You Could've Invented OpenClaw

8 days ago

OpenClaw is a persistent AI assistant designed to overcome limitations of traditional chatbots like statelessness, passivity, isolation, and single-channel operation.
Key features include living in messaging apps, remembering user preferences, running commands, waking up on a schedule, and operating on user hardware.
The architecture starts with a simple Telegram bot and evolves to include sessions for memory, SOUL.md for personality, tools for actions, and permissions for safety.
OpenClaw uses a gateway pattern to manage multiple channels (Telegram, Discord, etc.) with shared memory and configurable session scoping.
Context compaction summarizes old messages to manage token limits, while long-term memory stores information across sessions.
Command queue ensures thread safety with per-session locks, and heartbeats enable scheduled tasks.
Multi-agent routing allows different agents (e.g., main assistant and researcher) to collaborate through shared memory.
Production extensions include semantic snapshots for web browsing, configurable session scoping, plugin architecture for channels, hybrid memory search, and sub-agent spawning.
The article provides a step-by-step guide to building a similar system, starting with basic components and scaling up.

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