Moltbot to OpenClaw: The Evolution of Your Personal AI

If you're searching for "Moltbot," you've found the right place. Moltbot evolved into OpenClaw—a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices.

Molty: The Space Lobster 🦞

OpenClaw was built for Molty, a space lobster AI assistant. The name comes from this personality, and you'll still see lobster references throughout the project.

EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices. It:

Answers you on channels you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, WebChat)
Speaks and listens on macOS/iOS/Android
Renders a live Canvas you control
Runs locally—the Gateway is just the control plane

If you want a personal, single-user assistant that feels local, fast, and always-on, this is it.

Quick Start

npm install -g openclaw@latest

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

Full guide: Getting started

What We Built

Core Platform

Gateway WS control plane — Sessions, presence, config, cron, webhooks
CLI surface — openclaw gateway, agent, send, wizard, doctor
Pi agent runtime — RPC mode with tool and block streaming
Session model — Main for direct chats, group isolation, activation modes

Apps + Nodes

macOS app — Menu bar, Voice Wake, Talk Mode overlay, WebChat
iOS node — Canvas, Voice Wake, camera, screen recording
Android node — Canvas, Talk Mode, camera, screen recording

Tools + Automation

Browser control (CDP)
Canvas + A2UI
Cron jobs + webhooks
Gmail Pub/Sub
Skills platform

Development Channels

stable: Tagged releases (vYYYY.M.D), npm latest
beta: Prerelease tags (vYYYY.M.D-beta.N), npm beta
dev: Moving head of main, npm dev

Switch channels:

openclaw update --channel stable  # or beta, dev

Skills Registry (ClawHub)

OpenClaw has a skill registry at clawhub.com. With ClawHub enabled, the agent can search for and pull in new skills automatically.

Built by the Community

OpenClaw is open source with contributions from many developers. The project welcomes AI/vibe-coded PRs! 🤖

Special thanks to:

Peter Steinberger (original creator)
Mario Zechner (pi-mono)
Adam Doppelt (lobster.bot)
All the clawtributors

Next Steps

Getting Started — Full beginner guide
Wizard — Guided onboarding
Channels — Connect WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.
Discord — Join the community