Configuration

sportsclaw needs one thing to run: a connection to an AI model. The sports data is free and keyless — only the reasoning model requires credentials.

Guided setup

The easiest way to configure everything is the interactive wizard:

sportsclaw config

It walks you through choosing a provider, picking a model, and (optionally) setting up Discord and Telegram bots. Your settings are saved to ~/.sportsclaw/. Run it again any time to change things.

Want a conversational setup that also validates your bot tokens as you go? Try sportsclaw setup.

Choosing a model

sportsclaw works with three providers — bring a key from whichever you prefer:

Provider	Models	API key
Anthropic	Claude (Opus, Sonnet)	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
OpenAI	GPT	OPENAI_API_KEY
Google	Gemini	GEMINI_API_KEY

Set the key in your environment, or let sportsclaw config store it for you:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-...

Image generation

Generating images (matchday graphics, etc.) requires OpenAI or Google — Anthropic models can't produce images. Reading images you send the bot works on any vision-capable model.

Reasoning models & custom endpoints

Point sportsclaw at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with OPENAI_BASE_URL, and it selects the API path based on the model name:

• Reasoning models (gpt-5*, o1*, o3*) go over the Responses API — what hosted gateways like Azure AI Foundry (…/openai/v1) require for function tools + reasoning effort.
• Self-hosted chat models (NVIDIA NIM, vLLM) go over /chat/completions.
• With no OPENAI_BASE_URL, real OpenAI keeps its defaults.

# Azure AI Foundry — a gpt-5.5 reasoning deployment
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://<resource>.openai.azure.com/openai/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=<key>
# then pick the OpenAI provider + your model id in `sportsclaw config`

# Self-hosted (NIM / vLLM)
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://inference.local/v1

For sandboxed, policy-routed inference, see NVIDIA OpenShell.

Reuse your Claude Code session

If you already use Claude Code, you can skip the API key entirely and reuse that login:

sportsclaw login claude

sportsclaw will use your existing Claude session for reasoning. To stop, run sportsclaw logout claude — it won't affect Claude Code itself. An ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your environment always takes priority over this.

Connecting chat platforms

To run a Discord or Telegram bot, add your bot tokens:

sportsclaw channels

Then start a bot with sportsclaw listen discord or sportsclaw listen telegram. See Building Bots for the full walkthrough.

Checking your setup

sportsclaw doctor

doctor verifies your Node and Python versions, the sports data layer, your model credentials, your installed sports, and any connected Machina premium pods — and tells you exactly what to fix if something's off.

To connect premium data feeds, see Machina — the premium layer and Connecting MCP Servers.