Have we found AGI? Do I need to buy a Mac Mini? What is Clawdbot? Do I need it? How do I get it? Don't worry, I have answered every question you're thinking about right here:
If you want to scroll to questions from various topics I have provided a list here:
Foundational questions
Hardware & setup questions
Functionality questions
Comparison questions
Cost questions
Practical questions
Risks & considerations
The big picture
FOUNDATIONAL QUESTIONS
1. What exactly is Clawdbot?
Clawdbot is a free, open-source AI assistant that never sleeps. It runs continuously on either your own machine or a cheap cloud server, and instead of making you visit a website like ChatGPT, it meets you where you already are: your messaging apps.
You text it like a friend. It texts you back. Same conversation whether you're on your phone, laptop, or tablet. It remembers everything you've told it and can actually do work on your computer, not just answer questions.
The key difference: Other AI tools wait for your questions and give you answers. Clawdbot takes action.
2. Who created Clawdbot?
Peter Steinberger (@steipete) the former CEO of PSPDFKit who built that company over 13 years before selling it. He came out of retirement to build this.
The mascot is a space lobster named Clawd. When Steinberger was developing the project with Claude, the AI suggested naming its persona "Clawdis" as a joke about a space lobster in a TARDIS. The name evolved into Clawdbot, and the crustacean theme stuck.
Notable endorsement: Andrej Karpathy (former Tesla AI director, OpenAI founding member) has publicly praised the project.
3. Why is everyone suddenly talking about Clawdbot?
Three reasons everyone's losing their minds:
First, it actually remembers things. Ask Siri what you told it yesterday. It has no idea. Clawdbot remembers your last conversation, your preferences, that random thing you mentioned two weeks ago. It builds context over time and gets better at helping you.
Second, it messages YOU first. Normal AI waits for you to open it. Clawdbot can proactively reach out:
"Hey, you have 3 urgent emails and a meeting in 20 minutes"
"That stock you're watching just dropped 5%"
"Weather's bad tomorrow, might want to reschedule"
Third, it can do things on your computer. Fill out forms. Send emails. Move files. Run programmes. Control your browser. One user redesigned their whole site from their sofa while bingeing a show. They never touched a computer, just sent text instructions from their phone.
HARDWARE & SETUP QUESTIONS
4. Do I need a Mac Mini to run Clawdbot?
No. This is the biggest misconception floating around.
Scroll through Twitter and you'll see elaborate setups with multiple Mac Minis and Raspberry Pi clusters. It's complete overkill for most people."
Clawdbot runs on a $5/month cloud server. Here's what you actually need:
A cheap cloud server OR your own computer
Node.js installed (free software)
A Claude or ChatGPT subscription
That's it. No Mac Mini farm required. AWS free tier works. A $5/month Hetzner VPS works. You can even run it on your own existing computer for $0 server costs. As a crypto guy, I do not mix anything that has access to MY computer with MY keys so I usually keep shit separate anyway.
5. Why ARE people buying Mac Minis then?
Some developers prefer dedicated hardware for a few reasons:
Performance: Apple Silicon's unified memory architecture is efficient for AI workloads
Economics: A one-time $599 purchase avoids ongoing cloud compute bills for heavy users
Privacy: Your data never leaves your physical control
Form factor: The Mac Mini is tiny (5x5 inches) and runs virtually silent
But for most people, this is overkill. The $5/month cloud server approach works perfectly fine.
6. What are the best hardware options if I DO want dedicated hardware?
Budget option ($199-209): GMKtec G3 Plus or BOSGAME B100. Wipe Windows, install Ubuntu, and you have a dedicated AI agent server for under $210. These handle Clawdbot fine since heavy lifting happens on cloud APIs anyway.
Best value Mac option ($599): Mac Mini M4 base model with 16GB unified memory. Silent operation, tiny footprint, handles AI agent workloads smoothly.
Power user Mac option ($999-1,399): 24GB configuration or M4 Pro variant for those running larger local models alongside Clawdbot.
Even cheaper: Clawdbot also runs on Raspberry Pi and older Intel Macs. The experience won't be as smooth, but it works.
7. How do I actually set up Clawdbot? (The 30-minute setup)
Step 1 (5 min): Get a free server
Go to aws.amazon.com, create account, search "EC2", click "launch instance", name it anything, select Ubuntu, search "free" for instance type and pick the 8GB option, launch, click your instance ID, click connect twice.
You'll see a black screen with a blinking cursor. Don't panic. You're about to paste one line and let a wizard do the rest.
