Summary

• Problem: MiniMax streaming doesn't work in TUI — responses appear all at once instead of token-by-token (issue [Bug]: MiniMax streaming not working - output displays all at once instead of streaming openclaw/openclaw#45882).
• Root cause (streaming): pi-ai unconditionally injects anthropic-beta: fine-grained-tool-streaming-2025-05-14, interleaved-thinking-2025-05-14 into every anthropic-messages request. MiniMax's Anthropic-compatible endpoint does not support these beta features. When these unrecognised headers are present, MiniMax returns the entire response as a single SSE chunk instead of incremental token deltas, which is why the TUI shows the complete response all at once.
• Root cause (auth): MiniMax's Anthropic-compatible endpoint requires Authorization: Bearer <key>, but the Anthropic SDK sends X-Api-Key: <key> by default. The authHeader: true config flag existed in the schema and was set for MiniMax, but was never consumed at runtime — it was a no-op.
• What changed: Added createBearerAuthWrapper and resolveProviderAuthHeader in extra-params.ts. When authHeader: true is set on a provider, a stream wrapper: (1) converts X-Api-Key auth to Authorization: Bearer, and (2) nulls out the anthropic-beta header so pi-ai's injected betas don't reach MiniMax. The Anthropic SDK treats null header values as explicit deletions. Added 4 unit tests.
• What did NOT change: No provider configs, base URLs, or API types modified. Fix is a pure runtime wrapper.

Change Type (select all)

• Bug fix

Scope (select all touched areas)

• Auth / tokens
• Gateway / orchestration

Linked Issue/PR

• Closes [Bug]: MiniMax streaming not working - output displays all at once instead of streaming openclaw/openclaw#45882

User-visible / Behavior Changes

MiniMax streaming now works correctly in TUI — responses stream token-by-token instead of appearing all at once. No config changes required for existing users.

Security Impact (required)

• New permissions/capabilities? No
• Secrets/tokens handling changed? Yes — API key is moved from X-Api-Key to Authorization: Bearer for providers with authHeader: true. Key value unchanged, only the header name changes.
• New/changed network calls? No
• Command/tool execution surface changed? No
• Data access scope changed? No

Repro + Verification

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04
• Model/provider: minimax/MiniMax-M2.5-highspeed
• Integration/channel: TUI

Steps

1. Configure MINIMAX_API_KEY
2. Send a message via TUI using a MiniMax model
3. Without fix: response appears all at once
4. With fix: response streams token-by-token

Expected

Response streams token-by-token

Actual (before fix)

Complete response displayed at once — no incremental streaming

Evidence

• 4 new unit tests in extra-params.bearer-auth.test.ts, all passing; 812-test suite passes
• Root cause confirmed: Anthropic SDK buildHeaders merge order places options.headers after defaultHeaders, so null values in options.headers delete pi-ai's injected betas (confirmed in SDK source internal/headers.js)

Human Verification (required)

• Verified: SDK validateHeaders accepts authorization presence; null header values delete earlier headers via buildHeaders
• Edge cases: no-apiKey passthrough (wrapper is no-op when no key), existing custom headers preserved, non-authHeader providers unaffected
• Not verified: live MiniMax API call (provided key is expired)

Compatibility / Migration

• Backward compatible? Yes
• Config/env changes? No
• Migration needed? No

Failure Recovery (if this breaks)

• Revert commits or set authHeader: false in provider config
• File: src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/extra-params.ts

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: null-header deletion relies on Anthropic SDK internal buildHeaders behaviour
  • Mitigation: Same pattern used by SDK's own validateHeaders; tested with SDK 0.73.0
• Risk: Suppressing anthropic-beta for all authHeader: true providers could block legitimate future betas for these endpoints
  • Mitigation: Only affects providers that explicitly opt into authHeader: true (third-party Anthropic-compatible endpoints). Standard Anthropic direct uses a different code path.