The origin: Clawdbot and a weekend experiment
There are open source projects that grow in silence for years until they eventually be discovered. And then there are projects like OpenClaw – then called Clawdbot – which From a weekend experiment to the global one within a few weeks Shake up the developer community.
Peter Steinberger is no stranger to the software world. The Austrian developer founded PSPDFKit, a document SDK based on over one Billion devices are running. He is what you would think of in the English-speaking tech scene Vibe Coder called: someone who relies on feeling, intuition and speed, less on planning.
In November 2025, Steinberger sat down to do a simple experiment: He wanted to know what happens when you connect WhatsApp to Anthropic's Claude API. The first version needed one hour. Send a message – Claude answers. Have emails checked – no problem. The whole thing ran locally, on own hardware, without cloud dependency.
He called it Clawdbot. A neologism from the unofficial Nicknames of Anthropic's model - "Clawd", a phonetic variant of "Claude" - and the suffix “-bot”. The mascot: a cartoon lobster from outer space named "Clawd." Charming, self-referential, clearly too close to the mark billion dollar company.
Phase 1 – Clawdbot (November 2025 – January 27, 2026)
From the start, Clawdbot was clearly more than a bot. Steinberger had an architecture chosen, which was unusual for AI agents at the time: the agent ran completely local, understood his own source code, knew which models he could use could be controlled via CLI – and was primarily via messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord can be used.
Peter Steinberger sent the agent a voice memo via WhatsApp - although Voice processing was not implemented back then. Minutes later there was an answer. The agent independently found an OpenAI API key, connected Whisper, transcribes and processes the memo. Without human intervention.
This one example shows what differentiated Clawdbot from other tools from the start: It wasn't a static tool, but an agent that his own skill set expand at runtime could. The whole of LinkedIn was discussing it. Andrei Karpathy, former Tesla AI director called it "Genuinely the most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing I have seen recently."
The official launch on January 25, 2026 was a bang: 9,000 GitHub stars in 24 hours. The community was electrified. engineers out Silicon Valley to Beijing installed Clawdbot, discussed architectures, built the first integrations.
The trigger: Anthropic's trademark complaint
Two days after the official launch – the project just had a whirlwind On course for growth – Anthropic reported. The complaint was, in Steinberger's own words, politely put. The core: The name “Clawdbot” and the mascot "Clawd" are too close to Anthropic's brand "Claude".
Phonetically, the argument is understandable: “Clawd” and “Claude” sound identical. This wasn't an accident - it was the joke of the name. Steinberger had the project designed from the start as a tribute to the model that powered it.
“Clawdbot was phonetically too similar to Claude, and the mascot reinforced that the connection additionally."— Analysis of the trademark situation, hyperight.com, Feb. 2026
Steinberger reacted quickly. Too quickly, as it turned out.
Phase 2 – Moltbot: 72 hours of chaos
At 5 a.m., Steinberger jumped into a Discord brainstorming session with the Community. Hundreds of names were suggested. The winner: Moltbot.
The idea behind it is elegant: "To molt" in English refers to the molting process, in which lobsters shed their old shell to grow into a new, larger one. The image perfectly matched the transformation of the project - Clawdbot, which was his old Sheds its shell and becomes something larger. The Hummer identity remained intact.
On January 27, 2026 Moltbot was officially introduced. What after that? followed, is what the tech community calls it today "72 hours that ruined everything."
When Steinberger released his old Twitter/X handle @clawdbot to @moltbot claim, professional “handle snipers” grabbed the account approximately 10 seconds. Crypto scammers immediately used the hijacked account: A fictional token called $CLAWD was launched on Solana. The market capitalization shot up to $16 million – and collapsed within hours to almost zero.
The chaos surrounding Moltbot is a textbook example of the risks involved in a hasty decision Social media renaming entails. The damage to the project itself was limited – the community was already so engaged that the momentum was unstoppable. Stars continued to be collected. Integrations continued to be built.
Moltbot had a lifespan of exactly three days.