Step 2 (2 min): Install Clawdbot
Paste this one line:
curl -fsSL https://clawd.bot/install.sh | bash
Step 3 (10 min): Run the wizard
Wizard starts automatically. Select "quick start", choose "anthropic", select "token paste setup". It asks you to run a command on your local computer to get a token. Open a new terminal, paste the command, copy the token back. Select "opus 4.5" as your model. Select "telegram bot" as your channel.
Step 4 (5 min): Create your Telegram bot
Open Telegram, search "@botfather", send /newbot, name your bot, copy the token, paste into wizard. Search "@useridbot", copy your user ID, paste into wizard.
This ensures only you can talk to your bot.
Step 5 (5 min): Give it an identity
Clawdbot asks you questions in Telegram: What should I call you? What should you call me? What's my purpose? What timezone are you in?
Answer these. Your assistant is now alive.
FUNCTIONALITY QUESTIONS
8. What can Clawdbot actually do?
Real examples from users:
Email management: Check your last 10 emails and tell you which ones need responses. Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters automatically. It doesn't just read your inbox, it acts on it.
Research: Research a company and give you a 3-bullet summary. Find the 5 best restaurants near your hotel in Tokyo. It searches, compares, gives you options, all in a text thread.
Scheduling & reminders: Remind you to follow up with someone in 3 days. Check your calendar and find time for a call Tuesday.
Proactive briefings: Wake up to a summary of your important emails, calendar for the day, and tasks to handle, delivered before you get out of bed.
Health tracking: Connect to your WHOOP and get daily fitness summaries automatically. One user set this up in 5 minutes.
Development work: Analyse your site, write a blog post, update metadata, and draft a LinkedIn post, all by voice command while you do other things.
Advanced automation: Check into flights, monitor stock prices, send alerts when something needs attention. One user has it write custom meditations, generate audio with AI voices, add ambient music, and deliver them every morning. Fully automated.
9. How does Clawdbot actually work technically?
Simple version: Clawdbot runs on a computer (yours or a cloud server), connects to your messaging apps, you text it and it responds, and it can also do tasks on that computer.
Slightly more technical: A background process called the Gateway acts as a routing layer. It receives your messages from whichever app you're using, passes them to the AI for processing, and sends the response back to you. The AI thinks, responds, and can also trigger actions like opening a browser or running a script.
Key privacy point: Everything stays on your machine. Your data doesn't go to some company's server (except for the AI calls to Claude/ChatGPT for the actual reasoning).
10. Can I use voice instead of typing?
Yes. You can use voice notes on Telegram or WhatsApp. Talk to Clawdbot while you walk, drive, or do other things.
Real example: One developer dictated instructions into Telegram during their morning dog walk. By the time they got home, Clawdbot had generated detailed specification files on their desktop without them touching a keyboard.
Some people run multiple agents in Slack. Set off one task, start another. They run in parallel.
11. Is Clawdbot self-improving?
Yes. Tell it you want a new capability, and it can often write its own "skill" (plugin) to make it happen.
Real example: A student needed to pull assignment data from his university portal. He asked Clawdbot to create the integration. It wrote the plugin, tested it, and began using it autonomously.
COMPARISON QUESTIONS
12. How is Clawdbot different from ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a chat window. Clawdbot is an assistant that lives in your life.
13. How is Clawdbot different from Siri?
Siri forgets you exist between requests. Clawdbot builds a running memory of your preferences, past conversations, and context that compounds over time.
Ask Siri what you told it yesterday. It has no idea. Clawdbot remembers your last conversation, your preferences, context from weeks ago.
Siri also can't do complex multi-step tasks or message you proactively when something important happens.
14. How is Clawdbot different from hiring a virtual assistant?
Hiring a human assistant runs $500-2000 monthly, and they're offline for a third of the day. Clawdbot costs a fraction of that and operates around the clock.
The tradeoff: Some technical setup required, and it can't handle ambiguous judgement calls that require human nuance, but let's be real, who tf is hiring a human unless you're a giga baller?
COST QUESTIONS
15. What does Clawdbot cost in total?
The software: Free (open source)
The server: $0-50/month
Free with AWS free tier
$5/month with Hetzner VPS (works for most people)
$0 if you run it on your own computer
The AI: $20-100/month
Claude Pro: $20/month
Claude Max: $100/month (for heavy users)
Or use API keys (pay per use)
Total realistic cost: $25-150/month for a personal AI assistant that actually works.
Compare that to "AI consultants" charging $10K to set up a basic chatbot.
PRACTICAL QUESTIONS
16. Do I need to be technical to set up Clawdbot?
Honestly? A little bit. If you can follow instructions and copy-paste commands, you can set it up. It's not "click a button and done", but it's not rocket science either.
