OpenClaw

Liveopenclaw.ai

The open-source assistant you run yourself, in twenty nine channels including iMessage

OpenClaw is an AI agent you reach on iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord and Slack. To start, self-host it.

iMessageWhatsAppTelegramDiscordSlack

What does OpenClaw cost?: Open source; you run it. below
Does OpenClaw train on my messages?: Not stated. the page
Is OpenClaw safe?: Holds what it does not say; no security contact published. the page
Who is behind OpenClaw?: OpenClaw Foundation; funded. below
What does OpenClaw do with my messages?: Who carries them is not published. the page
OpenClaw alternatives: 8 that do a similar job. the page

Posted doing a job: 1; public posts, each below
Of those, went wrong: 0; fewer is better; people post successes
Posts for it, against it: 0 / 0; nothing posted yet

How OpenClaw works

An open-source assistant you run yourself, reachable on iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord and Slack, with mobile apps and a Chrome extension on top. It is not Instinct, which is a company's invite-only hosted product, and it is not TryOpenClaw, which is a Vilnius company running this code for a monthly fee; Instinct and OpenClaw are compared here.

Its privacy policy is the only one in this directory whose main claim is that there is nothing to have a policy about. Extension traffic goes to the relay or gateway you paired yourself, over loopback or a TLS WebSocket, and it states in plain words that there is no OpenClaw cloud in the path and no third-party data collection. The apps keep connection settings on the device. Whatever your own gateway retains is between you and it.

It then lists what the builds do not contain, which nothing else here bothers to do: no advertising SDKs, no analytics SDKs, no crash reporting, and no SMS read permission requested on Android. ElevenLabs appears only if you turn voice on.

The one thing to be clear about is scope. This policy covers the mobile apps and the extension, and not the project as a whole, so the rows about training and about who carries the messages stay empty because there is no central operator to answer them.

What OpenClaw has shipped

4 features the company has announced, newest first, each linked to the announcement. The examples of what to use it for are the company’s.

2026-09-29
OpenClaw Enterprise
An open source control plane for running persistent agents inside organisations: multi-tenancy, hard security boundaries, governance and audit. Self-hosted, stated as always free, piloted at Red Hat and OpenAI.
Use it for: an IT team running agents for staff under one set of rules; swapping the harness, model or sandbox for its own.
2026-09-03
A macOS installer, and local models on Windows
A new installer and onboarding flow on macOS, plus frictionless local model setup on Windows NVIDIA RTX PCs, so the agent runs on your own hardware.
Use it for: running the agent on a machine you own, with a model that never leaves it.
2026-06-03
Skill Workshop
A review step in front of a skill the agent proposes, so a person shapes the reusable workflow before the agent applies it to future work.
Use it for: turning a weekly inbox routine into a documented procedure the agent then follows.
2026-05-31
Auto mode for exec approvals
Opt-in auto mode for host exec guardrails: policy runs first, low-risk misses get reviewed, and humans stay in the loop.
Use it for: fewer approval prompts on a machine you trust, with the risky commands still asked about.

What OpenClaw costs, and how you start

Channels	iMessageWhatsAppTelegramDiscordSlack
How you start	Self-host it
Who starts it	Not stated on its own pages
Is there an app	No app Nothing to install at any point
Categories	Personal assistants
Can do	Email,Calendar and scheduling,Web research,Task management,Writing code,Persistent memory
Connects to	Gmail, GitHub, Spotify
Pricing	Free. Its own page states no subscription, no hosted tier and no paid version. OpenClaw Enterprise, announced on 29 September 2026, is open source, self-hosted and stated as always free for any organisation.
Number type	Not stated on its own pages
Contact number	None published
Documentation	docs.openclaw.ai
First message, pre-written	None published
Runs on	Not disclosed
Browses with	Not disclosed
Number carrier	No number to look up
Status	Live

Does OpenClaw train on your conversations?

Trains on your conversations	Not stated in the policy
Data of people who never signed up	Not applicable
What it holds when you connect an account	Not stated in the policy
If you cancel	Nothing to delete centrally. The apps store connection settings locally and anything held by your own gateway or a service you connected is kept under that service's own configuration.
Model providers named	ElevenLabs
Jurisdiction	Not stated in the policy
Security document	Published. A security page updated 11 September 2026, with the advisory ledger in the open: 1,799 reports filed since January 2026, 722 fixed and published, 39 with a CVE, 14 confirmed critical and all fixed. Sandboxed execution, root-bounded file access, a stated threat model of one trusted operator per gateway.
Asks before acting	Exec approvals with full command-chain checks; an opt-in Auto mode reviews low-risk approval misses.
Prompt injection	Named as a risk on its own pages
Bug bounty	States there is no paid bounty programme; credit is a name in the published advisory.
Availability	Worldwide

Whose hands your messages pass throughWho carries them, who runs the model, who drives the browser, and which of those OpenClaw names. With what its policy leaves unanswered, counted against the rest of the directory.

OpenClaw’s own pages answer 6 of the 9 questions this site asks of every listing. Not answered: says whether it trains on you, names who carries the messages, says where to report a bug. About the middle of its kind: 33rd of 56 personal assistants.

Quoted verbatim from OpenClaw's policy for its mobile apps and Chrome extension, which is the only part of the project it covers on 2026-10-03, and what a document says is not the same as its legal effect.

Who makes OpenClaw

Company	OpenClaw Foundation
Founders	Peter Steinberger
Based in	Not published
Funding	A US 501(c)(3) non-profit rather than a company. Funded by donors including OpenAI, with the Foundation stating that donors do not own, control or direct the project. Source: openclaw.ai
Investors	Not published
Traction	Not published

From OpenClaw’s own pages at openclaw.ai, last read 2026-09-10.

What people have used OpenClaw for

Reminders and follow-upFarhan Thawar

Things it did, with a page eachThings it watches for you1

Reminders and follow-up1

2026-09-20Farhan Thawar Shopify's head of engineering published the standing jobs he has given three agents. OpenClaw, on his own hardware, holds six: a monthly search for new treatments for his 14-year-old's peanut and sesame allergy; the hot tub's temperature and jets, with a flag if the temperature drifts more than two degrees; a daily schedule for the Sonos and the pool lights; a check of whether new local open-source coding models are worth testing against his DeepSeek and Qwen setup; booking a date night each month; and flight tracking.
Farhan Thawar
@fnthawar · 2026-09-20
Agent crons @Muse * daily read of all my parent WhatsApp groups for kids schools + all the emails and send me a daily summary and fwd to wife @openclaw * monthly research the latest in peanut / sesame allergy to see if new treatments are avail for my 14yr old * control hot-tub temp / auto-turn off jets — flag if > 2° delta * @Sonos & pool lights daily schedule * determine if new local OSS coding models are worth testing against my local DeepSeek/Qwen setup * book monthly date nights * flight tracking Instinct * research @Tesla winter tires / reach out for quotes until purchased * buy gift cards from @Costco and auto-load them into my @Uber wallet * lmk when @UWaterloo merch is back on the OVO store * auto submit health care expenses from emailed invoices * new articles from @DavidBrooks224 @birgitta410 Prev * @bot -> moved to Instinct
OpenClawReminders and follow-up220 likes · 34k viewsRead it
The first sighting here of an agent controlling things in a house, the hot tub and the lights, and the split is the point: the jobs that touch his own hardware and his own models go to the agent that runs on it, and the jobs that need his accounts go elsewhere. The allergy search is the most personal standing job on this site, a monthly question with a child's name behind it.