Phase 3 – OpenClaw: The name that stayed
On January 30, 2026 Steinberger announced that Moltbot again is renamed. The reason was simple and honest: the name has changed "never really felt good". Moltbot didn't roll off the tongue.
This time the approach was methodical. Trademark research. Domain backup. No hasty social media actions. The result: OpenClaw.
The name is strategically stronger than its predecessors:
| criterion | Clawdbot | Moltbot | OpenClaw |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trademark safe | ✗ No | ⚠ Risky | ✓ Tested |
| Describes open source | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ “Open” |
| Lobster identity | ✓ Yes (Clawd) | ✓ Yes (Molt) | ✓ Yes (Claw) |
| Linguistic flow | ✓ Good | ✗ Bumpy | ✓ Very good |
| Domains available | ✗ Forgiven | ⚠ Partial | ✓ Secured |
OpenClaw established itself as a canonical name within days. Today in searches, GitHub discussions, and enterprise evaluations Only this name is used - even if older posts still use Clawdbot or mention Moltbot. All three names refer to the same project, same codebase.
The complete timeline at a glance
What this naming story means for companies
The renaming of Clawdbot to OpenClaw is more than just a funny anecdote the open source world. It carries important lessons for decision-makers today evaluate whether OpenClaw is the right framework for your AI strategy.
1. The name has changed – the technology has not
If you see the name in older articles, Reddit threads or reviews Clawdbot or Moltbot read, these sources speak of the same project, the same architecture, often even the same code commit. A technical evaluation of Clawdbot from January 2026 is technically today still largely valid – under a different name.
2. The trademark situation has been resolved
OpenClaw is trademark checked. Steinberger and the team have... Moltbot disaster aware of the domain backup and trademark check prioritized. Companies using OpenClaw today are building on one stabilized brand foundation - no further name change is expected.
3. Community maturity despite rapid growth
The days of chaos surrounding Moltbot didn't weaken the project - they did it hardened. 34 security commits in a short time, an active security community and enterprise forks like NVIDIA's NemoClaw show that the ecosystem despite its turbulent early phase, is moving towards production maturity.
OpenClaw was developed as an open source project for technically savvy users. For productive use in companies – GDPR compliant, secured and scaled – you need an experienced implementation partner who can Enterprise architecture knows. This is exactly Clawgency’s core business.
FAQ: All questions about the OpenClaw naming history
OpenClaw was originally called Clawdbot (from November 2025). After one The trademark dispute with Anthropic took place on January 27, 2026 Moltbot renamed - and three days later on January 30, 2026 to OpenClaw. All three names denote the same software and codebase.
Anthropic, the company behind the AI model Claude, reached out with one Trademark complaint to Peter Steinberger. The name Clawdbot was phonetically too similar to "Claude" - the mascot "Clawd" (a lobster) reinforced this Similarity additionally.
Moltbot is derived from the English verb “to molt” – the process of skinning shed their shell from the lobster to grow. The name symbolizes transformation. However, it only lasted three days because Steinberger found him to be linguistically inept.
When Steinberger switched from Clawdbot to Moltbot, he used his old Twitter/X handle released, handle snipers hijacked the account in about 10 seconds. Crypto scammers used it for a fictitious Solana token ($CLAWD), its market capitalization rose to $16 million – and then fell to almost zero. The project itself was not involved.
The name OpenClaw was created on January 30, 2026 introduced – three days after renaming to Moltbot. Peter Steinberger explained the change with the fact that Moltbot never worked linguistically. Since then, OpenClaw has been the stable, trademark-approved name of the project.
OpenClaw was created by Peter Steinberger developed, one Austrian software developer and founder of PSPDFKit (now Nutrient). In February 2026, Steinberger moved to OpenAI; the project has been going on ever since further developed by the community.
Yes, technically they are the same project and codebase. The renames were solely for branding and communications reasons motivated. If you read Clawdbot or Moltbot in old articles, that's it always meant OpenClaw.
Ready to use OpenClaw in your company?
Clawgency implements OpenClaw for companies in a GDPR-compliant manner in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – live in 2 to 4 weeks.
Book a free initial consultation →