Introduction to OpenClaw

OpenClaw is a free, open-source AI assistant that runs on your own computer or server. A long-running Gateway connects a language model (Claude, GPT, Gemini, a local model, and many others) to tools on your machine (shell, files, browser) and to the chat apps you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, Teams, and 20+ more).

It is an assistant that does things, not only answers questions. That is also why it needs more care than a chatbot.

This site is a community companion to the official docs at docs.openclaw.ai. Pages here are tested against a specific OpenClaw release (see verified_with at the top of each page) and link to the official reference for details.

What makes OpenClaw different

	Typical chatbot	OpenClaw
Where it runs	Vendor cloud	Your machine or server
What it can touch	Text in, text out	Shell, files, browser, APIs, paired devices
Memory	Per-session, or vendor-held	Markdown files in your workspace (`~/.openclaw/workspace`)
How you reach it	One web app	Control UI, terminal UI, desktop and mobile apps, 20+ chat channels
Proactivity	Waits for you	A heartbeat (on by default) and scheduled automations
Models	One vendor	Any supported provider, or local models

"Runs locally" does not mean "nothing leaves your machine". Your prompts, memory snippets and tool output go to the model provider you configure, and memory search uses OpenAI embeddings by default. See Privacy and compliance.

Key capabilities

Agent fundamentals

Agent runtime and tools. The agent plans multi-step work and calls tools such as exec (shell), read/write/edit, browser, web_search and web_fetch.
Persistent memory. MEMORY.md, USER.md and daily notes in memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md inside the workspace. A nightly "dreaming" sweep (on by default) consolidates them. See Memory System.
Heartbeat and automations. The heartbeat is a periodic main-session turn (default every 30 minutes, or 1 hour when Anthropic is authenticated with OAuth or a Claude CLI token). Recurring jobs such as "every morning at 9" are automations (openclaw cron).
Execution approval. Shell commands are governed by tools.exec.mode (deny, allowlist, ask, auto, full). The default is full: commands run without asking until you turn approvals on.

Ways to talk to it

Control UI. A web app served by the Gateway at http://127.0.0.1:18789/: chat, files, approvals, settings, terminals and dashboards. Open it with openclaw dashboard.
Terminal UI. openclaw tui (connected to the Gateway) or openclaw chat (local embedded runtime).
Official apps. macOS menu bar app, Windows Hub, a Linux desktop companion, and iOS and Android apps (App Store and Google Play). The mobile apps are companion nodes that pair with your Gateway. See Platforms.
Chat channels. WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Feishu, LINE and more. See the Channels guide.

Extensibility

Skills. Directories with a SKILL.md file that teach the agent a task. Bundled skills ship with OpenClaw; community skills are on ClawHub. Treat third-party skills as untrusted code.
Plugins. Channels, model providers and many features are plugins. See Plugin System.
MCP. Connect Model Context Protocol servers under mcp.servers. See MCP Servers.
Multiple agents. Separate agents with their own workspace, model and channels, plus sub-agents for parallel work. See Multi-Agent.

A brief history

November 2025. Peter Steinberger starts the project as Clawdbot (the lobster was called Clawd).
January 27, 2026. Renamed Moltbot after Anthropic asked for a name change over the trademark.
January 30, 2026. Renamed OpenClaw. The same week, CVE-2026-25253 (a one-click token leak through the Control UI's gatewayUrl parameter) was fixed in v2026.1.29.
February 2026. The ClawHavoc campaign: 341 malicious skills found on ClawHub. See Known Vulnerabilities.
August 2026. v2026.8.1, billed as "OpenClaw 2.0": rebuilt Control UI, sessions in SQLite, cron renamed Automations, HEARTBEAT.md retired.
October 2026. Current stable release is v2026.10.4 (published 2026-10-16).

The project is stewarded by the OpenClaw Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) that employs the core team and signs releases. It has no paid tier, hosted service or token. The code is MIT-licensed, copyright OpenClaw Foundation. Upstream's lore page tells the naming story.

Community and ecosystem

As of 2026-10-18, openclaw/openclaw has about 392,000 GitHub stars and 82,000 forks. Releases use calendar versions (YYYY.M.N) and ship every few days on four channels: stable, extended-stable, beta and dev (release channels).

