AI news and explainers at 7 AM weekdays, plus a Sunday weekly at 8Get it in your inbox

METAL LAB

openclaw/openclaw

387,334+160 todayTypeScript

A personal AI assistant that lives on your own devices and talks to you through the messaging apps you already use

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant built for a single user, running locally and reachable through channels like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, and iMessage. A single local control layer called the Gateway ties together AI models, tools, messaging channels, and optional companion apps. It's an open-source TypeScript project that installs on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

What it does

  1. One install script (curl on macOS/Linux, PowerShell on Windows) sets up the needed Node.js runtime automatically
  2. An 'onboard' wizard checks model access, creates a workspace, and configures the Gateway before first use
  3. The Gateway acts as the local control plane for sessions, tools, events, and channel connections, with Control UI, CLI, and TUI connecting to it
  4. Supports many messaging channels (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage) plus companion apps/nodes for voice, camera, and screen actions
  5. Unknown senders must go through a pairing approval step, and tools run directly on the host by default unless sandboxing is configured, so the docs urge reading the security guide first

Why it matters

It gives developers and early adopters a working open-source foundation for a personal AI assistant that runs on their own hardware instead of relying solely on a cloud service. Its plugin structure lets people keep extending what their assistant can do, making it a platform for building a customized assistant rather than a fixed product.

Terms in this repo

  • Gateway · the local control plane that manages sessions, tools, events, and channel connections
  • Control UI · a web interface that connects to the Gateway to chat with the assistant
  • TUI · a text-based user interface that runs in a terminal
  • sandboxing · isolating tool execution from the host machine to reduce risk
  • pnpm workspace · a way to manage multiple packages together in one repository

Repository description (English)

Your own personal AI assistant. Any OS. Any Platform. The lobster way. 🦞

Open on GitHub

Trending repos

All repos →

Latest from METAL LAB