skills":{...},"plugins":{...}}

crossposted on GitHub: https://gist.github.com/S4GU4R0/f7fc15eb5deeb6bd0b84459b22f7fc23 by Saguaro Prole