Bug type

Crash (process/app exits or hangs)

Summary

The OpenClaw gateway fails to start with a ReferenceError: Cannot access 'ANTHROPIC_MODEL_ALIASES' before initialization error when any anthropic/* model ID is present in the agents.defaults.models block of openclaw.json.

The error occurs regardless of whether a short model ID (e.g. anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet) or a full versioned ID (e.g. anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022) is used.

Error Output:

Failed to read config at /Users/madrus/.openclaw/openclaw.json
ReferenceError: Cannot access 'ANTHROPIC_MODEL_ALIASES' before initialization
  at normalizeAnthropicModelId (auth-profiles-Cm29uFmx.js:164837:3)
  at normalizeProviderModelId (...:164840:40)
  at normalizeModelRef (...:164853:12)
  at parseModelRef (...:164864:10)
  at applyContextPruningDefaults (...:7205:44)
  at Object.loadConfig (...:16237:91)

Steps to reproduce

Add an anthropic/* model entry to agents.defaults.models in openclaw.json:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "models": {
        "anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet": {
          "alias": "sonnet",
          "params": { "cacheRetention": "short" }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

then run openclaw gateway restart.

Expected behavior

The gateway starts normally with the Anthropic model registered as an alias.

Actual behavior

The gateway fails to start. The config cannot be read due to ANTHROPIC_MODEL_ALIASES being referenced before it is initialized in the loading sequence (applyContextPruningDefaults → parseModelRef → normalizeAnthropicModelId).

Root Cause

During config loading, applyContextPruningDefaults calls parseModelRef, which calls normalizeAnthropicModelId. At that point in the initialization sequence, ANTHROPIC_MODEL_ALIASES has not yet been defined, causing the reference error.

Workaround

Remove all anthropic/* entries from agents.defaults.models. Anthropic models can still be used as fallbacks by referencing them directly in agents.defaults.model.fallbacks without an alias:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "fallbacks": ["anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"]
      },
      "models": {}
    }
  }
}

OpenClaw version

any latest version up to 2026.3.12

Operating system

macOS Tahoe 26.4

Install method

local install via curl command from the docs and openclaw update

Model

any anthropic model

Provider / routing chain

openclaw on localhost:18789

Config file / key location

No response

Additional provider/model setup details

No response

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Failed to read config at /Users/madrus/.openclaw/openclaw.json
ReferenceError: Cannot access 'ANTHROPIC_MODEL_ALIASES' before initialization
  at normalizeAnthropicModelId (auth-profiles-Cm29uFmx.js:164837:3)
  at normalizeProviderModelId (...:164840:40)
  at normalizeModelRef (...:164853:12)
  at parseModelRef (...:164864:10)
  at applyContextPruningDefaults (...:7205:44)
  at Object.loadConfig (...:16237:91)

Impact and severity

No response

Additional information

No response