I think "Claw" as the noun for OpenClaw-like agents - AI agents that generally run on personal hardware, communicate via messaging protocols and can both act on direct instructions and schedule tasks - is going to stick.
You don’t understand the allure of having a computer actually do stuff for you instead of being a place where you receive email and get yelled at by a linter?
It’s a slow burn, but if you keep using it, it seems to eventually catch fire as the agent builds up scripts and skills and together you build up systems of getting stuff done. In some ways it feels like building rapport with a junior. And like a junior, eventually, if you keep investing, the agent starts doing things that blow by your expectations.
By giving the agent its own isolated computer, I don’t have to care about how the project gets started and stored, I just say “I want ____” and ____ shows up. It’s not that it can do stuff that I can’t. It’s that it can do stuff that I would like but just couldn’t be bothered with.
The openclaw rough architecture isn’t bad but I enjoyed building my own version. I chose rustlang and it works like I want. I made it a separate email address etc. and Apple ID. The biggest annoyance is that I can’t share Google contacts. But otherwise it’s great. I’m trying to find a way to give it a browser and a credit card (limited spend of course) in a way I can trust.
I also built the equivalent of OpenClaw myself sometime when it was still called Clawdbot and I'm confused how LLMs can be both heralds of the era of personal apps and everyone at the same time be using the same vibe coded personal LLM assistant someone else made, much less it being worth an OpenAI acquisition. I agree building one yourself is very fun.
What is anyone really doing with openclaw? I tried to stick to it but just can't understand the utility beyond just linking AI chat to whatsapp. Almost nothing, not even simple things like setting reminders, worked reliably for me.
It tries to understand its own settings but fails terribly.
"Claw" captures what the existing terminology missed, these aren't agents with more tools (maybe even the opposite), they're persistent processes with scheduling and inter-agent communication that happen to use LLMs for reasoning.
Claw is a terrible name for a basic product which is Claude code in a loop (cron job).
This whole hype cycle is absurd and ridiculous for what is a really basic product full of security holes and entirely vibe coded.
The name won’t stick and when Apple or someone releases a polished version which consumers actually use in two years, I guarantee it won’t be called “iClaw”
Depending on what you mean by claw-like, stumpy.ai is close. But it’s more security focused. Starts with “what can we let it do safely” instead of giving something shell access and then trying to lock it down after the fact.
It's a new, dangerous and wildly popular shape of what I've in the past called a "personal digital assistant" - usually while writing about how hard it is to secure them from prompt injection attacks.
The term is in the process of being defined right now, but I think the key characteristics may be:
- Used by an individual. People have their own Claw (or Claws).
- Has access to a terminal that lets it write code and run tools.
- Can be prompted via various chat app integrations.
- Ability to run things on a schedule (it can edit its own frontal equivalent)
- Probably has access to the user's private data from various sources - calendars, email, files etc. very lethal trifecta.
Claws often run directly on consumer hardware, but that's not a requirement - you can host them on a VPS or pay someone to host them for you too (a brand new market.)
I am creating a claw that is basically a loop that runs every x minutes. It uses the Claude cli tool. And it builds a memory based on some kind of simple node system. With active memories and fading old memories. I also added functionality to add integrations like whatsapp, agenda. Slack and gmail. so every "loop" the ai reads in information and updates it's memory. There is also a directive that can decide to create tasks or directly message me or others.
It's a bit of playing around. Very dangerous, but fun to play with. The application even has self improvement system. I creates a few pull requests every day it thinks is needed to make it better. Hugely fun to see it evolving.
https://github.com/holoduke/myagent
it's a psychological state that happens when someone is so desperate to seem cool and up with the latest AI hype that they decide to recklessly endanger themselves and others.
From a technical perspective, if agents are "an LLM and tools in a loop", I'd define claws as "agents in a queue". Or in other words claws are "an LLM and tools in a loop, in a queue"
The next hyped bullshit de jure spewing out of the ass of the AI bros, cause the hype cycle on agents is starting to die down. Can't have 30 billion dollar circular deals while setting aflame barrels of cash without the hype machine churning through the Next Thing!
AI pollution is "clawing" into every corner of human life. Big guys boast it as catching up with the trend, but not really thinking about where this is all going.
You can take any AI agent (Codex, Gemini, Claude Code, ollama), run it on a loop with some delay and connect to a messaging platform using Pantalk (https://github.com/pantalk/pantalk). In fact, you can use Pantalk buffer to automatically start your agent. You don't need OpenClaw for that.
