If you've been searching around for information on OpenClaw and kept running into different names, you're not confused. Clawdbot, Moltbot, and OpenClaw are all the same project. It just went through two name changes in a single week, which is enough to make anyone's head spin. Here's the full story.
It Started as Clawdbot
Austrian developer Peter Steinberger originally launched the project under the name Clawdbot, a personal AI agent designed to run on your own hardware and connect to platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord. The project grew fast. Faster than almost anyone expected.
The name "Clawdbot" was a nod to Claude, Anthropic's AI model, which Steinberger was using to power the assistant. He even named the mascot "Clawd." The problem was that "Clawd" sounded just like "Claude," and Anthropic took notice.
Then Came Moltbot
On January 27, 2026, Steinberger renamed the project to Moltbot after Anthropic issued a polite request for a name change due to trademark concerns over the phonetic similarity between "Clawd" and "Claude." The new name was a clever nod to the lobster theme, since molting is how lobsters shed their shell to grow.
The rename did not go smoothly. In the confusion of the transition, someone snatched the old GitHub username and started creating fake cryptocurrency projects. Fake accounts spread across social platforms, and one fake token reached a reported $16 million market cap before collapsing. Steinberger publicly warned his community that any token associated with the project was a scam.
To make things worse, Moltbot never really felt like the right name, even to Steinberger himself.
And Finally, OpenClaw
Just three days after becoming Moltbot, on January 30, 2026, Steinberger renamed the project again to OpenClaw. This time the change was voluntary, intended to be a stable reset after a chaotic week. The name was chosen to emphasize that the assistant is open-source and community-driven, while keeping the "claw" heritage of its lobster-themed origins.
This time, Steinberger did his homework. He ran trademark searches and secured all relevant domains before making the announcement to prevent the same chaos from repeating.
So Are They Actually Different?
No. Clawdbot, Moltbot, and OpenClaw are the same project and codebase. The rebrands did not introduce any fork or incompatible architecture, and existing installations were migrated automatically. If you're reading an old article that refers to Clawdbot or Moltbot, it's talking about the same tool you know today as OpenClaw.
The mascot, Molty the lobster, also stayed consistent through all three names. The project's identity changed on paper, but the vision never did: an always-on, self-hosted AI assistant that actually does things, not just answers questions.
Ready to try OpenClaw yourself? Deploy it in minutes with ClawHosted, no server setup, no headaches.
