OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent framework that runs on your own machine and connects to the messaging apps you already use. Rather than a chatbot you visit, it is an always-on assistant that takes real actions in the world: sending emails, reading your calendar, browsing the web, running shell commands, writing files and monitoring your apps — all triggered from a WhatsApp or Telegram message.
Created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger in November 2025 (originally named Clawdbot, then briefly Moltbot), OpenClaw became one of the fastest-growing open-source repositories in GitHub history. It passed 350,000 stars by April 2026, overtaking React's ten-year star count in just 60 days.
The architecture has five core components. The Gateway is a local daemon that runs 24/7 on your machine, routing messages and dispatching tool calls. Channels connect it to 20+ messaging apps including WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal and iMessage. The Workspace is a folder of Markdown files — SOUL.md, USER.md, MEMORY.md — that define your agent's personality, context and long-term memory. Skills are plain-text instruction manuals that teach the agent how to accomplish specific tasks (Gmail, Google Calendar, GitHub, Obsidian and 50+ more). Tools are the actual capabilities: bash execution, browser automation, file read/write, cron scheduling and semantic memory search.
OpenClaw supports over 200 AI models including Claude, GPT, Gemini and local models via Ollama. It is free and open source under the MIT licence. The self-hosted version costs nothing beyond a VPS ($5–15/month) and your own API keys. OpenClaw Cloud, the managed hosted option, costs £47/month (first month 50% off) with all AI included, no server required.
Note: OpenClaw gives an AI model real access to your machine. It should be run with sandboxing enabled and port 18789 should never be exposed to the public internet. Third-party skills from ClawHub should be read carefully before installation — malicious skills have been documented.