bozhoudev/openclaw

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant that runs on your own devices and meets you wherever you already chat. Instead of forcing you into yet another app, it connects to the messaging platforms you already use every day, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, Signal, Microsoft Teams, and many others. You can message it, talk to it by voice, or interact with a visual canvas it renders in real time. At its core is a "Gateway", essentially a small background service that runs on your computer and acts as the control center. When you send a message on any connected platform, the Gateway routes it to an AI model of your choosing (the project recommends using whatever flagship model you already trust, like OpenAI's). The Gateway handles the conversation, manages tools like web browsing or scheduled tasks, and sends responses back through whatever channel you messaged from. Setup is handled through a guided terminal command called openclaw onboard, which walks you through connecting channels and configuring skills step by step. This is built for an individual who wants a single, always-on assistant that spans their entire digital life. For example, you could text it a question on WhatsApp while commuting, ask it to draft a document through Slack at work, and use voice commands on your Mac at home, all talking to the same assistant with shared context. It also supports multi-agent routing, meaning you could have different specialized assistants for different tasks or conversations. A notable tradeoff is the security model. Since this is a personal assistant running on your machine, the AI has full access to your system by default, it can run commands and read files directly. That's powerful for a single user but requires care if you expose it to group chats or remote access. The project addresses this with a pairing system for direct messages (unknown senders get a code to approve) and optional sandboxing for non-primary sessions. It's a design that prioritizes local control and flexibility, but assumes you're willing to take responsibility for securing it.