OpenClaw
OpenClaw is a self-hosted, MIT-licensed gateway that connects Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, iMessage, and other chat apps to AI agents. It runs on your own hardware with no hosted tier, letting you message an always-available assistant that can use tools, keep persistent memory, route multiple agents, run scheduled jobs, and handle media. Built for developers, power users, and teams, it pairs a single Gateway process with a web Control UI, mobile nodes, and plugin channels. Bring your own model and API keys; OpenClaw stays the bridge, not the middleman.
Automation
Added on
Nov 4, 2026
Self-hostedMIT licenseMulti-channelNode.jsPlugin SDKCron automationMulti-agentiOS/Android nodes
Product information
Everything worth knowing about OpenClaw
The complete picture — from everyday features to the technical detail builders and IT folks dig for.
Core features
What it actually does
Multi-channel chat access
One Gateway process connects Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, iMessage, Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Mattermost, Feishu and more — you talk to your agent from whatever chat app you already have open.
Self-hosted, no hosted tier
Runs entirely on your own laptop or server. Your memories, skills, models, and data stay on your machines. No subscription, no token, no vendor in the middle.
Skills
Teach the agent repeatable procedures it loads on demand — slash-command-style workflows like /autoreview or /handoff that turn ad-hoc prompting into a reusable playbook.
Scheduled automation
Put work on a cron schedule, fire hooks and webhooks, and have results delivered straight back into your chat channel instead of a dashboard you'll never open.
Media and mobile nodes
Send and receive images, audio, and documents; pair iOS and Android nodes to give the agent camera, screen, and voice-enabled workflows.
Technical capabilities
Plugin SDK
Write your own channel, provider, and tool plugins against the plugin SDK. ClawHub distributes community plugins; official channel plugins (Matrix, Nostr, Twitch, Zalo) install on demand.
Multi-agent routing
Isolated sessions per agent, workspace, or sender, with a single Gateway as the source of truth for sessions, routing, and channel connections.
Must watch videos
1:01:27
Tutorial1:01:27
One Agent, Many Sessions
In this episode of OpenClaw’s official podcast, The ClawCast, host Hannes Rudolph, Community & DevRel at the OpenClaw Foundation, is joined by OpenClaw contributors Jacqueline Henriksen (Ritz) and Vitor Cepeda Lopes to discuss how they use personal agents and a shared team server. They describe how visible sessions and shared context in RoboClaw help contributors coordinate fixes instead of copying messages between separate agents or duplicating work.
The conversation covers everyday workflows, including email and calendar support, creative work, household administration, and an agentic engineering playbook. They compare one main agent with many sessions against separate agents or gateways for privacy and restricted access, and distinguish named agents from subagents working on parallel tasks.
The conversation also explores messaging channels versus the web interface, accessibility, and making OpenClaw easier to approach. It closes on long-running goals and memory, with an emphasis on defining the expected result and verifying useful work rather than judging an agent by its runtime.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome and guest introductions
02:43 Building OpenClaw together
06:54 From copy-and-paste handoffs to shared sessions
09:32 Inside the RoboClaw team server
13:53 Focus weeks and contributor access
17:01 Personal, family and company agents
20:39 One agent or many? Privacy and permissions
30:11 One agent, many sessions
33:41 Subagents and parallel work
36:53 Updates, local patches and accessibility
39:51 Authentication for a shared team server
43:16 The web interface versus messaging channels
46:42 Headless agents and family workflows
51:39 The car, driver and navigator analogy
55:35 Long-running goals need verification
59:22 Memory and community support
Learn more about The OpenClaw Foundation: https://www.openclaw.org
Guests and hosts socials:
Hannes Rudolph: https://x.com/hrudolph
Jacqueline Henriksen (Ritz): https://x.com/jjjhenriksen
Vitor Cepeda Lopes: https://x.com/theangrypit
Listen or watch on other platforms: https://openclaw.ai/podcast
Watch live every Wednesday at 11:30 AM PT on YouTube and X.
Join our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/clawd
5:15
Tutorial5:15
He helps small businesses get more out of OpenClaw
How does a pest control guy end up setting up AI agents for roofers and pool builders?
Nine months ago, PJ Standley was doing pest control in Ocala, Florida. Today he sets up OpenClaw for small businesses: he brings in a fresh computer, sits with the team in person, and watches what their agent learns.
PJ's an engineer who spent three years at Lockheed Martin. He found OpenClaw in January, and clips here are from his conversation on Claw Cast episode 13.
