OpenClaw

What OpenClaw does

OpenClaw is a self-hosted gateway that connects chat apps to an AI agent running on your own computer or server. You message it from WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams or one of the 32 channels its docs list, and it acts with access to the browser, files and shell: sorting an inbox, sending email, handling a calendar or checking you in for a flight.

OpenClaw is not tied to one model. It works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, xAI and Moonshot, with local runtimes such as Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp and vLLM, and onboarding can reuse an existing Claude Code or Codex CLI login. It keeps persistent memory and can be shared with a team through one gateway.

OpenClaw is free and MIT licensed, stewarded by the non-profit OpenClaw Foundation. It installs with a script or npm on macOS, Windows and Linux, with desktop apps and guides for hosting on Docker, Fly.io, Hetzner and other providers.

Who OpenClaw is for

• People who want an AI assistant they can text from the chat app they already use
• Automating personal tasks such as email, calendar and travel check-ins
• Running an agent on your own hardware with local models, at no software cost
• Developers who want to extend an agent with community skills from ClawHub

Who should pick something else

• Anyone who wants a coding agent inside an editor; Cline, Cursor or GitHub Copilot fit better
• People who do not want an agent with full system access to their machine
• Users who want a hosted service with no setup: the homepage says there is no hosted tier

OpenClaw: one strength, one limit

Strength. OpenClaw is MIT licensed with 391,123 GitHub stars (2026-10-01) and reaches the agent from 32 chat channels in its docs catalog, with no subscription for the software itself.

Limit. OpenClaw has no hosted tier, so you run, secure and update the gateway yourself, and the agent gets broad access to your files, browser and shell.

What OpenClaw costs

Free and open source under MIT with no subscription or hosted tier; you pay your model provider or sign in with an existing ChatGPT or Claude plan.

Current prices: openclaw.ai ↗. We do not list prices: vendors change them often, so check the maker's own page before you buy.

OpenClaw with agent skills and MCP servers

Skills. OpenClaw has its own skills system that follows the AgentSkills (agentskills.io) spec. It reads, in order of precedence, <workspace>/skills, <workspace>/.agents/skills, ~/.agents/skills and ~/.openclaw/skills, then bundled skills. ClawHub (clawhub.ai) is its public registry: openclaw skills install takes ClawHub names, skills-sh: sources and git: repos. The open skills CLI 1.7.0 installs OpenClaw skills into skills/ at the workspace root. The docs give no date skills were added.

MCP. OpenClaw adds MCP servers with a command, for example openclaw mcp add memory --command npx --arg -y --arg @modelcontextprotocol/server-memory, or openclaw mcp set <name> '<json>' for a remote url with transport streamable-http or sse. Servers are stored under mcp.servers in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json, and the Control UI has a /settings/mcp page. openclaw mcp serve runs OpenClaw itself as an MCP server.

Browse agent skills and MCP servers that work with OpenClaw.

Alternatives to OpenClaw

• Hermes Agent: Hermes Agent is an open source personal AI agent by Nous Research that runs in the terminal, a desktop app and messaging apps, and writes new skills for itself from completed tasks.
• Goose: Goose is an open source AI agent, created by Block and now part of the Agentic AI Foundation at the Linux Foundation, that runs as a desktop app and CLI with any model provider.
• Claude Code: Claude Code is a terminal coding agent by Anthropic that reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands, and also works in VS Code, JetBrains, a desktop app and the web.
• OpenCode: OpenCode is an open source terminal coding agent by Anomaly that works with 75+ model providers, local models included, and also ships as a desktop app and IDE extension.