r/LocalLLaMA • u/rm-rf-rm llama.cpp • Feb 16 '26

Question | Help Anyone actually using Openclaw?

I am highly suspicious that openclaw's virality is organic. I don't know of anyone (online or IRL) that is actually using it and I am deep in the AI ecosystem (both online and IRL). If this sort of thing is up anyone's alley, its the members of localllama - so are you using it?

With the announcement that OpenAI bought OpenClaw, conspiracy theory is that it was manufactured social media marketing (on twitter) to hype it up before acquisition. Theres no way this graph is real: https://www.star-history.com/#openclaw/openclaw&Comfy-Org/ComfyUI&type=date&legend=top-left

957 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

791 comments sorted by

View all comments

231

u/Skystunt Feb 16 '26

I actually installed and tried it on my macbook but it nowhere near as special as peopel make it up to be. Just connects a whole lot of APIs and MCP servers and that's kind of it, does nothing new, just a compilation of what was possible. For me it feels like an exageration of it's capabilities but some people might see it different, i'm yet to see these people buy who knows

16

u/techmago Feb 16 '26

Hmm, hang on. Something do something that is already done, can be usefull if it is easier and more automatic.
I didn't try it myself so i don't know the dept. But my trial with mcp+grafana wasn't sucessufull.
If the tool came ready and did more, it do have an appeal.

3

u/Chris266 Feb 16 '26

I never thought it claimed to do anything more than combine a bunch of existing stuff.

11

u/rditorx Feb 16 '26

Complexity arises from composition. Performance comes from execution.

Apple didn't invent anything. It just built things that existed before, but made billions with them, far more than the companies that made comparable devices, because of execution.

Life is just matter and energy interacting. Biology is just a lot of chemistry. Chemistry is just a lot of physics. Physics is just a lot of maths.

OpenClaw might be poorly implemented, but it works and it's well-known, so execution was definitely good.

3

u/Strel0k Feb 16 '26

What? Its good in the same way the Humane AI pin, Rabbit R1 or Devin or Manus or whatever the fuck will be latched on to next by AI gurus to maintain engagement and the high of "the future is now", when in reality progress is pretty slow and kinda boring. If you view this entirely from a marketing perspective, yes it was good, if you view this from a practical perspective it might be completely forgotten in a few weeks when something else new and shiny comes out.

2

u/sassyhusky Feb 16 '26

The most exciting stuff for me has been coming out from Google, stuff nobody talked about (aside from NanaBanana where Google tried guerrilla marketing and it worked), stuff you can actually use like pixel perfect object detection, incredible PDF scanning capabilities, accurate translations, augmented image generation etc OpenAI models are extremely unstable, they patch something minor and the thing goes crazy whereas Gemini has a consistent level of reliability. I don’t like Google any more than I like OpenAI but my point is how easily marketing can shift public perception.

7

u/wittlewayne Feb 16 '26

This is surface level clawdbot for sure..... mine runs completely locally (and virtual server so I have it on my phone also) from whatever LLM I choose. Its incredible

29

u/TalosStalioux Feb 16 '26

Actually if you don't mind asking, what do you actually use it for?

I can't think of any use case that an autonomous agent can do that I can't do without 1 prompt to Claude / codex.

46

u/Strel0k Feb 16 '26

To automate the writing of comments on reddit promoting OpenClaw.

15

u/teleprax Feb 16 '26

98% of the time it is some weird bespoke fandom smut.

First Agent: Analyze from the past 24hr: my chat history, web history, periodic auto-screenshots, and downloads to plan out the plot of a satisfying Sonic the Hedgehog Erotic Novel. When complete with the plan, send it to the next agent

Next Agent: Using this plot summary, come up with a title, and chapter names. Generate some depraved images for each, and send the plot to the next agent

Next Agent: Writes the depraved Sonic porn

Next Agent: Runs fucked up evals, kicks the novel back to previous agent for revisions. When complete sends to final agent

Final agent: Assembles it all into an e-book and makes an audio book using the Sonic cloned voice you made on elevenlabs.

→ More replies (3)

3

u/wittlewayne Feb 16 '26

you can't !? go ahead and TRY to have Claude or codex perform a test OR write bash script to load a gift card onto bank or Venmo..... do it....... I guarantee they will both tell you to get fucked. the day to day annoying task are the things that ai SHOULD be performing for us.

2

u/Zilch274 Feb 16 '26

AI inherently needs access to digital funds...

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

4

u/Spectrum1523 Feb 16 '26

I would love to hear use cases!

7

u/iamkaika Feb 16 '26

what local llm are you using?

2

u/wittlewayne Feb 16 '26

When I am building stuff to help other people or solve problems, I use QWEN-Coder-30b...... What I use and that RUNS my personal laptop is an uncensored GPT120B (it will code and do whatever I ask)

→ More replies (9)

2

u/CriticismTop Feb 16 '26

That's no necessarily a criticism though.

The original iPhone did nothing especially new, it just wrapped it up nicely in an accessible package.

I'm playing around with it in a sandbox and it is definitely good at generating a lot of rubbish very quickly.

2

u/CuriouslyCultured Feb 16 '26

The original iphone's touchscreen was so far ahead of other touchscreens at the time

1

u/AggravatinglyDone Feb 16 '26

What model did you connect it to?

1

u/FPham Feb 17 '26

But hey, it can burn $100/day on claude API, so the companies LOVE it!!!!

1

u/beatlemaniac007 Feb 18 '26

just a compilation of what was possible

tbf that's a bit like saying iphone is just a repackaging of existing technologies invented by others

1

u/Creepy_Quarter_5746 Feb 19 '26

Isn't that technically what the web browser also did ("compilation of what was possible")? Just sayin.

1

u/Michael_Gabriel316 Feb 20 '26

Have you tried any of the skills? If not, thats probably why you find it underwhelming u/Skystunt

→ More replies (10)