OpenClaw
App : A product you use directly
Open-source self-hosted personal agent that acts on your behalf: emails, calendar, files, commands, browser, controlled from your messaging apps.
The defining personal agent of 2026 and the reference in its category, to be installed with eyes open: it has access to your machine, and third-party skills are a documented attack surface.
Security reflects where data goes, requested permissions and incidents on record at the verification date. It is not a guarantee of zero risk: check the deployment mode and the connections you enable.
What it does, concretely
Most AI assistants run in a browser or a dedicated app, forcing you to constantly switch tools. OpenClaw solves this by installing an agent directly on your machine, accessible from the messaging apps you already use: WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Signal, and many more.
In practice, OpenClaw runs a process called the Gateway on your computer or a server. This Gateway acts as a bridge between your messaging apps and an AI agent capable of taking action: reading and sending emails, managing your calendar, handling files, running commands, controlling a browser, or even checking you in for flights. You choose the AI model yourself, using your own API key.
OpenClaw is aimed at developers, power users, and teams who want an AI assistant available anywhere, without handing their data over to a third-party service. The same installation can serve a single person on a laptop or be shared across a team.
However, if you are looking for a ready-to-use tool with no configuration, OpenClaw is not the right fit: installation requires some familiarity with the terminal, and the real cost depends on the API calls of the model you configure. Users who are not comfortable with the command line or managing API keys may quickly find themselves stuck.
What it offers
- ·Multi-channel gateway: a single process simultaneously connects Discord, iMessage, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, and more via plugins.
- ·Concrete actions on your machine: the agent can read and send emails, manage your calendar, handle files, run shell commands, and control a browser.
- ·Free choice of AI model: you connect your own API key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Copilot, local models, etc.) without going through a hosted service.
- ·Skills: you can teach the agent repeatable procedures it loads on demand, and install community skills from ClawHub.
- ·Persistent memory and isolated sessions: each group conversation gets its own session, and the agent retains context between exchanges.
- ·Scheduled automation: tasks can be triggered on a schedule via cron jobs, hooks, and webhooks.
- ·Mobile nodes: iOS and Android apps can be paired to access the camera, screen, and device actions.
- ·Web control UI: a browser-accessible dashboard lets you manage sessions, configuration, and conversations.
In practice
- Price
- Free
- Commercial use
- Commercial use: yes
- Available on
- macos, linux, windows, cli, docker
- Licence
- MIT
- FR interface
- No
Security and data
- Rating
- Security: one caveat, see the card
- Your data
- Local or cloud depending on use
- Known incidents
- Travaux académiques 2026 sur les attaques par injection de prompt et skills malveillants visant les agents OpenClaw.
- Maintenance
- Active
Links and repository checked on 25 October 2026 · added on 25 January 2026
How to install OpenClaw
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash