coderClaw

Venice AI (Venice highlight)

Venice is our highlight Venice setup for privacy-first inference with optional anonymized access to proprietary models.

Venice AI provides privacy-focused AI inference with support for uncensored models and access to major proprietary models through their anonymized proxy. All inference is private by default—no training on your data, no logging.

Why Venice in CoderClaw

Private inference for open-source models (no logging).
Uncensored models when you need them.
Anonymized access to proprietary models (Opus/GPT/Gemini) when quality matters.
OpenAI-compatible /v1 endpoints.

Privacy Modes

Venice offers two privacy levels — understanding this is key to choosing your model:

Mode	Description	Models
Private	Fully private. Prompts/responses are never stored or logged. Ephemeral.	Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, Venice Uncensored, etc.
Anonymized	Proxied through Venice with metadata stripped. The underlying provider (OpenAI, Anthropic) sees anonymized requests.	Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, Kimi, MiniMax

Features

Privacy-focused: Choose between “private” (fully private) and “anonymized” (proxied) modes
Uncensored models: Access to models without content restrictions
Major model access: Use Claude, GPT-5.2, Gemini, Grok via Venice’s anonymized proxy
OpenAI-compatible API: Standard /v1 endpoints for easy integration
Streaming: ✅ Supported on all models
Function calling: ✅ Supported on select models (check model capabilities)
Vision: ✅ Supported on models with vision capability
No hard rate limits: Fair-use throttling may apply for extreme usage

Setup

1. Get API Key

Sign up at venice.ai
Go to Settings → API Keys → Create new key
Copy your API key (format: vapi_xxxxxxxxxxxx)

2. Configure CoderClaw

Option A: Environment Variable

export VENICE_API_KEY="vapi_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

Option B: Interactive Setup (Recommended)

coderclaw onboard --auth-choice venice-api-key

This will:

Prompt for your API key (or use existing VENICE_API_KEY)
Show all available Venice models
Let you pick your default model
Configure the provider automatically

Option C: Non-interactive

coderclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --auth-choice venice-api-key \
  --venice-api-key "vapi_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

3. Verify Setup

coderclaw chat --model venice/llama-3.3-70b "Hello, are you working?"

Model Selection

After setup, CoderClaw shows all available Venice models. Pick based on your needs:

Default (our pick): venice/llama-3.3-70b for private, balanced performance.
Best overall quality: venice/claude-opus-45 for hard jobs (Opus remains the strongest).
Privacy: Choose “private” models for fully private inference.
Capability: Choose “anonymized” models to access Claude, GPT, Gemini via Venice’s proxy.

Change your default model anytime:

coderclaw models set venice/claude-opus-45
coderclaw models set venice/llama-3.3-70b

List all available models:

coderclaw models list | grep venice

Configure via `coderclaw configure`

Run coderclaw configure
Select Model/auth
Choose Venice AI

Which Model Should I Use?

Use Case	Recommended Model	Why
General chat	`llama-3.3-70b`	Good all-around, fully private
Best overall quality	`claude-opus-45`	Opus remains the strongest for hard tasks
Privacy + Claude quality	`claude-opus-45`	Best reasoning via anonymized proxy
Coding	`qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct`	Code-optimized, 262k context
Vision tasks	`qwen3-vl-235b-a22b`	Best private vision model
Uncensored	`venice-uncensored`	No content restrictions
Fast + cheap	`qwen3-4b`	Lightweight, still capable
Complex reasoning	`deepseek-v3.2`	Strong reasoning, private

Available Models (25 Total)