What OpenClaw did is to show the messages that this is in fact possible to do. IMHO nobody is using it yet for meaningful things, but the direction is right.
I wonder how long it'll take (if it hasn't already) until the messaging around this inevitably moves on to "Do not self-host this, are you crazy? This requires console commands, don't be silly! Our team of industry-veteran security professionals works on your digital safety 24/7, you would never be able to keep up with the demands of today's cybersecurity attack spectrum. Any sane person would host their claw with us!"
Next flood of (likely heavily YC-backed) Clawbase (Coinbase but for Claws) hosting startups incoming?
IMO the security pitchforking on OpenClaw is just so overdone. People without consideration for the implications will inevitably get burned, as we saw with the reddit posts "Agentic Coding tool X wiped my hard drive and apologized profusely".
I work at a FAANG and every time you try something innovative the "policy people" will climb out of their holes and put random roadblocks in your way, not for the sake of actual security (that would be fine but would require actual engagement) but just to feel important, it reminds me of that.
These comments kill me. It sounds a lot like the “job creators” argument. If only these pesky regulations would go away I could create jobs and everyone would be rich. It’s a bogus argument either way.
Now for the more reasonable point: instead of being adversarial and disparaging those trying to do their job why not realize that, just like you, they have a certain viewpoint and are trying to do the best they can. There is no simple answer to the issues we’re dealing with and it will require compromise. That won’t happen if you see policy and security folks as “climbing out of their holes”.
I had a conversation with someone last night who pointed out that people are treating their Claws a bit like digital pets, and getting a Mac Mini for them makes sense because Mac Minis are cute and it's like getting them an aquarium to live in.
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[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 95.4 ms ] threadIn the WordPress ecosystem, there was a lot of variation around "press."
I almost guarantee no one will be using this term in two years.
Claws? It sounds stupid and the average consumer hates stupid spending terms, the same reason Microsoft “Zune” never caught on.
Still an interesting idea but it’s not really novel or difficult. Well, doing it securely would actually be incredibly impressive and worth big $$$.
By giving the agent its own isolated computer, I don’t have to care about how the project gets started and stored, I just say “I want ____” and ____ shows up. It’s not that it can do stuff that I can’t. It’s that it can do stuff that I would like but just couldn’t be bothered with.
It’s lots of fun.
It tries to understand its own settings but fails terribly.
"Claw" captures what the existing terminology missed, these aren't agents with more tools (maybe even the opposite), they're persistent processes with scheduling and inter-agent communication that happen to use LLMs for reasoning.
Claw is a terrible name for a basic product which is Claude code in a loop (cron job).
This whole hype cycle is absurd and ridiculous for what is a really basic product full of security holes and entirely vibe coded.
The name won’t stick and when Apple or someone releases a polished version which consumers actually use in two years, I guarantee it won’t be called “iClaw”
- doesnt do its own sandboxing (I'll set that up myself)
- just has a web UI instead of wanting to use some weird proprietary messaging app as its interface?
An ai that you let loose on your email etc?
And we run it in a container and use a local llm for "safety" but it has access to all our data and the web?
The term is in the process of being defined right now, but I think the key characteristics may be:
- Used by an individual. People have their own Claw (or Claws).
- Has access to a terminal that lets it write code and run tools.
- Can be prompted via various chat app integrations.
- Ability to run things on a schedule (it can edit its own frontal equivalent)
- Probably has access to the user's private data from various sources - calendars, email, files etc. very lethal trifecta.
Claws often run directly on consumer hardware, but that's not a requirement - you can host them on a VPS or pay someone to host them for you too (a brand new market.)
- no graphics subsystem makes things harder
- VPS IP subnets are often blocked by default by numerous websites and WAFs
- can't easily see what it's doing
Running it on its own PC is definitely the golden path for the way it's architected.
What OpenClaw did is to show the messages that this is in fact possible to do. IMHO nobody is using it yet for meaningful things, but the direction is right.
Next flood of (likely heavily YC-backed) Clawbase (Coinbase but for Claws) hosting startups incoming?
ShowHN post from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47091792
Now for the more reasonable point: instead of being adversarial and disparaging those trying to do their job why not realize that, just like you, they have a certain viewpoint and are trying to do the best they can. There is no simple answer to the issues we’re dealing with and it will require compromise. That won’t happen if you see policy and security folks as “climbing out of their holes”.
https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw
another chinese coompany m5stack provides local LLMs like Qwen2.5-1.5B running on a local IoT device.
https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5stack-llm-large-language...
Imagine the possibilities. Soon we will see claw-in-a-box for less than $50.