The whole setup is copy-paste. The wizard walks you through everything.
Stuck somewhere? Take a screenshot, paste it into the LLM, and ask for help. It will walk you through the exact next step. Non-technical users have been doing this successfully throughout the setup process.
If that still sounds intimidating just follow some simple guides and video guides to get you through it.
17. What messaging apps does Clawdbot support?
WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, and iMessage.
18. What if something breaks?
Tell your bot "fix this" and paste the error. It usually fixes itself.
The Discord community is also very active with 30+ contributions per day, and bugs get fixed in hours. The project is only weeks old but already feels close to production-ready.
19. What are the first things I should try after setup?
Three quick wins to build trust:
Win 1, The inbox test: "Check my last 10 emails and tell me which ones actually need a response."
Win 2, The research test: "Research [company you're curious about] and give me a 3-bullet summary of what they do."
Win 3, The reminder test: "Remind me to [something you've been putting off] tomorrow at 9am."
All three take under 60 seconds. You'll have results before you finish your coffee. Now you trust it. Now you start giving it real work.
20. What should I set up after the basic installation?
Add Brave Search so it can search the web. Go to brave.com/search/api, get a free API key, tell your bot "set up brave search with this API key."
Then connect your tools over time: GitHub, Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar.
Then give it real tasks:
"Research [company] and give me a one-pager"
"Remind me to follow up with [name] in 3 days"
"Draft a LinkedIn post about [topic]"
"Check my calendar and find time for a call Tuesday"
"Summarise this article and draft a thank you email to the author"
The skills are additive. Every day it gets better.
RISK & CONSIDERATION QUESTIONS
21. What are the security risks?
Giving an AI agent keyboard and mouse access to your computer is, as one commenter noted, "hilarious, troubling, and awesome" all at once.
The real risks:
Potential for accidental, incorrect actions
Your agent has your credentials and can access your email
Adversarial instructions embedded in emails or web pages could manipulate the agent
The safeguards: Steinberger has built in safeguards, and you can configure exactly what permissions your agent has. It's open source (which helps for transparency), so anyone can audit the code.
The honest answer: The security model for personal AI agents is still evolving. These aren't fully solved problems yet.
22. Has anything gone wrong for users?
One user's agent "accidentally started a fight" with an insurance company. The Clawdbot misinterpreted a response and sent an email that caused the insurer to reinvestigate a claim that had been rejected.
The twist: The agent's assertiveness actually worked in the user's favour. But it highlights both the power and the risks of autonomous AI agents.
23. Should I use Clawdbot right now?
Yes if:
You want an AI assistant that remembers you
You're tired of copy-pasting between ChatGPT and everything else
You want proactive notifications and automation
You're comfortable with basic technical setup (or know someone who is)
Maybe wait if:
You need something that works perfectly out of the box
You're not comfortable running commands in a terminal
You need enterprise-level support and guarantees
The reality: This is early. It's moving fast. Bugs get fixed in hours. Features ship weekly. But that's also why the people using it now are getting ahead.
THE BIG PICTURE
24. Why does this matter?
Steinberger puts it bluntly: "Apps will melt away. The prompt is your new interface."
His vision extends beyond personal assistants: agents communicating with each other, your agent negotiating with someone else's agent, handling scheduling conflicts and task coordination without human involvement.
Dave Morin tweeted: "After a few weeks in with it, this is the first time I have felt like I am living in the future since the launch of ChatGPT."
The gap between "has a 24/7 AI assistant" and "doesn't" is about to get massive. The people setting up Clawdbot today will have a head start everyone else spends months catching up on.
25. Where can I learn more?
Documentation: https://clawd.bot
GitHub repository for development
Active Discord community (30+ contributions per day)
FINISHING UP...
Clawdbot is a 24/7 AI assistant that lives in your messaging apps, remembers everything, messages you first, and does real work on your computer.
You don't need a Mac Mini. You need $25/month and 30 minutes.
The question isn't whether AI assistants will become normal. It's whether you'll be ahead or catching up.
RESOURCES USED FOR THIS ARTICLE:
I don't pretend to know everything, I found all of this information from some intense reading in the past 24 hours since this became a viral and exciting topic in a skillset I'm super interested in maxxing: AI fluency. I have NOT been paid to post this.
Here's the list of resources:
1: https://www.macstories.net/stories/clawdbot-showed-me-what-the-future-of-personal-ai-assistants-looks-like/
2: https://www.starryhope.com/minipcs/clawdbot-mac-mini-ai-agent-trend/
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12: Finally - the actual website itself: https://clawd.bot
