Clawdbot: The Personal AI Assistant That Actually Does Things

January 2026 - The revolution in personal AI assistants has arrived, and it comes in the form of a lobster.

The New Era of Personal Assistants

In a world where Siri remains disappointing, Alexa is limited to answering basic questions, and corporate assistants live in walled gardens, an Austrian developer decided to build something different. Clawdbot isn't just another chatbot — it's a personal AI assistant that runs on your own machine, communicates through channels you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack), and actually executes actions on your computer.

The project, created by Peter Steinberger (founder of PSPDFKit), exploded in the first weeks of January 2026. What started as a personal experiment went from 0 to over 5,000 Discord members in just two weeks. Andrej Karpathy, the legendary AI researcher, praised it publicly. MacStories called it "the future of personal AI assistants."

The project's mascot is Clawd, a space lobster with soul. The tagline: "The AI that actually does things."

Project Information

What Makes Clawdbot Different?

1. Runs on Your Machine

Unlike ChatGPT or Claude.ai that live in the cloud, Clawdbot runs locally. Your data stays yours. The "Gateway" is just the control plane — the product is the assistant running on your hardware.

2. Channels You Already Use

You don't need to open another app. Talk to your assistant where you already are:

• WhatsApp (via Baileys)
• Telegram (via grammY)
• Discord (via discord.js)
• Slack (via Bolt)
• Signal (via signal-cli)
• iMessage (native macOS)
• Microsoft Teams
• Matrix
• WebChat integrated
• BlueBubbles, Zalo

3. Multiple AI Providers

Use the model you prefer:

• Anthropic Claude (Pro/Max with Opus 4.5 recommended)
• OpenAI GPT (ChatGPT/Codex)
• Local models (MiniMax M2.1 works excellently)
• Any OpenAI API compatible model

4. Full System Access

This isn't a limited chatbot. Clawdbot can:

• Read and write files
• Execute terminal commands
• Control the browser (dedicated Chrome/Chromium)
• Navigate the web, fill forms, extract data
• Make phone calls (via ElevenLabs)
• Control IoT devices (Hue lights, air purifiers)
• Send emails, manage calendar
• Check in for flights

5. Persistent Memory

Your assistant remembers you. It learns your preferences, context, and becomes uniquely yours. Memory persists 24/7 between sessions.

6. Skills/Plugins System

Extend capabilities with community skills or create your own. The assistant can even write its own skills — it's self-hackable.

System Architecture

WhatsApp / Telegram / Slack / Discord / Signal / iMessage / Teams / Matrix / WebChat
               │
               ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│            Gateway            │
│       (control plane)         │
│     ws://127.0.0.1:18789      │
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
               ├─ Pi agent (RPC)
               ├─ CLI (clawdbot …)
               ├─ WebChat UI
               ├─ macOS app
               └─ iOS / Android nodes

The Gateway is the central brain that handles:

• Sessions and presence
• Configuration and cron jobs
• Webhooks and events
• Browser control
• Visual canvas (A2UI)

Installation

Quick Method (One-liner)

macOS/Linux:

curl -fsSL https://clawd.bot/install.sh | bash

npm/pnpm:

npm install -g clawdbot@latest
# or
pnpm add -g clawdbot@latest
 
# Then run the onboarding wizard
clawdbot onboard --install-daemon

From Source

git clone https://github.com/clawdbot/clawdbot.git
cd clawdbot
 
pnpm install
pnpm ui:build    # auto-installs UI dependencies
pnpm build
 
pnpm clawdbot onboard --install-daemon
 
# Development loop (auto-reload)
pnpm gateway:watch

Requirements

• Node.js 22+ required
• macOS 14+ for the companion app
• WSL2 recommended for Windows

Quick Start

# Install and configure
clawdbot onboard --install-daemon
 
# Start the gateway
clawdbot gateway --port 18789 --verbose
 
# Send a message
clawdbot message send --to +1234567890 --message "Hello from Clawdbot"
 
# Talk to the assistant
clawdbot agent --message "Give me my daily checklist" --thinking high

Key Features

Browser Control

Clawdbot manages a dedicated Chrome/Chromium with full CDP control:

• Autonomous navigation
• Screenshots and snapshots
• Form filling
• Data extraction
• User profiles

Visual Canvas (A2UI)

The agent can create dynamic visual interfaces:

• Push/reset content
• Code evaluation
• Real-time snapshots

Voice Wake + Talk Mode

For macOS/iOS/Android:

• Voice Wake: always-on voice activation
• Talk Mode: continuous conversation with ElevenLabs
• Push-to-talk overlay

Cron Jobs and Webhooks

Scheduled automation:

• Automatic daily briefings
• Proactive alerts
• Gmail Pub/Sub triggers
• Background tasks

Multi-Agent

Coordinate work between sessions:

• sessions_list — discover active agents
• sessions_history — get transcripts
• sessions_send — message another session
• Routing between channels/accounts

Companion Apps (Optional)

macOS App

• Control from menu bar
• Voice Wake + push-to-talk
• Integrated WebChat
• Debug tools
• Remote gateway control via SSH

iOS Node

• Canvas surface
• Voice Wake forwarding
• Camera and screen recording
• Pairing via Bonjour

Android Node

• Canvas, Camera, Screen capture
• Talk Mode
• Optional SMS

Basic Configuration

File: ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json

{
  "agent": {
    "model": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5"
  },
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "allowFrom": ["+1234567890"]
    },
    "telegram": {
      "botToken": "123456:ABCDEF"
    },
    "discord": {
      "token": "your-discord-token"
    }
  },
  "browser": {
    "enabled": true,
    "controlUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:18791"
  }
}

Chat Commands

Send these commands from WhatsApp/Telegram/Discord/Slack:

Security

Default DM Policy

Direct messages from unknown contacts receive a pairing code and are not processed until approved:

clawdbot pairing approve <channel> <code>

For public DMs, configure explicitly:

{
  "dmPolicy": "open",
  "allowFrom": ["*"]
}

Sandbox for Groups

Configure agents.defaults.sandbox.mode: "non-main" to run non-main sessions in isolated Docker containers.

Real-World Use Cases

The community has shared impressive configurations:

Enterprise Crew (Multi-Agent)

One user runs 3 agents on 3 different machines:

• 2 on GCP VMs
• 1 on Raspberry Pi
• Nodes on Mac

Agents can SSH to each other and debug each other when something fails.

Daily Automations

• 7am: Automatic briefing (emails + Slack + calendar) → saved to Obsidian
• Voice summary via ElevenLabs
• Proactive alerts for Slack mentions and urgent emails
• Fireflies transcriptions → automatically extracted actions
• Daily performance review (emails, screen time, code written)
• Light control via text

Popular Skills

• google-workspace
• meeting-notes
• document-processing
• perplexity-search
• daily-review
• github-sync
• whoop-health
• spotify-control

What the Community Says

"Setup @clawdbot yesterday. All I have to say is, wow. The fact that clawd can just keep building upon itself just by talking to it is crazy. The future is already here." — @jonahships_

"It's running my company." — @therno

"After years of AI hype, I thought nothing could faze me. Then I installed @clawdbot. From nervous 'hi what can you do?' to full throttle - design, code review, taxes, PM, content pipelines... AI as teammate, not tool." — @lycfyi

"At this point I don't even know what to call @clawdbot. It is something new. This is the first time I have felt like I am living in the future since the launch of ChatGPT." — @davemorin

"TLDR; open source built a better version of Siri that Apple ($3.6 trillion company) was sleeping on for years." — @Hesamation

"@clawdbot is Jarvis. It already exists." — @nofil_ai

"2026 is already the year of personal agents." — @chrisdietr

"Excellent reading thank you. Love oracle and Clawd." — Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy)

Comparison: Clawdbot vs Alternatives

Resources

Official Documentation

• Getting Started: docs.clawd.bot/start/getting-started
• Configuration: docs.clawd.bot/gateway/configuration
• Security: docs.clawd.bot/gateway/security
• Skills: docs.clawd.bot/tools/skills

ClawdHub

Community skills registry: clawdhub.com

Press

• MacStories: Clawdbot Showed Me What the Future of Personal AI Assistants Looks Like
• StarryHope: The Lobster Takeover: Why Developers Are Buying Mac Minis to Run Their Own AI Agents

Why Clawdbot Matters

Clawdbot represents a fundamental shift in how we interact with AI:

1. Data under your control: You don't depend on corporate servers
2. Model agnostic: Use Claude, GPT, or local models
3. Existing channels: You don't need to change your habits
4. Infinite extensibility: If you can program it, you can automate it
5. Active community: 30+ PRs daily, constant development

The project demonstrates that an individual developer with the right tools can create something that megacorporations cannot. As @Dimillian said: "A megacorp like Anthropic or OpenAI could not build this. Literally impossible with how corpo works."

Conclusion

Clawdbot isn't just a cool project — it's a vision of the future of personal computing. An AI assistant that truly knows you, runs on your hardware, speaks your languages (literally and figuratively), and executes real actions in the world.

The fact that it's open source, self-hackable, and extensible by design means the community can take it in directions no single company could imagine.

If you ever dreamed of having your own Jarvis, the space lobster is ready to help.

Important Links:

• Website: clawd.bot
• Documentation: docs.clawd.bot
• GitHub: github.com/clawdbot/clawdbot
• Discord: discord.gg/clawd
• Clawd (the lobster): clawd.me
• Creator: steipete.me