We cover:
- The road trip to Texas, and the Mac Studio picked up in San Antonio
- Why the first week and a half with a business matters, and how it turns into skills
- Delilah, the agent that kept a contractor running when the office lead didn't show up
- Donna, who now builds recipe websites for her grandchildren
- "You can let this thing look at your email. You're not gonna die."
- How a free Reddit answer turned into a customer who found him on ChatGPT
- Why he tells every customer to fire him in two or three months
- "The truest moat left is yourself"
Building something real with OpenClaw? Tell us about it in the comments. We want to tell your story next.
Find the OpenClaw Foundation at openclaw.ai and join us on Discord: [DISCORD LINK]
0:00 One customer found him on ChatGPT
0:16 From pest control to the road trip
0:46 What he does now
1:42 Delilah and Donna
2:25 "You're not gonna die"
3:02 The ChatGPT customer
3:55 Why he says "fire me"
4:54 Tell us your story
22:24
Tutorial22:24
What is OpenClaw Enterprise?
What is OpenClaw Enterprise, and why does it matter?
Graham McBain (OpenClaw Foundation) sits down with Kevin Lin, who leads OpenClaw Enterprise at OpenAI, to talk about the project that was just announced at OpenAI Dev Day.
OpenClaw Enterprise started inside OpenAI and was donated to the OpenClaw Foundation as a vendor-neutral, open source standard for running agents in the enterprise. It's being built in the open with partners including Red Hat and NVIDIA.
We cover:
• Why security is the first blocker for enterprise agents
• Separating trusted workloads (RBAC, audit logs, enforced policy) from untrusted agent workloads
• A control plane that runs in its own isolation boundary
• "Kubernetes for agents": one common contract for sandboxes, MCP gateways and secret brokers
• Compute drivers that run on any infrastructure, from Kubernetes to SSH dev boxes
• What's left before 1.0, and how to pick a good first pilot
• The capability overhang, and why deploying today's models matters
Want to get involved? Find the OpenClaw Foundation at openclaw.ai and join us on Discord.
0:00 Intro
0:28 How OpenClaw Enterprise started
2:20 Security comes first
4:34 Trusted vs. untrusted workloads
6:38 Red Hat & NVIDIA
8:55 Kubernetes for agents
9:57 Runs on any infrastructure
11:38 The road to 1.0
15:08 Choosing a first pilot
17:17 Who should get involved
19:30 Closing thoughts
21:29 How to get involved
Who uses it
Real use cases, no hypeWhat's great
- Self-hosted — your data stays on your own hardware
- Chat from WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Signal, iMessage, Slack
- No subscription, no hosted tier, MIT licensed, 501(c)(3) governed
- One-line installer sets up Node, gateway, and onboarding
Technical strengths
- Single Gateway process multiplexes every channel plugin at once
- Skills system loads repeatable procedures on demand
- Cron jobs, hooks, and webhooks baked into the automation layer
Where it falls short
- Setup assumes comfort with terminals, Node, and API keys
- You pay model providers per token — no bundled credits
- Fast release cadence; updates have broken setups before
- You own uptime, backups, and security hardening
Technical limitations
- Weak models with shaky tool-calling derail agent tasks fast
- Allowlists and mention rules must be set or the bot answers everything
For technical folks
The deep-dive specs
License
MIT, open source
Steward
OpenClaw Foundation, independent 501(c)(3)
Runtime
Node 26 recommended (Node 24.22.1+ or Node 26.12.1+ supported); also Bun, Docker, Nix, standalone
Architecture
Single self-hosted Gateway process bridging chat channels to AI agent runtime
Config file
~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
Default dashboard
http://127.0.0.1:18789/
Latest release
v2026.10.10
Telemetry
None by default beyond an opt-out version check
FAQ
Includes technical Q&AYes. It's MIT licensed with no subscription and no hosted tier, stewarded by the OpenClaw Foundation. You only pay your model provider for API usage.
Traffic Insights
Monthly Visits
—
November 2026
Growth Rate
0%
vs last month
Dominance
0%
in Automation
Top Country
—
Top Countries Breakdown
—
Growth Trend
Stable
Traffic has remained stable.
Pricing overview
Unknown Pricing
OpenClaw Pricing
OpenClaw uses a unknown pricing structure. Real-time rates, custom enterprise quotas, and plan details are managed directly on their official platform.
Check Pricing on OpenClawReviews
What the internet actually thinks
Data refreshed weekly. No paid placements.
Trustpilot
Not reviewed yet
G2
Not reviewed yet
Capterra
Not reviewed yet
Product Hunt
Not reviewed yet
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