Rui CarmoOpenClaw is a self-hosted personal AI assistant you run on your own devices, with a gateway control plane that connects to the chat channels you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Teams, WebChat, plus optional BlueBubbles, Matrix, and Zalo) and adds voice on macOS/iOS/Android alongside a live, controllable canvas. It ships with a CLI onboarding wizard (openclaw onboard) for macOS, Linux, and WSL2, with installs via npm/pnpm/bun. See the OpenClaw site and docs for the canonical reference.
OpenClaw was created by Peter Steinberger. In his February 2026 post “OpenClaw, OpenAI and the future,” he described OpenClaw as a playground project that “created such waves,” and announced he is joining OpenAI to work on bringing agents to everyone while OpenClaw moves to a foundation and stays open and independent.1
This page tracks the core project and the variants that build on or integrate with its workflows within the wider Agentic Systems space.
Ecosystem
| Field | Category | Date | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Frameworks | Tools | 2026 | Clawe | multi-agent coordination system powered by OpenClaw with kanban task management, cron-based heartbeats, and a web dashboard |
| Agent Platforms | OpenClaw Deck | multi-column chat interface for OpenClaw agents with side-by-side conversations, theming, and keyboard navigation |
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| Agent Systems | nanoclaw | a minimalist agent that runs inside Apple’s container framework |
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| piclaw | minimal Docker sandbox for running pi-mono with optional WhatsApp integration (piclaw), my own take on the OpenClaw craze |
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| Personal Assistants | HermitClaw | an autonomous AI creature that lives in a folder, continuously generating research reports, scripts, and notes with personality genome, memory system, and dreaming cycle |
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| SeaClaw | OpenClaw rewritten in C with 709KB binary, <50ms cold start, ~2-5MB memory footprint, includes Telegram bot and tool execution |
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| LocalGPT | a local device-focused AI assistant in Rust with persistent memory, autonomous tasks, and OpenClaw-compatible workflows |
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| OpenClaw | a personal, always-on assistant framework with a strong community and ecosystem around personal agent deployment |
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| NanoClaw | lightweight Claude assistant running in containers with security-first design, minimal codebase, WhatsApp integration, scheduled tasks, and agent swarms support |
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| PicoClaw | an ultra-lightweight personal AI assistant in Go designed for low-cost hardware and very low RAM usage |
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| ZeroClaw | ultra-lightweight Rust-based AI assistant infrastructure with <5MB memory footprint, <10ms startup, runs on $10 hardware with 22+ provider support |
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| zclaw | smallest possible AI personal assistant for ESP32 in C, targeting <=888KB firmware, with schedules, GPIO control, persistent memory, and Telegram/web relay chat |
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| DroidClaw | AI agent that controls Android phones via ADB using vision models and accessibility trees, supports workflows and multiple LLM providers |
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https://steipete.me/posts/2026/openclaw ↩︎