Private Models (15) — Fully Private, No Logging

Model ID	Name	Context (tokens)	Features
`llama-3.3-70b`	Llama 3.3 70B	131k	General
`llama-3.2-3b`	Llama 3.2 3B	131k	Fast, lightweight
`hermes-3-llama-3.1-405b`	Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 405B	131k	Complex tasks
`qwen3-235b-a22b-thinking-2507`	Qwen3 235B Thinking	131k	Reasoning
`qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507`	Qwen3 235B Instruct	131k	General
`qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct`	Qwen3 Coder 480B	262k	Code
`qwen3-next-80b`	Qwen3 Next 80B	262k	General
`qwen3-vl-235b-a22b`	Qwen3 VL 235B	262k	Vision
`qwen3-4b`	Venice Small (Qwen3 4B)	32k	Fast, reasoning
`deepseek-v3.2`	DeepSeek V3.2	163k	Reasoning
`venice-uncensored`	Venice Uncensored	32k	Uncensored
`mistral-31-24b`	Venice Medium (Mistral)	131k	Vision
`google-gemma-3-27b-it`	Gemma 3 27B Instruct	202k	Vision
`openai-gpt-oss-120b`	OpenAI GPT OSS 120B	131k	General
`zai-org-glm-4.7`	GLM 4.7	202k	Reasoning, multilingual

Anonymized Models (10) — Via Venice Proxy

Model ID	Original	Context (tokens)	Features
`claude-opus-45`	Claude Opus 4.5	202k	Reasoning, vision
`claude-sonnet-45`	Claude Sonnet 4.5	202k	Reasoning, vision
`openai-gpt-52`	GPT-5.2	262k	Reasoning
`openai-gpt-52-codex`	GPT-5.2 Codex	262k	Reasoning, vision
`gemini-3-pro-preview`	Gemini 3 Pro	202k	Reasoning, vision
`gemini-3-flash-preview`	Gemini 3 Flash	262k	Reasoning, vision
`grok-41-fast`	Grok 4.1 Fast	262k	Reasoning, vision
`grok-code-fast-1`	Grok Code Fast 1	262k	Reasoning, code
`kimi-k2-thinking`	Kimi K2 Thinking	262k	Reasoning
`minimax-m21`	MiniMax M2.1	202k	Reasoning

Model Discovery

CoderClaw automatically discovers models from the Venice API when VENICE_API_KEY is set. If the API is unreachable, it falls back to a static catalog.

The /models endpoint is public (no auth needed for listing), but inference requires a valid API key.

Streaming & Tool Support

Feature	Support
Streaming	✅ All models
Function calling	✅ Most models (check `supportsFunctionCalling` in API)
Vision/Images	✅ Models marked with “Vision” feature
JSON mode	✅ Supported via `response_format`

Pricing

Venice uses a credit-based system. Check venice.ai/pricing for current rates:

Private models: Generally lower cost
Anonymized models: Similar to direct API pricing + small Venice fee

Comparison: Venice vs Direct API

Aspect	Venice (Anonymized)	Direct API
Privacy	Metadata stripped, anonymized	Your account linked
Latency	+10-50ms (proxy)	Direct
Features	Most features supported	Full features
Billing	Venice credits	Provider billing

Usage Examples

# Use default private model
coderclaw chat --model venice/llama-3.3-70b

# Use Claude via Venice (anonymized)
coderclaw chat --model venice/claude-opus-45

# Use uncensored model
coderclaw chat --model venice/venice-uncensored

# Use vision model with image
coderclaw chat --model venice/qwen3-vl-235b-a22b

# Use coding model
coderclaw chat --model venice/qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct

Troubleshooting

API key not recognized

echo $VENICE_API_KEY
coderclaw models list | grep venice

Ensure the key starts with vapi_.

Model not available

The Venice model catalog updates dynamically. Run coderclaw models list to see currently available models. Some models may be temporarily offline.

Connection issues

Venice API is at https://api.venice.ai/api/v1. Ensure your network allows HTTPS connections.

Config file example

{
  env: { VENICE_API_KEY: "vapi_..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "venice/llama-3.3-70b" } } },
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      venice: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.venice.ai/api/v1",
        apiKey: "${VENICE_API_KEY}",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [
          {
            id: "llama-3.3-70b",
            name: "Llama 3.3 70B",
            reasoning: false,
            input: ["text"],
            cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
            contextWindow: 131072,
            maxTokens: 8192,
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
}

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