A security-first fork of OpenClaw for households, research teams, and small organizations. We don't YOLO upstream changes — every merge is screened for security and stability.
OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices. It answers you on the channels you already use. It can speak and listen on macOS/iOS/Android, and can render a live Canvas you control. The Gateway is just the control plane — the product is the assistant.
OpenClaw is a self-hosted AI assistant that runs on your own devices and connects to the messaging channels you already use (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Signal, iMessage, Slack, and many more). It can speak, listen, render a live Canvas, and control a browser — all from a single local gateway.
SybilClaw extends OpenClaw with two core capabilities that OpenClaw doesn't support out of the box. We also follow a conservative merge policy: security patches and critical stability fixes are cherry-picked promptly; feature merges happen only against vetted upstream LTS releases. We'd rather be a week late than deploy a broken system.
Why SybilClaw over OpenClaw?
OpenClaw is designed around a single user. SybilClaw makes it a first-class multi-user system:
SOUL.md defines the AI's character, expertise, and values. Every user interacts with the same coherent entity — not a blank chatbot.MEMORY.md and personal document store. Alice's context, history, and preferences never bleed into Bob's.Who is this for?
Context windows are finite. Most AI assistants either forget everything between sessions or dump everything into a context that grows until it breaks. SybilClaw takes a structured approach:
Tiered memory architecture:
| Layer | Purpose | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Personal MEMORY.md | Long-term curated facts, preferences, decisions | Per-user |
| Personal topics/ | Typed subdirectories: projects, tools, feedback, context | Per-user |
| Shared household/ | Schedules, logistics, shared decisions | All users |
| Daily logs | Session-by-session notes | Per-user |
| Context graph | Semantic tag-based retrieval across sessions | Per-user |
Key behaviors:
agents.<agentId>.memoryFile — path to per-user MEMORY.md (relative to workspace or absolute)SybilClaw inherits the full OpenClaw platform. Everything below is available in SybilClaw:
Supported channels include: WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, BlueBubbles, IRC, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Feishu, LINE, Mattermost, Nextcloud Talk, Nostr, Synology Chat, Tlon, Twitch, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WeChat, QQ, WebChat.
Website · Docs · Vision · DeepWiki · Getting Started · Updating · Showcase · FAQ · Onboarding · Nix · Docker · Discord
New install? Start here: Getting started
Preferred setup: run sybilclaw onboard in your terminal.
SybilClaw Onboard guides you step by step through setting up the gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. It is the recommended CLI setup path and works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2; strongly recommended).
Works with npm, pnpm, or bun.
SybilClaw follows a conservative merge strategy:
| Policy | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 (ASAP) | Security patches, crash fixes, CVEs — cherry-picked within 24 hours |
| Tier 2 (Maintenance) | Stability, performance, bug fixes — merged in planned maintenance windows |
| Tier 3 (Track) | Features, experiments — logged and tracked, merged only against LTS releases |
| LTS target | Full merges only against upstream LTS branches — never chasing HEAD |
Daily upstream monitoring runs automatically and produces a prioritized report. See docs/sybilclaw/stability-policy.md for details.
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Subscriptions (OAuth):
Model note: while many providers and models are supported, prefer a current flagship model from the provider you trust and already use. See Onboarding.
Runtime: Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.16+.
npm install -g sybilclaw@latest
# or: pnpm add -g sybilclaw@latest
sybilclaw onboard --install-daemon
SybilClaw Onboard installs the Gateway daemon (launchd/systemd user service) so it stays running.
Runtime: Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.16+.
Full beginner guide (auth, pairing, channels): Getting started
sybilclaw onboard --install-daemon
sybilclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose
# Send a message
sybilclaw message send --to +1234567890 --message "Hello from SybilClaw"
# Talk to the assistant (optionally deliver back to any connected channel: WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Discord/Google Chat/Signal/iMessage/BlueBubbles/IRC/Microsoft Teams/Matrix/Feishu/LINE/Mattermost/Nextcloud Talk/Nostr/Synology Chat/Tlon/Twitch/Zalo/Zalo Personal/WeChat/QQ/WebChat)
sybilclaw agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking high
Upgrading? Just run sybilclaw update (or npm update -g sybilclaw), and run sybilclaw doctor to verify your setup.
Models config + CLI: Models. Auth profile rotation + fallbacks: Model failover.
OpenClaw connects to real messaging surfaces. Treat inbound DMs as untrusted input.
