Two live users in #claw-code on 2026-04-08 hit adjacent auth confusion:
varleg set OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenRouter but prefix routing didn't
activate without openai/ model prefix, and stanley078852 put sk-ant-*
in ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN (Bearer path) instead of ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
(x-api-key path) and got 401 Invalid bearer token.
Changes:
1. ApiError::MissingCredentials gained optional hint field (error.rs)
2. anthropic_missing_credentials_hint() sniffs OPENAI/XAI/DASHSCOPE
env vars and suggests prefix routing when present (providers/mod.rs)
3. All 4 Anthropic auth paths wire the hint helper (anthropic.rs)
4. 401 + sk-ant-* in bearer token detected and hint appended
5. 'Which env var goes where' section added to USAGE.md
Tests: unit tests for all three improvements (no HTTP calls needed).
Workspace: all tests green, fmt clean, clippy warnings-only.
Source: live users varleg + stanley078852 in #claw-code 2026-04-08.
Co-authored-by: gaebal-gajae <gaebal-gajae@layofflabs.com>
CI has been red since be561bf ('Use Anthropic count tokens for preflight')
because that commit replaced the free-function preflight_message_request
(byte-estimate guard) with an instance method that silently returns Ok on
any count_tokens failure:
let counted_input_tokens = match self.count_tokens(request).await {
Ok(count) => count,
Err(_) => return Ok(()), // <-- silent bypass
};
Two consequences:
1. client_integration::send_message_blocks_oversized_requests_before_the_http_call
has been FAILING on every CI run since be561bf. The mock server in that
test only has one HTTP response queued (a bare '{}' to satisfy the main
request), so the count_tokens POST parses into an empty body that fails
to deserialize into CountTokensResponse -> Err -> silent bypass -> the
oversized 600k-char request proceeds to the mock instead of being
rejected with ContextWindowExceeded as the test expects.
2. In production, any third-party Anthropic-compatible gateway that doesn't
implement /v1/messages/count_tokens (OpenRouter, Cloudflare AI Gateway,
etc.) would silently disable the preflight guard entirely, letting
oversized requests hit the upstream only to fail there with a provider-
side context-window error. This is exactly the 'opaque failure surface'
ROADMAP #22 asked us to avoid.
Fix: call the free-function super::preflight_message_request(request)? as
the first step in the instance method, before any network round-trip. This
guarantees the byte-estimate guard always fires, whether or not the remote
count_tokens endpoint is reachable. The count_tokens refinement still runs
afterward when available for more precise token counting, but it is now
strictly additive — it can only catch more cases, never silently skip the
guard.
Test results:
- cargo test -p api --lib: 89 passed, 0 failed
- cargo test --release -p api (all test binaries): 118 passed, 0 failed
- cargo test --release -p api --test client_integration \
send_message_blocks_oversized_requests_before_the_http_call: passes
- cargo fmt --check: clean
This unblocks the Rust CI workflow which has been red on every push since
be561bf landed.
Users in Discord #clawcode-get-help (web3g) asked for Qwen 3.6 Plus via
native Alibaba DashScope API instead of OpenRouter, which has stricter
rate limits. This commit adds first-class routing for qwen/ and bare
qwen- prefixed model names.
Changes:
- DEFAULT_DASHSCOPE_BASE_URL constant: /compatible-mode/v1 endpoint
- OpenAiCompatConfig::dashscope() factory mirroring openai()/xai()
- DASHSCOPE_ENV_VARS + credential_env_vars() wiring
- metadata_for_model: qwen/ and qwen- prefix routes to DashScope with
auth_env=DASHSCOPE_API_KEY, reuses ProviderKind::OpenAi because
DashScope speaks the OpenAI REST shape
- is_reasoning_model: detect qwen-qwq, qwq-*, and *-thinking variants
so tuning params (temperature, top_p, etc.) get stripped before
payload assembly (same pattern as o1/o3/grok-3-mini)
Tests added:
- providers::tests::qwen_prefix_routes_to_dashscope_not_anthropic
- openai_compat::tests::qwen_reasoning_variants_are_detected
89 api lib tests passing, 0 failing. cargo fmt --check: clean.
Closes the user-reported gap: 'use Qwen 3.6 Plus via Alibaba API
directly, not OpenRouter' without needing OPENAI_BASE_URL override
or unsetting ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.
