What If Your Slack Could Answer Questions Without You?

ClawdBot lets you access Claude through Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, and four other platforms — all from one local gateway you install with a single command. Alex Finn's walkthrough covers the full setup process. I've pulled out the key points below if you're short on time.

Why I'm Excited About a Tool I Can't Even Spell Right

A client texted me last week: "My AI assistant just reminded me about a meeting I mentioned three weeks ago. In Telegram. Without me asking." I assumed he'd finally cracked and started talking to himself. Then he showed me ClawdBot.

In 30 years of building systems, I've watched a lot of "revolutionary" tools come and go. Most of them require you to change how you work. Open a new app. Learn a new interface. Remember to check another dashboard. ClawdBot flips that. It meets you in the apps you're already using. That's the kind of design decision that separates tools people actually use from tools people demo once and forget.

I've spent the past two weeks digging into this—reading the documentation, watching setup videos, and talking to people who've deployed it. Here's what I found.

What Is ClawdBot and Why Does It Matter?

ClawdBot is an open-source project created by Peter Steinberger, a successful entrepreneur who's now dedicated to building this full-time. It runs as a local gateway on your computer—Windows, macOS, or Linux—and connects to the messaging platforms you already use.

The architecture is local-first. Your data stays on your machine. The gateway connects AI models (Claude, ChatGPT, others) to your messaging apps. You chat with it like you'd chat with a friend. It remembers what you said last week. It can reach out to you without being prompted.

This matters because the current AI assistant experience is fragmented. You go to ChatGPT for one thing. Claude for another. Siri for... well, hopefully nothing important. ClawdBot consolidates this into whatever app you're already checking fifty times a day.

How Does ClawdBot Actually Work?

The setup is surprisingly simple. One command from clawd.bot gets you started. The gateway runs locally and connects to your chosen messaging platform—Telegram is the most popular, but WhatsApp, iMessage, Discord, Slack, and Signal all work.

Here's the key architecture insight: ClawdBot isn't another AI chatbot. It's a routing layer. It takes your messages from familiar apps, sends them to whatever AI model you've configured, and returns the response. The magic is in what it adds on top:

• Persistent memory that saves important context from every conversation
• Proactive messaging—it can reach out to YOU with morning briefings or reminders
• An extensible skills system that lets you add functionality like Apple Notes control, Notion integration, or PowerPoint creation
• The ability to control other AI coding tools like Claude Code and Codex

That last point caught my attention. One user reported they stopped using Claude Code directly—they just tell ClawdBot what to build, and it orchestrates the coding session. An agent controlling other agents.

Which AI Model Should You Use?

ClawdBot supports multiple AI backends. The choice comes down to two factors: intelligence and personality.

According to users who've tested extensively, Claude Opus 4.5 ranks highest on both dimensions. It's the most capable and feels the most human in conversation. ChatGPT 5.2 scores high on intelligence but users describe it as "robotic" in personality. For a tool you're chatting with daily, that personality gap matters more than you'd think.

There's also MiniMax for budget-conscious users—we'll get to costs in a moment—but the tradeoff is less capability.

What Does This Cost?

This is where it gets interesting. ClawdBot itself is free and open-source. You're paying for the AI model access underneath.

Three pricing tiers emerged from my research:

1. **API billing (Claude API)**: Can run thousands of dollars monthly if you're heavy users. No cap means no safety net.
2. **Claude Max subscription**: $200/month. You can route your existing subscription through ClawdBot instead of paying separately.
3. **Budget option (MiniMax)**: As low as $10/month. Less capable, but functional for basic use cases.

One user on the ClawdBot site mentioned an interesting pattern: they started with Claude Max, hit the usage limits quickly, then set up a proxy to route their CoPilot subscription as an API endpoint. The flexibility to mix and match backends is a feature.

For most business owners testing this, I'd start with Claude Max at $200/month. It gives you the best model without the risk of a surprise four-figure bill.

