OpenClaw

openclaw/openclawReviewed by AI

What it does

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant that runs on your own computer. A background service (the Gateway) connects the AI model of your choice to chat apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord and iMessage, and the assistant can use tools, skills and plugins to do things for you. There are companion apps for Mac, Linux, Windows, iOS and Android, and the same setup can serve a whole team. You install it with one command (the installer brings its own Node.js), finish an onboarding wizard and supply a model key or a local model. Settings, memory and keys stay on your machine.

How easy it is to install

C · install 1 or 2 tools · Windows

Windows C
macOS C
Linux C

All three systems are the same kind of work and land on C: one install command (`curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash`, or `iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex` on Windows), which brings its own Node.js, then an onboarding wizard, a model provider key and terminal commands such as `openclaw gateway status`. Mac and Linux also get a ready companion app in the latest release (a .dmg of 226-334 MB, an AppImage or a .deb), but that app still needs the Gateway set up first.

Numbers on GitHub

Stars: 393,560on Oct 31, 2026
Downloads: 2,641,97464,849 this week
Growth: +501stars in 6 days

Stars over time

Facts

Runs on: Windows, macOS, Linux
You need to install: Node.js
To build from source: Node.js, Docker, FFmpeg
Disk space: 123 MB–368 MB · from the installer
Accounts or keys: AI model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter or similar), Gateway token (OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN), generated on first start or set by you, Chat app bot tokens (Telegram, Discord, Slack, Mattermost, Twitch), Optional tools and voices (Brave Search, Perplexity, Firecrawl, ElevenLabs, Deepgram, Inworld)
Cost: Free, API costs extra · MIT licence; the README says the project has no paid tier, hosted service or token and is run by a non-profit foundation. You pay the AI provider you connect, unless you run a local model.
License: MIT (Permissive)
Can replace: Manus, Muse, dots
Last update: Nov 1, 2026

Risk signals (8)

Attentionunusual star rate
393387 stars in 339 days (~1160 per day)
automatic check
AttentionDependencies with known vulnerabilities
Pinned dependencies with known vulnerabilities (OSV): fast-uri: GHSA-333x-w4r6-6crp, GHSA-w74x-v6f9-j3xg, GHSA-wjr9-j795-jxcr
automatic check
Attentionagent tools run on host
README, Security: "Tools run on the host for the main session unless you configure sandboxing." The same section says to treat inbound messages as untrusted input, so a message arriving in a connected chat can steer an assistant that is running commands on your computer.
AI review
Attentiongateway listens on the local network
docker-compose.yml starts the gateway with `--bind ${OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_BIND:-lan}` and publishes ports 18789, 18790 and 3978 to the host. The .env example says a token is required once the gateway binds beyond loopback and is generated automatically if you leave it blank, so the service is reachable from your network with a token as the only barrier.
AI review
Inforemote script install
README Install: `curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash` and `iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex` download a script from the project's website and run it immediately; the npm path uses `npm install -g openclaw@latest --allow-scripts=openclaw`, which allows the package's own install scripts to run.
AI review
Infoweb session cookie passthrough
docker-compose.yml passes CLAUDE_AI_SESSION_KEY, CLAUDE_WEB_SESSION_KEY and CLAUDE_WEB_COOKIE into both containers, which points to using a chat website login session instead of an API key. Whether that follows the provider's terms is up to that provider.
AI review
Infodaily version check by default
README: "by default OpenClaw itself phones home for nothing but a daily version check, anonymous feature statistics are opt-in, and `update.checkOnStart: false` disables both". The compose file also wires OpenTelemetry trace, metric and log exporters, which stay off until you set an endpoint.
AI review
Infovery fast moving project
Project facts: 276 releases, the newest the same day as the analysis, 7875 open issues, and pre-releases such as v2026.10.10-beta.4 published alongside stable versions. Expect frequent updates and changes between them.
AI review

Evidence is shown in its original language.

What Radar could not check

What the install.sh and install.ps1 scripts actually do, since they are fetched from openclaw.ai at install time
The real monthly cost of the model provider, which depends on how much the assistant is used
What plugins and skills from ClawHub can do on your computer once installed
Whether the pre-releases (for example v2026.10.10-beta.4) are stable enough for daily use
How well it works on Windows compared with Mac and Linux, which are the platforms with companion app files in the latest release