Full security guide: Security
Default behavior on Telegram/WhatsApp/Signal/iMessage/Microsoft Teams/Discord/Google Chat/Slack:
dmPolicy="pairing" / channels.discord.dmPolicy="pairing" / channels.slack.dmPolicy="pairing"; legacy: channels.discord.dm.policy, channels.slack.dm.policy): unknown senders receive a short pairing code and the bot does not process their message.sybilclaw pairing approve <channel> <code> (then the sender is added to a local allowlist store).dmPolicy="open" and include "*" in the channel allowlist (allowFrom / channels.discord.allowFrom / channels.slack.allowFrom; legacy: channels.discord.dm.allowFrom, channels.slack.dm.allowFrom).Run sybilclaw doctor to surface risky/misconfigured DM policies.
main session, so the agent has full access when it is just you.agents.defaults.sandbox.mode: "non-main" to run non-main sessions inside sandboxes. Docker is the default sandbox backend; SSH and OpenShell backends are also available.bash, process, read, write, edit, sessions_list, sessions_history, sessions_send, sessions_spawn; deny browser, canvas, nodes, cron, discord, gateway./status, /new, /reset, /compact, /think <level>, /verbose on|off, /trace on|off, /usage off|tokens|full, /restart, /activation mention|alwayssessions_list, sessions_history, sessions_sendThe Gateway alone delivers a great experience. All apps are optional and add extra features.
If you plan to build/run companion apps, follow the platform runbooks below.
Note: signed builds required for macOS permissions to stick across rebuilds (see macOS Permissions).
sybilclaw nodes ….Runbook: iOS connect.
sybilclaw devices ...).Prefer pnpm for builds from source. Bun is optional for running TypeScript directly.
For the dev loop:
git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd sybilclaw
pnpm install
# First run only (or after resetting local OpenClaw config/workspace)
pnpm sybilclaw setup
# Optional: prebuild Control UI before first startup
pnpm ui:build
# Dev loop (auto-reload on source/config changes)
pnpm gateway:watch
If you need a built dist/ from the checkout (for Node, packaging, or release validation), run:
pnpm build
pnpm ui:build
pnpm sybilclaw setup writes the local config/workspace needed for pnpm gateway:watch. It is safe to re-run, but you normally only need it on first setup or after resetting local state. pnpm gateway:watch does not rebuild dist/control-ui, so rerun pnpm ui:build after ui/ changes or use pnpm ui:dev when iterating on the Control UI. If you want this checkout to run onboarding directly, use pnpm sybilclaw onboard --install-daemon.
Note: pnpm sybilclaw ... runs TypeScript directly (via tsx). pnpm build produces dist/ for running via Node / the packaged sybilclaw binary, while pnpm gateway:watch rebuilds the runtime on demand during the dev loop.
SybilClaw inherits OpenClaw's release channels but applies its own screening:
Switch channels: sybilclaw update --channel stable|beta
Details: Development channels.
Note: SybilClaw deliberately does not track upstream
main. If you want the latest experimental features, use OpenClaw directly. SybilClaw is for people who value stability.
vYYYY.M.D or vYYYY.M.D-<patch>), npm dist-tag latest.vYYYY.M.D-beta.N), npm dist-tag beta (macOS app may be missing).main, npm dist-tag dev (when published).Switch channels (git + npm): sybilclaw update --channel stable|beta|dev.
Details: Development channels.
~/.sybilclaw/workspace (configurable via agents.defaults.workspace).AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md.~/.sybilclaw/workspace/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md.Minimal ~/.sybilclaw/sybilclaw.json (model + defaults):
{
agent: {
model: "<provider>/<model-id>",
},
}
Full configuration reference (all keys + examples).
OpenClaw was built for Molty, a space lobster AI assistant. 🦞 by Peter Steinberger and the community.
SybilClaw inherits this heritage but carries its own identity — named for Sybil, the oracle who saw the future clearly. We see stability coming, and we don't ship until it arrives.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines, maintainers, and how to submit PRs. AI/vibe-coded PRs welcome! 🤖
Special thanks to Mario Zechner for his support and for pi-mono. Special thanks to Adam Doppelt for the lobster.bot domain.
Thanks to all clawtributors:
![github-actions[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/15368?v=4&s=48)
![clawdinator[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/2607181?v=4&s=48)
![google-labs-jules[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/842251?v=4&s=48)
FAQs
Multi-channel AI gateway with extensible messaging integrations
We found that sybilclaw demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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