OpenClaw; TextCortex at the time of recording

OpenClaw is an open-source agent platform that runs on a user’s own infrastructure and connects a personal AI assistant to existing messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack and Teams. Users can deploy it on a laptop, homelab or virtual private server. Its ecosystem includes ClawHub, a community for sharing agent skills, while developers can extend the platform with skills, channels and tools.

Peter Steinberger created the project in November 2025; it passed through the names Clawd and Moltbot before becoming OpenClaw in 2026. TextCortex is a separate organization, where OpenClaw maintainer Onur Solmaz previously served as founding engineer, helping companies organize knowledge and build agents. His TextCortex work included JSON-DOC, a block-based document format that gives content identifiers so AI models can reference and manipulate documents.

The OpenClaw Foundation became the project’s American nonprofit steward in 2026, with a full-time team and a mandate to keep OpenClaw MIT licensed and independent. Steinberger retained technical leadership after joining OpenAI, which supports the project and donates to the foundation. In July 2026, the foundation reported working with more than 30 organizations across AI labs, cloud providers and platforms, and convening councils on agent identity, profiles, evaluations and enterprise deployment.