OpenClaw wasn't always OpenClaw. The project's journey from Clawdbot to Moltbot to OpenClaw is a tale of community, legal wrangling, and a lobster that refused to quit.
Clawdbot: The Beginning
In November 2025, Peter Steinberger—creator of PSPDFKit and a prolific open-source developer—released Clawdbot. The name was a pun on Anthropic's Claude: a "claw" that could "do" things. It was playful, memorable, and quickly gained traction.
Users loved it. The project went viral. Then Anthropic's legal team reached out. The name was too close to their trademark. Clawdbot had to change.
Moltbot: A Community Rebrand
The community rallied. In a Discord brainstorm, someone suggested "Moltbot"—lobsters molt, shedding their shells to grow. The metaphor fit: the project was evolving, shedding its old identity. Molty the space lobster was born as the mascot.
Moltbot ran for a few weeks. But "Molt" had its own trademark concerns. The team needed a name that was distinctive and defensible.
OpenClaw: The Final Form
On January 30, 2026, the project became OpenClaw. "Open" for open source; "Claw" for the lobster and the idea of an AI that grabs and executes. The community embraced it. The GitHub org, docs, and branding updated. Molty stayed—because every lobster needs a name.
Today, OpenClaw is one of the fastest-growing open-source AI projects. The claw that does things. The lobster way.
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