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I actually think I would like to use OpenClaw but everytime I go to the docs I give up. It feels so intimidating. There's so much stuff going on. Maybe it is g

by whinvik 17d ago

I actually think I would like to use OpenClaw but everytime I go to the docs I give up. It feels so intimidating. There's so much stuff going on. Maybe it is good for agents who can just motor through that volume, but me personally, I would want something simpler, maybe an `OpenClaw-lite`

himhckr 17d ago
See if you like [Msty Go](https://msty.ai/go https://msty.ai/go)
joemccall86 17d ago
You may be interested in https://nanoclaw.dev/ https://nanoclaw.dev/. It uses Claude by default but can run other harnesses after initial setup. Easier to grok IMHO.
nisegami 17d ago
There's a lot of similar projects out there that are closer to what you're looking for. For example, I used nanoclaw for a bit before switching to Hermes.
atonse 17d ago
I’ve concluded that if you already use a coding agent then openclaw adds very little (at least the multiple rounds I’ve tried it since mid Jan), it mainly brought the power of do-everything coding agents to your phone, available everywhere. But you exchange a low quality messaging interface for that ease of access. Just to be clear, I’m not advocating that people that benefit from openclaw move to coding agents. This isn’t a “dropbox is just SFTP” comment, more that if you are already using coding agents, it feels like they do most of what I saw from openclaw at least a few months ago. Am I missing something? Would love to be proven wrong.
LaurensBER 17d ago
It's not only that, all this complexity leads to stuff breaking with every update. For a tool that's supposed to just answer chat messages it's impressive how crappy and unstable this software feels. I have it running since the release and my primary usecase seems to be to use the CLI to fix whatever broke this week. Would not recommend running this, it's the antithesis of the Linux philosophy.
ethbr1 17d ago
OpenClaw is designed for people who are okay with "Don't worry about it" being an acceptable answer to "How does this work?" Which is why it's so big with the PM/PO-turned-vibe-coder crowd.
- whatsThisBtn4 16d ago
  But when the software is finished and works, who cares? Not everything is security critical. Like "Ohh you got a bunch of CRM addresses of people who go to a small time dog grooming company. You ready to sell that on the dark web?"
  - ethbr1 16d ago
    I'd assume anything empowered to read+send email from my personal accounts and read+modify my calendars to be security critical.
    - whatsThisBtn4 16d ago
      Use a vps and only give access to what you need.
      - ethbr1 16d ago
        Let's be honest, the number of people who are doing that << the amount of OpenClaw-preinstalled hardware that's being sold alone
        whatsThisBtn4 16d ago
        Not my problem
    - TremendousJudge 16d ago
      I guess you're not one of those "Don't worry about it" people
Shorel 17d ago
Which features do you require? I built an agent to work with local Ollama models, and it will keep working and iterate on a goal until finished, but it doesn't do sub-agents or or any of the "just burn a million tokens but finish this" pipelines that seem to be the trend now. It's a simple D executable that basically consumes no resources in your local machine.
saratogacx 16d ago
When I tried OpenClaw it quickly turned into a lethargic mess which I really didn't see myself wanting to maintain long term. I looked at other alternatives which were similar enough to do what I was looking for (mostly scheduled tasks using data on my computer and some API data). I saw a mention of nanoclaw which I looked at but didn't try personally. I eventually settled on trying picoclaw[1] because it was extremely small, fast, and had enough features to do the job for me. It is under 10mb, fairly straight forward go codebase, and works with multiple model providers or locally hosted. 1 https://picoclaw.io/ https://picoclaw.io/

by whinvik 17d ago

himhckr 17d ago

See if you like [Msty Go](https://msty.ai/go https://msty.ai/go)

joemccall86 17d ago

You may be interested in https://nanoclaw.dev/ https://nanoclaw.dev/. It uses Claude by default but can run other harnesses after initial setup. Easier to grok IMHO.

nisegami 17d ago

There's a lot of similar projects out there that are closer to what you're looking for. For example, I used nanoclaw for a bit before switching to Hermes.

atonse 17d ago

I’ve concluded that if you already use a coding agent then openclaw adds very little (at least the multiple rounds I’ve tried it since mid Jan), it mainly brought the power of do-everything coding agents to your phone, available everywhere. But you exchange a low quality messaging interface for that ease of access. Just to be clear, I’m not advocating that people that benefit from openclaw move to coding agents. This isn’t a “dropbox is just SFTP” comment, more that if you are already using coding agents, it feels like they do most of what I saw from openclaw at least a few months ago. Am I missing something? Would love to be proven wrong.

LaurensBER 17d ago

It's not only that, all this complexity leads to stuff breaking with every update. For a tool that's supposed to just answer chat messages it's impressive how crappy and unstable this software feels. I have it running since the release and my primary usecase seems to be to use the CLI to fix whatever broke this week. Would not recommend running this, it's the antithesis of the Linux philosophy.

ethbr1 17d ago

OpenClaw is designed for people who are okay with "Don't worry about it" being an acceptable answer to "How does this work?" Which is why it's so big with the PM/PO-turned-vibe-coder crowd.

whatsThisBtn4 16d ago
But when the software is finished and works, who cares? Not everything is security critical. Like "Ohh you got a bunch of CRM addresses of people who go to a small time dog grooming company. You ready to sell that on the dark web?"
- ethbr1 16d ago
  I'd assume anything empowered to read+send email from my personal accounts and read+modify my calendars to be security critical.
  - whatsThisBtn4 16d ago
    Use a vps and only give access to what you need.
    - ethbr1 16d ago
      Let's be honest, the number of people who are doing that << the amount of OpenClaw-preinstalled hardware that's being sold alone
      - whatsThisBtn4 16d ago
        Not my problem
  - TremendousJudge 16d ago
    I guess you're not one of those "Don't worry about it" people

Shorel 17d ago

Which features do you require? I built an agent to work with local Ollama models, and it will keep working and iterate on a goal until finished, but it doesn't do sub-agents or or any of the "just burn a million tokens but finish this" pipelines that seem to be the trend now. It's a simple D executable that basically consumes no resources in your local machine.

saratogacx 16d ago

When I tried OpenClaw it quickly turned into a lethargic mess which I really didn't see myself wanting to maintain long term. I looked at other alternatives which were similar enough to do what I was looking for (mostly scheduled tasks using data on my computer and some API data). I saw a mention of nanoclaw which I looked at but didn't try personally. I eventually settled on trying picoclaw[1] because it was extremely small, fast, and had enough features to do the job for me. It is under 10mb, fairly straight forward go codebase, and works with multiple model providers or locally hosted. 1 https://picoclaw.io/ https://picoclaw.io/