Moltbot Vs Clawdbot: What's the Difference?
If you’ve recently searched for Clawdbot, you might have noticed something strange: the GitHub repository is gone, the tweets are deleted, and the community seems to have vanished. In its place stands a new contender: Moltbot.
Is this a hostile takeover? A fork? Or something else entirely?
The short answer is: Moltbot is Clawdbot.
The Great Rebrand: Why Clawdbot Disappeared
In early 2026, Clawdbot was one of the fastest-growing open-source AI projects in the world. As a "Personal OS" for the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, it allowed users to control their Mac Mini or PC via text messages. However, its name became its undoing.
The name "Clawdbot" was a play on "Claude". While the community loved it, Anthropic's legal team (quite reasonably) flagged it for trademark infringement. To avoid a legal battle that could shut down the project, the creator, peter-s, decided to rebrand immediately.
The new name, Moltbot, was chosen to represent growth. Just as a lobster molts its shell to grow larger, the bot shed its "Clawd" identity to survive and expand.
CRITICAL SECURITY WARNING
DO NOT USE THE OLD HANDLES
When the project renamed to Moltbot, the original "Clawdbot" Twitter handle and GitHub organization were released. They were immediately snatched up by crypto scammers.
Any account currently using the name "Clawdbot" on X (Twitter) or GitHub is likely an imposter attempting to wallet-drain users.
Always verify you are on the official Moltbot repository before downloading anything.
Timeline of Events
Jan 7, 2026: The Launch
"Clawdbot" is released. It goes viral instantly, trending #1 on GitHub.
Jan 20, 2026: The Dispute
Anthropic requests a name change to avoid confusion with their official Claude product.
Jan 27, 2026: Moltbot is Born
The project rebrands to Moltbot. All official links move to the `moltbot` organization.
Side-by-Side Comparison
To visualise the changes (or lack thereof), here is a side-by-side comparison of the legacy Clawdbot identity versus the new Moltbot standard, alongside traditional cloud agents.
| Feature | Clawdbot (Legacy) | Moltbot (Current) | Cloud Agents (e.g. ChatGPT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Model | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | GPT-4o / Gemini |
| Data Privacy | Local-First | Local-First | Cloud Storage |
| File System Access | Full (Rw) | Full (Rw) | Limited (Sandboxed) |
| Branding Status | DEPRECATED / UNSAFE | ACTIVE / OFFICIAL | ACTIVE |
* Note: While the branding has changed, the underlying architecture remains consistent. Your old config files will work with Moltbot, but you should update your CLI alias.
