How to Connect Bluehost AI Credits to GatorClaw

This guide assumes you've installed the GatorClaw app on your Self-Managed VPS, are comfortable using SSH, have set a root password, and have purchased AI Credits through your Bluehost Portal. It also assumes you have not yet completed the initial setup process.

Before you begin: You'll need an AI Credits API key and gateway endpoint. If you haven't created a key yet, see How to Create and Manage API Keys first. For an overview of how AI Credits work, see Understanding AI Credits.

Already have a Claude subscription through Anthropic? Use the standard setup wizard instead, at http://<your-server-ip>:47716/setup.

A Note on Naming

The installed product identifies itself as GatorClaw in its own --help text and PM2 process metadata (application_name: GatorClaw), but the binary, install directory, and PM2 process are all named devclaw. Don't be thrown by the two names — they're the same install.

Using AI Credits requires pointing GatorClaw at the Bluehost AI Gateway, which isn't supported out of the box — this guide walks through making it work.

Point GatorClaw at a Custom Gateway

Step 1 – Create and Edit the Config File

Store your API key as an environment variable, so it doesn't have to sit in config.yaml as plaintext. Your API key will always start with sk-.

echo 'export DEVCLAW_API_KEY="your-api-key"' >> /root/.profile source /root/.profile

Log in to the server and run the following, which switches to the /opt/devclaw directory and creates a blank config.yaml you can add your API key, gateway, and initial configuration to:

cd /opt/devclaw/ devclaw config init

Example Output:

Created config.yaml with default configuration.
Next steps:
  1. Edit config.yaml and set your phone number in access.owners
  2. Run: devclaw serve
  3. Scan the QR code with WhatsApp

Next, edit the file with vim or another text editor:

vim /opt/devclaw/config.yaml

You'll need to set a default model, base URL, and API key:

model: claude-sonnet-4-6 api: base_url: https://gateway.ai.bluehost.com api_key: ""

See AI Models and Credit Pricing for the full list of supported model IDs and their credit cost.

Other Options

To use the web UI, set webui.enabled to true. It will be reachable at http://<your-server-ip>:47716/:

webui: enabled: true address: :47716 auth_token: ""

Set an auth token. auth_token is the login key for the web UI. If it's left blank, anyone who reaches that address can access GatorClaw — set one and store it somewhere safe.

The web UI is the suggested way to interact with GatorClaw for this guide. You can also set up Discord, Telegram, or WhatsApp as needed — that's beyond the scope of this quick start.

Finally, set the language to English. By default it looks like this:

language: pt-BR

Change it to:

language: en

Step 2 – Restart the Service

pm2 restart devclaw --update-env

Step 3 – Test

Send a live test message to confirm everything's working:

/opt/devclaw/devclaw chat "Howdy"

Summary

GatorClaw (installed as devclaw) doesn't point at AI Credits by default, so connecting it means editing config.yaml directly: set your API key as the DEVCLAW_API_KEY environment variable, then set model, api.base_url (https://gateway.ai.bluehost.com), and api.api_key in the config file. Optionally enable the web UI with an auth token set, and switch language to en if needed. Restart the service with pm2 restart devclaw --update-env, then test with devclaw chat "Howdy" to confirm the connection works.

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