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 an always-on assistant that feels local and fast, and since OpenClaw 2.0 a small team can share it through shared cloud sessions and operator roles.
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
- Shared cloud sessions with team operator roles and a shared credential store (OpenClaw 2.0)
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
Version history
Every verified update to OpenClaw that AI/TLDR tracked, newest first — each links to our coverage and the official changeset.
- 2026-09-11v2026.9.4
Plugin and skill management moves into the Control UI: one workspace discovers bundled and ClawHub plugins, installs them, and shows which skills were learned from past conversations. A compatible failed update can now roll back to the previous packages and their configuration. The `OPENCLAW_CLAUDE_CLI_LOG_OUTPUT` alias is removed — use `OPENCLAW_CLI_BACKEND_LOG_OUTPUT` instead.
- 2026-09-05v2026.9.2
Adds GPT-6 Astra (as `openai/gpt-6-astra`) and Muse Spark 1.3, with async function tools and mid-turn steering on the OpenAI Responses endpoint. Swarm sub-agents are on by default, and most settings apply without restarting the Gateway. Session tools now default to all-session visibility — set `tools.sessions.visibility` to `agent` or `self` on a shared Gateway before upgrading.
- 2026-08-30v2026.8.1 (OpenClaw 2.0)
The largest release in the project's history: over 16,000 pull requests from 933 contributors add conversation search, shared cloud sessions with team operator roles, self-learning skills, and a rebuilt browser experience. The bundled OpenProse plugin is removed and codex/* model references move to openai/*, so run `openclaw doctor --fix` after upgrading.
OpenClaw in the news
- 2026-09-11MAJOROpenClaw 2026.9.4 — plugins and skills install from the Control UI
- 2026-09-05MAJOROpenClaw 2026.9.2 — GPT-6 Astra support and swarms on by default
- 2026-08-30MAJOROpenClaw 2.0 — the largest release yet for the open-source AI assistant
- 2026-08-12MAJORAI agents breached Taiwan's government — Dream reports 85 accounts cracked
- 2026-08-10MAJOROpenClaw agent hacked a gym site — Australia's first autonomous AI attack
- 2026-07-11MAJOROpenClaw 2026.7.1-beta.5 — conversational setup and GPT-5.6 support land
- 2026-06-26NOTABLESimon Willison: '2,000 people tried to hack my AI assistant'
- 2026-06-04RUMORThe Information: Meta Weighs $199.99/Month 'Hatch Plus' Premium Tier — Leaked Internal Docs Show a Muse Spark-Powered, OpenClaw-Style Consumer Agent That Vibe-Codes Software and Handles Email From Inside Instagram
From the AI/TLDR release feed — every item is source-verified when it ships.
How OpenClaw compares
OpenClaw alongside other open-source assistants & chatbots tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.
| Tool | Stars | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| OpenClaw | ★ 390k | Personal AI assistant you self-host and talk to on the chat apps you already use |
| Hermes Agent | ★ 247k | 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. |
| Odysseus | ★ 87.4k | A self-hosted AI workspace that puts chat, agents, deep research, documents, email, notes, tasks and calendar behind one Docker Compose stack, over local or API models. |
| CowAgent | ★ 47k | A self-hosted assistant that plans and executes tasks with built-in file, terminal, browser and search tools, and answers across a web console plus a dozen messaging platforms. |
| AstrBot | ★ 40.6k | An all-in-one agent chatbot platform that puts LLM conversations, tools, knowledge bases and a plugin marketplace inside messaging apps like Telegram, Slack, Discord, QQ and Feishu. |
| OpenHuman | ★ 39.9k | A local-first desktop personal AI for macOS, Windows and Linux that keeps a compressed memory tree on your machine and orchestrates checkpointed research and automation workflows. |
| MindsHub | ★ 39.7k | An agent workspace for knowledge work and software development that runs swappable open-source agent harnesses against your choice of frontier or open models. |
| Khoj | ★ 37.4k | 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. |