About OpenClaw
OpenClaw is an AI assistant, open source, that you run on your own computer. Instead of living inside a single website, it connects to the messaging channels you already use, including Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram and WhatsApp, with more than twenty others supported according to the project. Native desktop and mobile apps cover macOS, iOS, Android, Windows and Linux.
A single Gateway process runs the assistant, either as a personal setup on one laptop or as a deployment shared across a team, with configuration being the main difference between the two. State, memory and credentials stay on your hardware, and the model or agent harness is a swappable plugin, so you can use hosted models such as Claude or Codex, or local models, without changing the rest of the setup.
OpenClaw is stewarded by an independent nonprofit foundation, and the project says it offers no paid plan, no hosted service and no token. By default it only contacts its servers for a daily version check, and anonymous statistics are opt-in. GitHub lists the license as 'Other', so check the repository for the exact terms. It suits people who want a private assistant they control themselves.
Key features
- Connects to Discord, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp and more
- Native apps across desktop and mobile platforms
- Swappable model providers and agent harnesses as plugins
- Memory and credentials stored on your own hardware
- Single gateway for personal or shared team use
- Opt-in anonymous usage statistics
Good fit for
- →Personal assistant reachable from existing chat apps
- →Shared team assistant on self-managed infrastructure
- →Privacy-conscious users keeping data local
- Built with
- TypeScript
- Tags
- ai-assistant
- ai
- self-hosted
- chatbot
- agents
- privacy
- messaging
- open-source
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