What Can ClawdBot Actually Do?

The core use cases break into three categories:

**Personal assistant basics**: Scheduling, reminders, note-taking. The difference from Siri is it actually works, and it remembers context. Tell it about a meeting Friday, and it remembers Friday. No more starting from scratch every conversation.

**Proactive outreach**: This is the feature that surprised me most. ClawdBot can message you without prompting. Morning briefings. Reminders about things you mentioned days ago. Alerts when something relevant happens. Most AI tools wait for you to initiate. This one reaches out.

**Developer workflows**: For technical users, ClawdBot can orchestrate coding sessions. One user described having it control Claude Code and Codex—building applications autonomously, running tests through a Sentry webhook, capturing errors, resolving them, and opening PRs. That's not a chatbot. That's an autonomous agent.

The skills marketplace extends functionality further. Apple Notes control. Notion integration. PowerPoint creation. To-do list management. And because it's open-source with TypeScript/JavaScript support, you can write your own.

Where Does This Fall Apart?

I promised you the reality, so here it is.

**The always-on problem**: For proactive messaging to work, ClawdBot needs to run 24/7. If it's on your laptop and you close the lid, your assistant goes to sleep. The solution is running it on a VPS—a virtual private server—which adds complexity and cost. This isn't a "install and forget" tool.

**Cost unpredictability**: API billing can spiral fast. One heavy week of conversations could cost more than the previous month. The $200 Claude Max option caps this, but you're trading cost certainty for usage limits.

**Technical barrier to entry**: Yes, it's "one command to install." But then you need to configure messaging platform integrations, manage API keys, potentially set up a VPS, and troubleshoot when things break. This is not built for non-technical users. Yet.

How Do You Set It Up?

If you're still reading, here's the practical path:

1. Go to clawd.bot and copy the one-line install command from the Quick Start section
2. Run it on your machine (Windows, macOS, or Linux)
3. Configure your AI backend—start with Claude Max for simplicity
4. Connect your preferred messaging platform (Telegram is most common)
5. Set up your personality preferences and enable memory features
6. For 24/7 availability, deploy to a VPS instead of running locally

The documentation is solid. The community is active. But expect to spend an afternoon getting everything configured the way you want it.

How Do You Know It's Working?

• Your assistant remembers context from conversations days or weeks ago without you re-explaining
• You receive proactive messages—morning briefings, reminders, or relevant alerts—without prompting
• Response times feel conversational (under 5 seconds for most queries)
• The skills you've added work reliably (notes save to Apple Notes, tasks appear in Notion, etc.)
• Your monthly costs are predictable and match your expectations

What This Means for Your AI Stack

ClawdBot represents a pattern I expect to see more of: AI that meets you where you are instead of asking you to go somewhere new. The messaging app integration is the insight. We already check Telegram or WhatsApp constantly. Adding AI to that existing habit is lower friction than building a new one.

• **If you're technical and frustrated with fragmented AI tools**: ClawdBot is worth a weekend experiment. The $200/month Claude Max option limits your downside while you test.
• **If you want proactive AI but aren't ready for VPS management**: Wait. This will get easier. But it's not there yet for non-technical users.
• **If you're building AI workflows for your team**: Watch this space. The skills marketplace and extensibility hints at enterprise use cases that don't exist yet.
• **If you're skeptical whether you'd actually change your behavior**: Trust that instinct. One reviewer's "probably not" applies to a lot of people. Cool doesn't mean useful.

ClawdBot launched roughly three weeks ago, around early January 2026. It's early. Peter Steinberger is actively developing it. The architecture is sound. The execution is promising. Whether it becomes the way you interact with AI depends on whether you're willing to invest the setup time.

For more context on evaluating AI tools like this, I've written about the broader landscape of AI tools for builders and how to think about AI strategy when you're deciding what to adopt.

FAQ

Sources

• ClawdBot Official Site
• VelvetShark Analysis
• Addrom Overview