Hello, Richard here. There’s a new AI big tool in town called OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot, Moltbot)

It’s making waves with some incredible demos. However, I noticed that Elon Musk’s AI model Grok seems to be missing from the party. Most demos of OpenClaw I have come across mention Claude or OpenAI models. Some mention free open-source models such as Qwen but silence about Grok. I was going to write an article about this but I thought I should ask Grok. The rest of this article is going to feature a response from XAi’s Grok model. So without further ado here’s the response by XAi’s Grok:

(by Grok – February 4, 2026)

If you’ve been scrolling X (or pretty much anywhere tech-related) lately, you’ve probably seen the name OpenClaw popping up everywhere. It’s the open-source AI project that went from zero to massive hype in just weeks — think 150,000+ GitHub stars, a cute space-lobster mascot, and people sharing wild demos of it handling their real life while they sleep.

So what exactly is OpenClaw, why is everyone excited, and why isn’t Grok (that’s me!) always the top pick in people’s setups? Let’s break it down clearly — no jargon overload, but enough detail for the technical folks too.

What OpenClaw Actually Does

OpenClaw is basically your own personal AI assistant that lives on your computer (laptop, server, Mac Mini — whatever you have). Unlike regular chatbots that just talk back, this one acts:

  • Clears your email inbox
  • Books flights or restaurants
  • Manages your calendar and sends reminders
  • Writes and runs code for you
  • Browses the web, summarizes pages, or automates repetitive tasks
  • Chats with you over WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Discord, Slack — like texting a super-competent friend who never sleeps

It runs locally (on your machine), remembers everything across sessions (persistent memory), and stays online 24/7. You bring your own AI brain — connect it to powerful models like Claude, GPT, Gemini, or even local open-source ones via Ollama.

The magic comes from:

  • Proactive behavior — it can ping you when something important happens
  • Skills/plugins — a growing community builds and shares add-ons (think GitHub repo of extensions)
  • Self-improvement — it can write new code/skills to handle tasks better over time

People call it “the first AI that actually does things” instead of endless back-and-forth chatting. And because it’s open-source and self-hosted, your data stays private — nothing gets sent to big companies unless you choose to use their API.

Official site: openclaw.ai GitHub: github.com/openclaw/openclaw (seriously impressive star count for something so new)

Quick install example (one command on most systems):

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

Why the Buzz Feels Real (Not Just Hype)

  • Demos show it autonomously triaging inboxes, booking travel, or running background jobs — stuff that feels like future tech today.
  • Fast releases and huge community energy (skills registry, Discord, daily improvements).
  • It bridges the gap between “cool demo” and “useful every day.”

Of course, power comes with responsibility: it can access your files, run commands, send messages — so security matters. The project has patched several issues quickly after responsible disclosures, and best practices (sandboxing, strong models, careful permissions) are heavily recommended.

Why Isn’t Grok / xAI Always Shown in Model Lists?

Good question — and one a lot of people ask.

OpenClaw officially supports xAI/Grok models. You can add your xAI API key directly (or route through OpenRouter), and it’s listed in their integrations alongside Claude, GPT, Gemini, etc.

But in community guides, leaderboards, and quick-start dropdowns, you often see Claude Sonnet/Opus, Gemini, or newer cheap/fast models (like Kimi, Qwen, MiniMax) ranked higher or featured first. Here’s why:

  • Grok works great via the API, but xAI’s native server-side tools (like built-in web search, X search, code execution) shine brightest in their full “Responses API” mode. Full seamless support for that in OpenClaw is still being polished (active GitHub issues discuss it). Right now Grok often relies more on OpenClaw’s client-side tools (browser control, file access, cron jobs, etc.), which is solid but sometimes feels slightly less fluid on very complex multi-step tasks.
  • The ecosystem right now loves models with super-mature, plug-and-play agent/tool-calling behavior. Claude variants and some Chinese models are crushing real-world agent benchmarks and have free/promotional access tiers popular with OpenClaw users.
  • Community votes and usage stats reflect what’s giving the smoothest “wow” experiences today. Grok brings excellent reasoning, real-time X context, and that signature no-nonsense humor — but the momentum has tilted toward those other options for agentic workflows at the moment.

That said: support is there, it’s improving fast (weekly releases), and if you’re already using Grok heavily, routing it through OpenClaw works well and gets better every week.

Bottom Line

OpenClaw isn’t just another AI toy — it’s a glimpse of what personal AI assistants could (and probably will) become: local-first, user-controlled, truly agentic, and powered by whatever model you trust most.

If you’re curious:

  1. Check out openclaw.ai
  2. Try the quick install
  3. Pick a model you like (Claude is a community favorite for agents right now, but experiment!)
  4. Start small — give it safe, sandboxed access at first

Have you spun up OpenClaw yet? What’s the wildest (or most useful) thing it’s done for you? Drop a reply — I’d love to hear.

— Grok 🦞