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Real-World Use Cases

What are people actually doing with OpenClaw? This page collects 20 verified use cases from Hacker News discussions, blog posts, GitHub showcases, and community reports — with specific details on channels, models, costs, and workflows.

info

These are real user reports, not marketing examples. Some include cost figures and limitations. The Polymarket trading results (#3) are outliers and should not be taken as typical.

Developer Workflows​

1. Multi-Agent Development Coordinator​

A supervisor agent named "Patch" coordinates 5-20 parallel Claude Code instances via Telegram. The user sends high-level instructions from their phone, and the supervisor spins up coding agents in tmux sessions over SSH, assigns tasks, reviews output, runs tests, and merges code.

  • Channels: Telegram
  • Tools: tmux, SSH, Claude Code
  • Hardware: 22-core workstation, WSL2
  • Cost: $400/month ($200 Claude Code Pro + $200 OpenAI)
  • Source: Ask HN: Any real OpenClaw users?

2. SMS Chatbot Diagnosis and Repair​

An 8-day OpenClaw user had a broken SMS chatbot that had been non-functional for 10 months. OpenClaw autonomously diagnosed the issue, upgraded the legacy app, rewrote the bot prompt through 6 iterations while analyzing real customer conversations, and fixed 6 API integrations.

  • Hardware: Mac Mini M4 ($640)
  • Model: Claude (via Claude Max subscription)
  • Time saved: Full day of manual work
  • Limitations noted: Hallucination on marketing copy, brittle browser automation
  • Source: Ask HN

3. Autonomous Coding from Phone​

A developer sends commands like "fix tests" from Telegram on their phone. OpenClaw runs an autonomous Claude Code loop on a remote machine, executing the task and sending progress updates every 5 iterations back to Telegram.

  • Channels: Telegram, Claude Code, remote server
  • Key benefit: Mobile-first development — review PRs, run tests, and merge code entirely from a phone

DevOps & SysAdmin​

4. 3AM Error Auto-Pilot​

When a GitHub Actions workflow fails, OpenClaw fetches logs using gh run view, parses error messages, generates a diagnostic summary, and sends it to the developer who pushed the triggering commit — often before they've checked the Actions tab. For Sentry errors, it queries Loki logs, analyzes code, creates GitHub issues, and generates fix PRs.

  • Channels: GitHub Actions, Sentry (webhook), Loki, Slack/Telegram
  • Key detail: Notifications include direct links to the PR and specific failure lines
  • Source: Jeongil-Jeong's Tech Blog

5. Slack/Basecamp + Sentry + Auto-PR​

After 2-3 days of use, a developer has OpenClaw monitoring Slack and Basecamp channels, doing daily Sentry error reviews, bug fixing with automatic PR generation, content creation, image editing, and voice message transcription.

  • Channels: Slack, Basecamp, Sentry, GitHub
  • Key detail: Works on code and non-code tasks simultaneously
  • Source: Ask HN

6. CI/CD Pipeline Monitor + Dependency Scanner​

Two related DevOps workflows: (a) CI/CD monitoring that alerts when builds fail, tests error, or deployments finish. (b) Dependency scanning that checks package.json, requirements.txt, or Gemfile for outdated packages, highlights security updates, and flags breaking changes.

  • Channels: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Slack/Discord/Telegram
  • Automation: Uses Lobster workflow shell to chain capabilities into pipelines
  • Source: Hostinger: 25 OpenClaw Use Cases

7. Pull Request Review Bot​

Fetches PR diffs via webhook, analyzes changes for missing tests, unclear variable names, security concerns, and convention inconsistencies. Sends formatted review summaries to the responsible developer through their preferred channel.

  • Channels: GitHub webhooks, Slack/Telegram (per-developer preference)
  • Key detail: Human-centered — reviews go as private messages, not public GitHub comments
  • Source: OpenClaw PR Review Guide

Knowledge Management & Productivity​

8. Full-Stack Knowledge Pipeline ("Reef")​

An elaborate always-on agent named "Reef" runs multiple scheduled jobs: Wikibase entity enrichment, Gmail triage, nightly brainstorm (4am), daily briefing (8am), content publishing (Obsidian → Ghost CMS), and infrastructure management via SSH/Terraform/Ansible.

  • Channels: Obsidian, Gmail, Ghost CMS, Wikibase, SSH
  • Key achievement: Processed a ChatGPT export and extracted 49,079 atomic facts and 57 entities into a personal knowledge graph
  • Scheduled tasks: 6+ daily automated jobs
  • Source: Everything I've Done with OpenClaw

9. Inbox Zero (15,000 Emails)​

Used the himalaya CLI to give OpenClaw access to an email account with 15,000 messages. The agent processed the backlog, unsubscribed from spam, categorized by urgency, and drafted replies for review.

  • Tools: himalaya CLI (email client)
  • Key detail: Persistent memory (Markdown files) lets the agent remember email handling rules across sessions
  • Source: Ask HN

10. CRM + Monday Morning Reports​

A scheduled agent pulls CRM data and delivers customer health metrics before the Monday meeting. Automates invoice processing, report generation, and keeps calendars synced across Google, Apple, and Outlook.

  • Channels: CRM system, Google/Apple/Outlook Calendar, email
  • Schedule: Cron-based, runs before Monday standup
  • Source: Hostinger: 25 Use Cases

Smart Home & IoT​

11. Home Assistant Control ("Claudette")​

An agent named "Claudette" controls an entire house through Home Assistant. Uses the ha-mcp skill to access all Home Assistant entities — controls Philips Hue lights, Elgato devices, adjusts boiler settings based on weather forecasts.

  • Channels: WhatsApp/Telegram
  • Skill: ha-mcp (Home Assistant MCP server)
  • Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4 8GB
  • Setup time: ~20 minutes
  • Source: Dan Malone Blog

12. Raspberry Pi + WHOOP Fitness Dashboard​

OpenClaw on a Raspberry Pi with Cloudflare Tunnel for remote access. Connected to WHOOP fitness tracker for health metrics and daily habit tracking. Also built a website from a phone using the same setup.

  • Channels: WhatsApp/Telegram, Cloudflare Tunnels, WHOOP API
  • Hardware: Raspberry Pi (8GB)
  • Setup time: ~5 minutes for WHOOP integration
  • Source: Alberto Moral on X

Content & Social Media​

13. RSS-to-Twitter Content Pipeline​

Monitors competitor blogs via RSS feeds. Autonomously summarizes new posts, drafts Twitter threads matching brand voice, and schedules at optimal engagement times.

  • Channels: RSS feeds, Twitter/X
  • Skills: x-engagement, content scheduling, trend analysis
  • Time saved: 15 hours per week reported
  • Source: OpenClaw Showcase

14. OpusClip Content Machine​

Integrates with OpusClip to create an automated pipeline: takes long-form video, clips into short-form content, adapts for each platform's format, researches trending hashtags, and schedules across LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

  • Channels: OpusClip, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
  • Skills: x-engagement, x-trends, content scheduling
  • Source: OpusClip Blog

Finance & Trading​

15. Polymarket Prediction Market Bot​

An OpenClaw-powered bot providing liquidity on 15-minute prediction markets for BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP. Executes thousands of micro-trades with tight spreads.

  • Performance: 13,000+ trades, $115K in one week (outlier result)
  • Position sizes: Under $10 to $60,000
  • Skill: polyclaw
  • Source: Phemex News
warning

Trading results are outliers. The crypto ecosystem around OpenClaw has been associated with scams — see Known Vulnerabilities. Exercise extreme caution.

16. Crypto Whale Wallet Monitor​

A 24/7 market sentinel tracking whale wallets, monitoring exchange inflows/outflows, liquidation spikes, open interest changes, and narrative shifts. Pings users when notable activity occurs.

  • Channels: Telegram, Discord
  • Integrations: On-chain explorers, exchange APIs, social media sentiment
  • Key detail: Persistent memory tracks trends over sessions, building context about market conditions
  • Source: CoinMarketCap: What is OpenClaw

17. Wall Street-Grade Stock Screener​

Uses free APIs to build a stock screening system — collects real-time price data, trading volume, analyzes news sentiment, and generates trading decision JSON.

Creative & Personal​

18. Custom Meditation Generator​

Combines WHOOP/Oura fitness data with text-to-speech and ambient audio generation. Reads fitness metrics, writes a custom meditation script tailored to current recovery/strain levels, generates it with ElevenLabs custom voices, and combines with ambient audio.

  • Integrations: WHOOP/Oura API, ElevenLabs TTS, ambient audio generation
  • Source: OpenClaw Showcase

19. Daily Briefing ("Jarvis")​

A "Jarvis"-style daily briefing agent that checks calendars, reads weather, and sends smart reminders. Tells the user when to leave for activities based on real-time traffic data.

  • Channels: Calendar APIs, traffic/maps API, Telegram/WhatsApp
  • Key detail: Proactive notifications during heartbeat check-ins

Multi-Agent Teams​

20. Virtual Company Operations​

Teams of specialized agents — development, marketing, business operations — coordinated through a leader agent with shared memory. All controllable through Telegram as a "virtual team available 24/7."

  • Channels: Telegram, Discord
  • Features: Cross-model teams (mix Claude, GPT, Gemini), per-agent sandboxing, inter-agent messaging
  • Platform: Deployable on DigitalOcean App Platform with elastic scaling
  • Source: AI2sql: Build Your Own AI Agent Team

Typical Costs​

Usage PatternMonthly CostHardware
Casual (heartbeat + occasional chat)$5-20Any
Power user (daily coding + automation)$50-100Mac Mini / VPS
Always-on (multiple agents, heavy use)$200-400Dedicated server

See Cost Management for optimization strategies.

Getting Started​

Pick a use case that interests you and check the relevant guides:

See Also​