From a simple idea shared in late November 2025 to a global phenomenon with over 150,000 GitHub stars in just ten weeks, OpenClaw AI has rapidly become the open-source framework of choice for anyone looking to build a powerful, personal AI assistant.
Key Takeaways
- OpenClaw has 150,000+ GitHub stars
- OpenClaw has 22,000+ GitHub forks
- OpenClaw has 416,000+ npm downloads in the last 30 days (as of Feb 2, 2026)
- OpenClaw launched in late November 2025
- OpenClaw was created by Austrian software developer Peter Steinberger
- OpenClaw supports integration with WhatsApp
- OpenClaw supports 29 community-verified real-world use cases
- OpenClaw's "Productivity" use case category accounts for nearly 50% of all verified use cases (14 of 29)
- OpenClaw supports 4 verified Social Media use cases
- OpenClaw has a Discord community called "Friends of the Crustacean"
- OpenClaw has an associated social network called Moltbook modeled after Facebook for AI agents
- OpenClaw's Moltbook adds a public forum for AI agents
OpenClaw is a viral open-source AI assistant framework with explosive community growth.
Community & Ecosystem
- OpenClaw has a Discord community called "Friends of the Crustacean"
- OpenClaw has an associated social network called Moltbook modeled after Facebook for AI agents
- OpenClaw's Moltbook adds a public forum for AI agents
- OpenClaw was first shown to investor Nathan Owen on January 8, 2026 by CEO Akshay Dodeja of Terminal49
- OpenClaw's rise is described as one of the most talked-about tools in AI in early 2026
- OpenClaw's "awesome-openclaw-usecases" repository was created by Hesam Sheikh on GitHub
- Every use case in the "awesome-openclaw-usecases" repository has been validated through at least 1 day of actual production use
- OpenClaw's open-source nature distinguishes it from Meta's recently acquired Manus AI agent
- OpenClaw was described by investor Nathan Owen as "revolutionary" upon first seeing it
Community & Ecosystem Interpretation
While OpenClaw, the revolutionary AI tool that took 2026 by storm, started with a "Friends of the Crustacean" Discord and a quirky Moltbook social network for its agents, its true power lies in its validated, open-source repository of use cases, which impressed investor Nathan Owen enough to make it one of the most talked-about platforms in the field.
Growth & Adoption Metrics
- OpenClaw has 150,000+ GitHub stars
- OpenClaw has 22,000+ GitHub forks
- OpenClaw has 416,000+ npm downloads in the last 30 days (as of Feb 2, 2026)
- OpenClaw reached 142,000+ GitHub stars as reported by dera.ai
- OpenClaw reached 150,000+ GitHub stars in roughly 10 weeks after launch
- OpenClaw went viral in November 2025
- OpenClaw has seen adoption from Silicon Valley to China
- OpenClaw's open-source design has accelerated adoption globally
- OpenClaw's GitHub star growth is measured in weeks rather than months or years typical of comparable open-source projects
Growth & Adoption Metrics Interpretation
While the 150,000 developers who starred OpenClaw might be casually trend-spotting, the 416,000 npm downloads in a month are the serious engineers quietly betting it will be their new foundation.
Platform & Technical Details
- OpenClaw launched in late November 2025
- OpenClaw was created by Austrian software developer Peter Steinberger
- OpenClaw supports integration with WhatsApp
- OpenClaw supports integration with Telegram
- OpenClaw supports integration with Discord
- OpenClaw supports integration with Slack
- OpenClaw supports integration with Signal
- OpenClaw supports integration with iMessage
- OpenClaw supports integration with Microsoft Teams
- OpenClaw supports integration with Google Chat
- OpenClaw's February 2026 update added support for Opus 4.6
- OpenClaw's February 2026 update added support for GPT-5.3-Codex
- OpenClaw's February 2026 update added support for the rabbit r1 device
- OpenClaw supports Anthropic's Claude model as a connectable LLM
- OpenClaw supports OpenAI's ChatGPT as a connectable LLM
- OpenClaw supports Grok as a connectable LLM
- OpenClaw is open-source and allows developers to freely inspect and modify its code
- OpenClaw uses a local-first architecture where the Gateway runs on the user's machine
- OpenClaw features "persistent memory" allowing it to recall past interactions over weeks
- OpenClaw was previously known by the name Clawdbot
- OpenClaw was previously known by the name Moltbot
- OpenClaw underwent three name changes: Clawdbot → Moltbot → OpenClaw
- OpenClaw is described as a "multi-channel control plane" for personal AI
- OpenClaw is described as a "personal AI assistant framework" at its core
- OpenClaw requires installation on a server or local device and connection to an LLM
- OpenClaw's early integrations were primarily on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord
Platform & Technical Details Interpretation
OpenClaw, the fiercely open-source and chat-obsessed brainchild of an Austrian developer, is essentially a shape-shifting AI butler that remembers everything, runs on your own machine, and will talk to you on practically any messaging app—provided you can keep up with its habit of changing its own name.
Use Cases & Features
- OpenClaw supports 29 community-verified real-world use cases
- OpenClaw's "Productivity" use case category accounts for nearly 50% of all verified use cases (14 of 29)
- OpenClaw supports 4 verified Social Media use cases
- OpenClaw supports 4 verified Research & Learning use cases
- OpenClaw supports 3 verified Creative & Building use cases
- OpenClaw supports 2 verified Infrastructure & DevOps use cases
- OpenClaw supports 1 verified Finance & Trading use case
- One production deployment of OpenClaw includes 5,000+ notes in a personal knowledge base
- One production deployment of OpenClaw includes 15 active cron jobs
- One production deployment of OpenClaw includes 24 custom scripts in production
- OpenClaw's self-healing home server use case schedules weekly security audits autonomously
- OpenClaw's self-healing home server performs daily morning briefings at 8AM including weather, calendar, and system status
- OpenClaw's self-healing home server performs knowledge base updates every 6 hours
- OpenClaw's self-healing home server performs health checks and alert monitoring every 1 hour
- OpenClaw's self-healing home server checks task board progress every 15 minutes
- OpenClaw's family calendar assistant detects scheduling conflicts 3 days in advance
- OpenClaw's family calendar assistant automatically creates calendar events with 30-minute travel buffers from natural language messages
- OpenClaw supports PDF summarization as a documented real-world task
- OpenClaw supports agentic shopping as a documented real-world task
- OpenClaw supports autonomous email sending and deletion on a user's behalf
- OpenClaw supports calendar scheduling as a documented real-world task
- OpenClaw supports autonomous web browsing and interaction with online services
- OpenClaw's personal knowledge base use case supports PDF document ingestion
- OpenClaw supports photo-based household inventory management via vision model recognition
- OpenClaw supports Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for personal knowledge base management
- OpenClaw supports URL ingestion by simply sending a URL in chat for automatic knowledge base indexing
- OpenClaw supports full DevOps automation as a documented capability
- OpenClaw supports smart home control as a documented capability
- OpenClaw supports real-time task execution across messaging platforms
Use Cases & Features Interpretation
OpenClaw appears to be less of a specialized tool and more of an overworked digital butler who, while discreetly managing half of your life to boost productivity, also insists on tidying your servers, arguing with your calendar, and quietly judging your shopping list.