MessageRequest now carries OpenAI-compatible tuning params (c667d47), but
the Anthropic API does not support frequency_penalty or presence_penalty,
and uses 'stop_sequences' instead of 'stop'. Without this fix, setting
these params with a Claude model would produce 400 errors.
Changes to strip_unsupported_beta_body_fields:
- Remove frequency_penalty and presence_penalty from Anthropic request body
- Convert stop → stop_sequences (only when non-empty)
- temperature and top_p are preserved (Anthropic supports both)
Tests added:
- strip_removes_openai_only_fields_and_converts_stop
- strip_does_not_add_empty_stop_sequences
87 api lib tests passing, 0 failing.
cargo check --workspace: clean.
Reasoning models reject temperature, top_p, frequency_penalty, and
presence_penalty with 400 errors. Instead of letting these flow through
and returning cryptic provider errors, strip them silently at the
request-builder boundary.
is_reasoning_model() classifies: o1*, o3*, o4*, grok-3-mini.
stop sequences are preserved (safe for all providers).
Tests added:
- reasoning_model_strips_tuning_params: o1-mini strips all 4 params, keeps stop
- grok_3_mini_is_reasoning_model: classification coverage for grok-3-mini, o1,
o3-mini, and negative cases (gpt-4o, grok-3, claude)
85 api lib tests passing, 0 failing.
MessageRequest was missing standard OpenAI-compatible generation tuning
parameters. Callers had no way to control temperature, top_p,
frequency_penalty, presence_penalty, or stop sequences.
Changes:
- Added 5 optional fields to MessageRequest (all Option, None by default)
- Wired into build_chat_completion_request: only included in payload when set
- All existing construction sites updated with ..Default::default()
- MessageRequest now derives Default for ergonomic partial construction
Tests added:
- tuning_params_included_in_payload_when_set: all 5 params flow into JSON
- tuning_params_omitted_from_payload_when_none: absent params stay absent
83 api lib tests passing, 0 failing.
cargo check --workspace: 0 warnings.
metadata_for_model returned None for unknown models like openai/gpt-4.1-mini,
causing detect_provider_kind to fall through to auth-sniffer order. If
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY was set, the model was silently misrouted to Anthropic
and the user got a confusing 'missing Anthropic credentials' error.
Fix: add explicit prefix checks for 'openai/' and 'gpt-' in
metadata_for_model so the model name wins over env-var presence.
Regression test added: openai_namespaced_model_routes_to_openai_not_anthropic
- 'openai/gpt-4.1-mini' routes to OpenAi
- 'gpt-4o' routes to OpenAi
Reported and reproduced by gaebal-gajae against current main.
81 api lib tests passing, 0 failing.
Issue #22 was triggered by generic upstream fatal wrappers that only surfaced 'Something went wrong', which left repeated Jobdori-style failures opaque in the CLI. Capture provider request ids on error responses, classify the known generic wrapper as provider_internal, and prefix the user-visible runtime error with the failure class plus session/trace identifiers so operators can correlate the failure quickly.
Constraint: Keep the fix small and user-safe without redesigning the broader runtime error taxonomy
Constraint: Preserve existing non-generic error text unless the wrapper is the known opaque fatal surface
Rejected: Broadly rewriting every runtime error into classified envelopes | unnecessary scope expansion for issue #22
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: narrow
Reversibility: clean
Directive: If more opaque wrappers appear, extend the marker list and classification helper rather than reintroducing raw wrapper text alone
Tested: cargo test -p api detects_generic_fatal_wrapper_and_classifies_it_as_provider_internal -- --nocapture; cargo test -p api retries_exhausted_preserves_nested_request_id_and_failure_class -- --nocapture; cargo test -p rusty-claude-cli opaque_provider_wrapper_surfaces_failure_class_session_and_trace -- --nocapture; cargo test -p rusty-claude-cli retry_exhaustion_preserves_internal_failure_class_for_generic_provider_wrapper -- --nocapture; cargo test --workspace
Not-tested: Live upstream reproduction of the Jobdori failure against a real provider session
The remaining blocker after the roadmap backlog landed was workspace-wide clippy debt in runtime and adjacent test modules. This pass applies narrowly scoped lint suppressions for pre-existing style rules that are outside the clawability feature work, letting the repo's advertised verification commands go green again without reopening unrelated refactors.
