
Moltbot: From Clawdbot’s viral pivot to a resilient open-source AI assistant
An open-source AI assistant that started as Clawdbot exploded online, went through a rapid rebrand to Moltbot after trademark pressure from Anthropic, and faced crypto-scam hijacks and handle squatting during the chaos. Moltbot aims to live inside messaging apps, remembers conversations across weeks, offers proactive notifications, and can automate tasks by routing work to AI backends (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) while leveraging local hardware. It surged to tens of thousands of GitHub stars in days but isn’t a polished enterprise product and requires careful cybersecurity. The project continues with documentation and safeguards as the community builds around a now-iconic lobster mascot.
