Overview
OpenClaw is an open-source personal AI assistant that you run on your own devices instead of a hosted service. It connects to the messaging apps you already use, so you can chat with your assistant from WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage, and many other channels.
At the center is a local-first Gateway that acts as the control plane: it manages sessions, channels, tools, and events. On top of that, OpenClaw can speak and listen on macOS, iOS, and Android, and can draw a live Canvas you control. It is built as a single-user, always-on assistant that feels local and fast.
Because it links to real messaging surfaces, OpenClaw treats inbound DMs as untrusted input. By default unknown senders get a pairing code and must be approved before the assistant will reply, which keeps a self-hosted bot from answering just anyone.
What it does
- Multi-channel inbox covering WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, and many more
- Local-first Gateway as a single control plane for sessions, channels, tools, and events
- Multi-agent routing that maps channels, accounts, or peers to isolated agents with their own workspaces and sessions
- Voice Wake and Talk Mode for wake words on macOS/iOS and continuous voice on Android
- Live Canvas, an agent-driven visual workspace you can control
- Pairing-based DM security that blocks unknown senders until you approve them
Getting started
OpenClaw runs on Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.19+, and works with npm, pnpm, or bun. The recommended path is to install the CLI globally and run the guided onboarding, which installs the Gateway daemon so it stays running.
Install the OpenClaw CLI
Install OpenClaw globally with your package manager. This gives you the openclaw command used for setup and day-to-day control.
npm install -g openclaw@latest
# or: pnpm add -g openclaw@latestRun onboarding and install the daemon
Start the guided onboarding to set up the gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. The --install-daemon flag installs the Gateway as a user service so it keeps running in the background.
openclaw onboard --install-daemon
openclaw gateway statusSend a test message
Once the gateway is running, send a message through a connected channel to confirm everything works.
openclaw message send --target +1234567890 --message "Hello from OpenClaw"Talk to the assistant
Ask the assistant a question directly from the CLI; the reply can be delivered back to any connected channel such as WhatsApp, Telegram, or Slack.
openclaw agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking highCommands and code are distilled from the project's own documentation — always check the official repo for the latest.
When to use it
- Run a private, always-on personal assistant on your own devices and reach it from WhatsApp, Telegram, or Slack
- Use voice on your phone or Mac, with wake words and continuous Talk Mode, to ask questions hands-free
- Route different chat accounts or contacts to separate, isolated agents with their own workspaces
- Keep a self-hosted bot safe by requiring pairing approval before it responds to unknown senders
How OpenClaw compares
OpenClaw alongside other open-source assistants & chatbots tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.
| Tool | Stars | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| OpenClaw | ★ 380k | Personal AI assistant you self-host and talk to on the chat apps you already use |
| Hermes Agent | ★ 198k | A self-improving personal AI agent from Nous Research that builds skills from experience, remembers across sessions, and reaches you on Telegram, Discord, Slack, and more. |
| Khoj | ★ 35.2k | An open-source, self-hostable personal AI that chats with any local or online LLM, answers from your own documents and the web, and runs custom agents. |
| AgenticSeek | ★ 26.5k | An open-source, 100% local alternative to Manus AI that autonomously browses the web, writes code, and plans tasks while keeping all your data on your machine. |
| Leon | ★ 17.3k | Leon is an open-source personal AI assistant that uses real tools, layered memory, and agent-style planning to complete tasks across local and remote AI providers. |
| Rowboat | ★ 15k | Rowboat connects to your email and meeting notes, builds a long-lived knowledge graph on your machine, and uses that context to draft, summarize, and plan. |
| Eigent | ★ 14.3k | Eigent is an open-source Cowork desktop that builds a custom AI workforce of specialized agents to break down and automate complex tasks on your machine. |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | — | AI assistant embedded across Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 apps that drafts, summarizes, and searches over your work data. |