:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       85ca69dd-d085-4a55-ad11-021910b1f82e
:CREATED:  [2026-05-22 Thu]
:END:
#+title: OpenClaw — Personal AI Assistant
#+filetags: :passepartout:strategy:competitive:openclaw:

TypeScript/Node.js, ~3.5M lines. The largest codebase analyzed. Personal AI assistant with 25+ messaging channel support.

Architecture: pnpm workspace with ~135 bundled plugins. Gateway control plane routes messages through multi-agent routing. Per-agent sessions, workspaces, skill registries. Companion native apps (macOS, iOS, Android).

Safety model: Tiered — main agent runs tools directly on host (trusted-operator), non-main sessions sandboxed via Docker (read-only rootfs, capability dropping, seccomp/AppArmor, memory/cpu/PID limits, SSH/OpenShell backends).

Data model: Typed JSON/YAML config (openclaw.json). Multi-source model catalog. Plugin SDK with narrow typed subpath exports.

Self-modification: ACP (Agent Control Protocol) for spawning child sessions. Skill system with npm distribution and ClawHub registry.

Verification: None.

Key gap vs Passepartout: Same as Hermes — no gate stack, no knowledge graph, no Org-mode, no verification, no neurosymbolic architecture. Differentiated by vastly broader channel support and mature plugin ecosystem. But architecturally conventional — LLM + tools + channels, no cognitive architecture innovation.

See the full [[id:3aa22300-2f25-57b0-8787-9f199cc978b1][competitive analysis]] for the landscape view and comparison.