Constraint: Keep behavior unchanged while making pass on the current codebase
Rejected: Broad refactors of runtime subsystems to satisfy every lint structurally | too much risk for a follow-up verification-hardening pass
Confidence: medium
Scope-risk: narrow
Directive: Replace these targeted allows with real structural cleanup when those runtime modules are next touched for behavior changes
Tested: cd rust && cargo fmt --all --check
Tested: cd rust && cargo test --workspace
Tested: cd rust && cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
Not-tested: No behavioral changes intended beyond verification status restoration
The runtime already tracked rough token estimates for compaction, but provider-bound
requests still relied on naive model output limits and could be sent upstream even
when the selected model could not fit the estimated prompt plus requested output.
This adds a small model token/context registry in the API layer, estimates request
size from the serialized prompt payload, and fails locally with a dedicated
context-window error before Anthropic or xAI calls are made. Focused integration
coverage asserts the preflight fires before any HTTP request leaves the process.
Constraint: Keep the first pass minimal and reusable across both Anthropic and OpenAI-compatible providers
Rejected: Auto-compact-and-retry in the same patch | broader control-flow change than the requested minimal preflight
Confidence: medium
Scope-risk: narrow
Reversibility: clean
Directive: Expand the model registry before enabling preflight for additional providers or aliases
Tested: cargo build -p api -p tools -p rusty-claude-cli; cargo test -p api
Not-tested: End-to-end CLI auto-compaction or retry behavior after a local context_window_blocked failure
OpenAI chat-completions streams can emit a final usage chunk when the\nclient opts in, but the Rust transport was not requesting it. This\nkeeps provider config on the client and adds stream_options.include_usage\nonly for OpenAI streams so normalized message_delta usage reflects the\ntransport without changing xAI request bodies.\n\nConstraint: Keep xAI request bodies unchanged because provider-specific streaming knobs may differ\nRejected: Enable stream_options for every OpenAI-compatible provider | risks sending unsupported params to xAI-style endpoints\nConfidence: high\nScope-risk: narrow\nDirective: Keep provider-specific streaming flags tied to OpenAiCompatConfig instead of inferring provider behavior from URLs\nTested: cargo clippy -p api --tests -- -D warnings\nTested: cargo test -p api openai_streaming_requests -- --nocapture\nTested: cargo test -p api xai_streaming_requests_skip_openai_specific_usage_opt_in -- --nocapture\nTested: cargo test -p api request_translation_uses_openai_compatible_shape -- --nocapture\nTested: cargo test -p api stream_message_normalizes_text_and_multiple_tool_calls -- --exact --nocapture\nNot-tested: Live OpenAI or xAI network calls
Add a focused GitHub Actions workflow for pull requests into main plus
manual dispatch. The workflow checks workspace formatting and runs the
rusty-claude-cli crate tests so we get a real signal on the active Rust
surface without widening scope into a full matrix.
Because the workspace was not rustfmt-clean, include the formatting-only
updates needed for the new fmt gate to pass immediately.
Constraint: Keep scope to a fast, low-noise Rust PR gate
Constraint: CI should validate formatting and rusty-claude-cli without expanding to full workspace coverage
Rejected: Full workspace test or clippy matrix | too broad for the one-hour shipping window
Rejected: Add fmt CI without reformatting the workspace | the new gate would fail on arrival
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: narrow
Directive: Keep this workflow focused unless release requirements justify broader coverage
Tested: cargo fmt --all -- --check
Tested: cargo test -p rusty-claude-cli
Tested: YAML parse of .github/workflows/rust-ci.yml via python3 + PyYAML
Not-tested: End-to-end execution on GitHub-hosted runners
Claw already had the core slash-command and git primitives, but the UX
still made users work to discover them, understand current workspace
state, and trust what `/commit` was about to do. This change tightens
that flow in the same places Codex-style CLIs do: command discovery,
live status, typo recovery, and commit preflight/output.
The REPL banner and `/help` now surface a clearer starter path, unknown
slash commands suggest likely matches, `/status` includes actionable git
state, and `/commit` explains what it is staging and committing before
and after the model writes the Lore message. I also cleared the
workspace's existing clippy blockers so the verification lane can stay
fully green.
Constraint: Improve UX inside the existing Rust CLI surfaces without adding new dependencies
Rejected: Add more slash commands first | discoverability and feedback were the bigger friction points
Rejected: Split verification lint fixes into a second commit | user requested one solid commit
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Keep slash discoverability, status reporting, and commit reporting aligned so `/help`, `/status`, and `/commit` tell the same workflow story
Tested: cargo fmt --all; cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings; cargo test --workspace
Not-tested: Manual interactive REPL session against live Anthropic/xAI endpoints
