Use Poolside with OpenClaw

Use Poolside with OpenClaw through the Poolside provider plugin or as an external coding agent through Agent Client Protocol (ACP).

Choose a workflow

You want to	Use
Run OpenClaw’s agent with a Poolside model	Poolside provider plugin
Run Poolside Agent from an OpenClaw conversation	OpenClaw ACPX runtime plugin

You can configure either workflow or use both. The provider plugin changes the model that powers OpenClaw’s agent. OpenClaw’s ACPX runtime plugin starts Poolside Agent as a separate external agent session.

Use Poolside models through the provider plugin

Install the Poolside provider plugin to make the Poolside model catalog available in OpenClaw without adding custom provider entries to openclaw.json.

Watch the provider setup video

Prerequisites

You have OpenClaw installed. For installation options, see Install OpenClaw.
You have one of the following:
- A Poolside Platform API key. To create one, go to platform.poolside.ai.
- The base URL for your self-managed model endpoint. For an authenticated endpoint, you also need its API key.

Steps

Install the Poolside provider plugin from ClawHub.

openclaw plugins install clawhub:@poolside/openclaw-provider

Restart the Gateway to load the plugin.
openclaw gateway restart
Authenticate with Poolside.
- Poolside Platform
- Self-managed Poolside inference
openclaw onboard --auth-choice poolside-api-key
Paste your Poolside Platform API key when prompted.
If you run Poolside model inference on your own infrastructure, use the model’s OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://<model-hostname>/v1. Use the API key configured for the endpoint, if it requires one.
- Authenticated endpoint: Add its API key to ~/.openclaw/.env:
  POOLSIDE_API_KEY=<api-key>
- Unauthenticated remote endpoint: Add a non-empty placeholder to ~/.openclaw/.env:
  POOLSIDE_API_KEY=poolside-placeholder
  OpenClaw sends this value in the Authorization header, so confirm that the endpoint accepts an unused bearer token.
- Unauthenticated local or private endpoint: Omit POOLSIDE_API_KEY when the endpoint uses localhost, a private IPv4 address, or a .local hostname.
- Set the provider’s base URL to the model’s OpenAI-compatible endpoint:
  openclaw config set models.providers.poolside.baseUrl "https://<model-hostname>/v1"
- Restart the Gateway to load the API key and base URL:
  openclaw gateway restart
Set a default model.
openclaw models set <poolside-model-id>
The plugin registers the available Poolside models. To find model IDs for your access method, see List available models. To switch models for one chat without changing the default, use the /model command in the chat.

Send your first prompt. Start an agent session or send a message on a connected channel. Use a prompt that is specific and has a clear expected result, such as one of these examples:

Every morning at 08:00, check the 10 trending papers on Hugging Face (sorted by upvotes).
- For each paper, show: title, upvotes, GitHub repo (if any), and a 1-line AI summary.
- Notify me when you notice a spike in upvotes for a given paper.

Ask me five questions to get to know how I work, then update your USER file with what you learn.

Confirm OpenClaw responds using the selected Poolside model. To check the primary model and provider authentication directly, run openclaw models status.

If you configured POOLSIDE_API_KEY and the OpenClaw Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure the variable is available to that process, such as in ~/.openclaw/.env or through env.shellEnv.

Run Poolside Agent through ACPX

OpenClaw’s ACPX runtime plugin includes a pool harness target that runs Poolside Agent as an external ACP agent. This workflow uses the Poolside Agent CLI login, models, tools, and settings. It does not require the Poolside provider plugin. Prerequisites

You have OpenClaw installed. For installation options, see Install OpenClaw.
You have Poolside Agent CLI installed and authenticated on the OpenClaw Gateway host. See Install Poolside Agent CLI.
The pool command is available on the Gateway daemon’s PATH.

Steps

Install and enable OpenClaw’s ACPX runtime plugin.
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/acpx openclaw config set plugins.entries.acpx.enabled true
For current ACPX installation and configuration options, see OpenClaw ACP agent setup.
Restart the Gateway to load the plugin.
openclaw gateway restart
If you configured acp.allowedAgents, make sure the list includes pool.
In an OpenClaw conversation, check that the ACP backend is ready.
/acp doctor
Start Poolside Agent and bind it to the current conversation.
/acp spawn pool --bind here
Send a read-only prompt, such as Summarize the project structure, to confirm the conversation routes to Poolside Agent. Run /acp status to inspect the active ACP session. The --bind here option requires an OpenClaw channel that supports current-conversation ACP bindings. For other session targets, see the Bound sessions section in OpenClaw ACP agents.

ACPX sessions run without an interactive terminal. For tasks that edit files or run commands, review the Permission configuration section in OpenClaw ACP agent setup.

​Choose a workflow

​Use Poolside models through the provider plugin

​Watch the provider setup video

​Run Poolside Agent through ACPX

​Related resources

Choose a workflow

Use Poolside models through the provider plugin

Watch the provider setup video

Run Poolside Agent through ACPX

Related resources