Integrating MiniMax (Hailuo AI) with OpenClaw

Introduction to MiniMax and Hailuo AI

MiniMax is a well-known AI technology company in China, and its consumer product "Hailuo AI" is widely praised for its user experience and conversation quality. MiniMax's large language models excel in text generation, dialogue understanding, and role-playing, with unique advantages in creative writing and emotional interaction.

OpenClaw supports MiniMax as a model provider. You can integrate MiniMax models into your OpenClaw deployment through the standard configuration process.

Obtaining a MiniMax API Key

1. Visit the MiniMax Open Platform and register a developer account.
2. Complete the required verification process in the console.
3. Create an application and obtain your API key (Group ID and API Key).
4. Record these credentials.

The MiniMax Open Platform typically provides a certain amount of free call quota, making it convenient for developers to test and evaluate.

Quick Configuration

Use OpenClaw's onboarding tool for quick configuration:

openclaw onboard

Select MiniMax during the onboarding flow and enter your API key information as prompted to complete the configuration.

Manual Configuration of openclaw.json

Set MiniMax as the default model in the configuration file:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "minimax/abab6.5s-chat"
      }
    }
  }
}

Authentication Configuration

{
  "providers": {
    "minimax": {
      "auth": [
        {
          "key": "your-minimax-api-key",
          "groupId": "your-group-id"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Multi-account rotation configuration example:

{
  "providers": {
    "minimax": {
      "auth": [
        {
          "key": "key-a",
          "groupId": "GroupID_A",
          "profile": "Primary account"
        },
        {
          "key": "key-b",
          "groupId": "GroupID_B",
          "profile": "Backup account"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

OpenClaw's multi-account authentication system automatically manages key rotation. When the primary account encounters rate limits or errors, the system immediately switches to the backup account and tracks the primary account's cooldown.

MiniMax Model Selection

MiniMax offers multiple model variants covering different use cases:

• minimax/abab6.5s-chat: Flagship conversational model with strong overall capabilities, suitable for general scenarios.
• minimax/abab6.5-chat: Standard version, a good balance between performance and cost.
• minimax/abab5.5-chat: Lightweight version with fast response times, suitable for simple conversation scenarios.

When choosing a model, weigh capability against cost based on your actual needs. For most conversation scenarios, abab6.5s-chat is the recommended first choice.

MiniMax's Distinctive Capabilities

MiniMax models excel in the following areas:

• Role-playing conversations: MiniMax performs exceptionally well in character consistency and emotional expression, making it ideal for building virtual characters.
• Creative text generation: Novel writing, copywriting, poetry generation, and other creative tasks.
• Multi-turn conversation understanding: Strong comprehension of complex multi-turn dialogue contexts.
• Chinese language understanding: Deeply optimized for Chinese linguistic contexts.

Using MiniMax on Specific Channels

If you don't want to set MiniMax as the global default model, you can use it on specific channels. OpenClaw supports configuring different models per channel — you can use MiniMax in creative writing channels while using other models in technical Q&A channels.

Configuring Failover

Configure a fallback model for MiniMax to ensure service continuity:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "minimax/abab6.5s-chat",
        "fallback": "qwen/qwen-plus"
      }
    }
  }
}

When the MiniMax service is experiencing issues, requests will automatically be forwarded to Qwen, which also performs well in Chinese scenarios.

Cost Management

MiniMax's API charges based on token usage. Here are some tips for controlling costs:

• Use lighter models (such as abab5.5-chat) for simple queries.
• Set reasonable maximum output token counts to avoid unnecessarily long responses.
• Leverage OpenClaw's multi-account mechanism to distribute call volumes and avoid exceeding single account limits.

Verification and Debugging

After completing the configuration, send a test message to verify that the MiniMax model responds correctly. You can try some creative writing prompts to experience MiniMax's distinctive capabilities. Check the OpenClaw logs to confirm that requests are being successfully routed to the MiniMax provider.

With the steps above, you have successfully integrated MiniMax's Hailuo AI into OpenClaw.