From Clawdbot to Moltbot to OpenClaw: The Wild Rebranding Journey
The hottest open-source AI project of 2025-2026 has gone through more identity changes than a witness protection program. Here's the full story of how OpenClaw got its name.
The Birth of Clawdbot
In November 2025, Austrian developer Peter Steinberger — founder of PSPDFKit who exited to Insight Partners — released an AI assistant called Clawdbot. The name was a playful mashup of "Claude" (Anthropic's AI model) and "claw," referencing the project's lobster mascot.
Clawdbot was essentially "Claude with hands" — an AI agent that didn't just chat, but actually performed tasks on your computer. It could manage emails, control smart home devices, run terminal commands, and even write code autonomously.
The project exploded in popularity after Anthropic released Claude Code in December 2025. Developers saw Clawdbot as the perfect companion, and GitHub stars skyrocketed.
Anthropic's Trademark Request
Then came the cease-and-desist.
"Clawd" sounds exactly like "Claude" if you say it fast. Anthropic's legal team politely but firmly requested a name change to avoid brand confusion. Steinberger understood — he was building on top of Claude's capabilities, after all.
The Molt: Becoming Moltbot
In a clever pivot, Steinberger renamed the project to Moltbot. The name referenced lobsters shedding their shells to grow — perfect for an AI that helps you evolve your capabilities.
But renaming a viral project is like performing surgery on a moving train.
10 Seconds of Chaos
Between dropping the old name and claiming the new one, every opportunist on the internet was watching:
- Someone snatched Steinberger's old GitHub username
- Fake cryptocurrency projects appeared under his name
- Impersonator accounts proliferated on X (Twitter)
- One fake token reached a $16 million market cap before crashing
The community rallied, but the chaos highlighted the risks of building in public.
The Final Form: OpenClaw
By early 2026, the project adopted its current name: OpenClaw. The name keeps the lobster theme while emphasizing its open-source nature and model-agnostic architecture.
Today, OpenClaw has over 100,000 GitHub stars — faster than almost anything in GitHub history. It's no longer framed as "Claude with hands" but as independent AI agent infrastructure that works with any LLM provider.
What OpenClaw Does Today
- Email triage: Automatically sorts, drafts replies, and manages your inbox
- Calendar management: Schedules meetings and sends reminders
- Developer workflows: Runs tests, debugs code, deploys updates
- Smart home control: Manages lighting, temperature, and security
- 24/7 operation: Works while you sleep via scheduled tasks and webhooks
The affectionate community nickname "Molty" lives on, a reminder of the project's turbulent journey to find its identity.