openclaw

Project Overview

OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the chats you already use: Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp and 20+ more, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows and Linux. One Gateway serves as a personal assistant or a shared team deployment - configuration is the only difference.

State, memory and credentials live on your hardware; models are just swappable plugins.

Key Features

• Chat channel connections: brings the assistant into WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage and 20+ other services
• Local Gateway: a single control plane for sessions, tools, events and channel connections
• Multiple front ends: Control UI, CLI and TUI all connect to the same Gateway
• Swappable models: Claude, Codex and local models are plugins you can change without touching anything else
• Tools, skills and plugins: extend what the assistant can do, with community plugins on ClawHub
• Companion apps and nodes: add voice, Canvas, camera, screen and device-local actions on supported platforms
• DM pairing protection: unknown senders on DM-capable channels must be approved by default
• Personal or team: the same architecture runs as a solo assistant or a shared team deployment

Target Audience

• Developers who want a self-hosted AI assistant
• Teams sharing an assistant inside chat groups
• Privacy-minded users who value data ownership
• Tinkerers who switch models and tools freely

Quick Start

1. Run the installer: curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash on macOS / Linux / WSL2, or iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex in Windows PowerShell
2. If you installed via npm instead, run openclaw onboard --install-daemon to complete the wizard
3. Check openclaw gateway status, open openclaw dashboard, and send a message to confirm the assistant works

Core Advantages

• Yours by design: state, memory and credentials stay local; by default only an anonymous daily version check, with opt-in statistics
• No lock-in: models and agent harnesses are plugins; no paid tier, no hosted service, no token
• Open governance: stewarded by the independent non-profit OpenClaw Foundation under MIT license

System Requirements

Item	Requirement
OS	macOS, Linux, Windows (installer or WSL2)
Runtime	Node.js 24.16+ or 26.1+ (26 recommended; the installer provisions it)
Native apps	macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux

Notes

• Treat inbound messages as untrusted input; approve unknown DM senders with openclaw pairing approve <channel> <code>
• Tools run on the host for the main session by default; configure sandboxing before exposing the Gateway remotely or adding other users
• Model and chat platform costs are billed by the providers you configure