Chat: the official Discord.
Skills: ClawHub.
Related projects, forks and lightweight alternatives: Ecosystem.

Who is this for?

Developers who want an agent that can work in repos, run tests and automate chores.
Power users who want help with email, messaging, scheduling and research.
Self-hosters who want state, memory and credentials on their own hardware.
Tinkerers who want to write skills, plugins and workflows.
Small teams sharing one Gateway (see upstream Teams). It is not a multi-tenant system: one Gateway is one trust boundary.

What OpenClaw is not

Not just a CLI. It ships a full web Control UI (open it with openclaw dashboard) and desktop and mobile apps. Use the Control UI rather than a third-party web client: WebClaw only speaks Gateway protocol v3, and current Gateways require v4 from operator and UI clients (protocol versioning), so it cannot connect.
Not a coding IDE. It can write and edit code, but it is a general-purpose agent, not a replacement for your editor.
Not free to run. OpenClaw is free; model API calls are not. Local models cost nothing per token but need capable hardware.
Not a hosted service. You run it yourself. Third parties sell managed hosting; see Hosting Providers.

Security: read this first

OpenClaw gives a language model real access to your machine. Know these facts before you install:

Fact	What it means
Host exec defaults to `full`	The agent can run any shell command as your user without asking. Turn approvals on with `openclaw config set tools.exec.mode ask`.
Sandbox is off by default	`agents.defaults.sandbox.mode` is `"off"`, so tools run on the host.
Gateway auth is on by default	Onboarding generates a token, and the Gateway refuses to bind beyond loopback without auth. The risk is turning it off (`gateway.auth.mode: "none"`) or exposing the port carelessly.
Many advisories	As of 2026-10-18 GitHub lists 722 security advisories for openclaw/openclaw (14 critical, 249 high). Stay on a current release.
Skills are code	Malicious skills have been published to ClawHub. Review before installing.

Keep the Gateway on loopback, turn on approvals and run openclaw security audit --deep. The twelve-item list is the secure-by-default checklist; the reasoning is in Security Hardening.

warning

Do not run OpenClaw as root. Do not expose port 18789 to the internet. Do not install skills you have not read.

The cost question

OpenClaw itself is free. Your bill comes from model tokens, and it depends almost entirely on which model you use and how much the agent runs unattended, including the heartbeat. As a rough scale (as of 2026-10-18, 600 requests a month), Haiku 5.5 costs about $2 a month and Opus 5.5 about $72; local models cost nothing per token. The worked numbers and configs are in Choosing Your Setup, the levers in Cost Management.

How does it compare?

Tool	Type	Runs where	Reaches you via	Open source
OpenClaw	General-purpose personal agent	Your hardware	Control UI, apps, 20+ chat channels	Yes (MIT)
Claude Code, Codex CLI	Coding agents	Your terminal	Terminal, IDE	Codex CLI yes, Claude Code no
Cursor, GitHub Copilot	IDE assistants	Vendor cloud plus IDE	IDE	No
Open Interpreter	CLI agent	Your machine	Terminal	Yes
CrewAI	Multi-agent framework	Your code	Your app	Yes

OpenClaw can also drive Claude Code and Codex as agent harnesses. See Comparison for more.

System requirements

Component	Minimum	Recommended
OS	macOS, Linux, Windows (native Windows Hub, PowerShell CLI, or WSL2)	macOS or Linux
Node.js	24.16+ or 26.1+ (22, 23 and 25 are unsupported)	26
RAM	1 GB (Gateway only, cloud models)	2 GB+
Disk	500 MB	2 GB+ for memory, sessions and logs
Network	Outbound HTTPS to your model provider	Stable connection

The installer script provisions a supported Node.js if needed. Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 with a 64-bit OS are supported Gateway hosts (Raspberry Pi guide); 32-bit ARM (ARMv7) is not.

For local models, the GPU matters far more than the Gateway. See Local Models for sizing.

Next steps

Choosing Your Setup: pick a model, a channel and a host.
Installation, then the Quick Start.
Core Concepts, or the First 7 Days path.

What makes OpenClaw different​

Key capabilities​

Agent fundamentals​

Ways to talk to it​

Extensibility​

A brief history​

Community and ecosystem​

Who is this for?​

What OpenClaw is not​

Security: read this first​

The cost question​

How does it compare?​

System requirements​

Next steps​