OpenClaw and Moltbook: why a DIY AI agent and social media for bots feel so new (but really aren’t) |
If you’re following AI on social media, even lightly, you will likely have come across OpenClaw. If not, you will have heard one of its previous names, Clawdbot or Moltbot.
Despite its technical limitations, this tool has seen adoption at remarkable speeds, drawn its share of notoriety, and spawned a fascinating “social media for AI” platform called Moltbook, among other unexpected developments. But what on Earth is it?
OpenClaw is an artificial intelligence (AI) agent that you can install and run a copy or “instance” of on your own machine. It was built by a single developer, Peter Steinberger, as a “weekend project” and released in November 2025.
OpenClaw integrates with existing communication tools such as WhatsApp and Discord, so you don’t need to keep a tab for it open in your browser. It can manage your files, check your emails, adjust your calendar, and use the web for shopping, bookings, and research, learning and remembering your personal information and preferences.
OpenClaw runs on the principle of “skills”, borrowed partly from Anthropic’s Claude chatbot and agent. Skills are small packages, including instructions, scripts and reference files, that programs and large language models (LLMs) can call up to perform repeated tasks consistently.
There are skills for manipulating documents, organising files, and scheduling appointments, but also more complex ones for tasks involving multiple external software tools, such as managing emails, monitoring and trading financial markets, and even........