We saw this one coming...
By
Timothy Beck Werth
Tech Editor
Timothy Beck Werth is the Tech Editor at Mashable, where he leads coverage and assignments for the Tech and Shopping verticals. Tim has over 15 years of experience as a journalist and editor, and he has particular experience covering and testing consumer technology, smart home gadgets, and men’s grooming and style products. Previously, he was the Managing Editor and then Site Director of SPY.com, a men's product review and lifestyle website. As a writer for GQ, he covered everything from bull-riding competitions to the best Legos for adults, and he’s also contributed to publications such as The Daily Beast, Gear Patrol, and The Awl.
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Clawdbot has molted. Get it? Credit: Molt.bot
Updated on Friday, Jan. 30 at 3:40 p.m. ET — When Clawdbot founder Peter Steinberger changed its name to Moltbot, we predicted it wouldn't be long before he changed it again to something a little more appealing. And on Friday, that's exactly what happened. Moltbot, the AI personal assistant formerly known as Clawdbot, is now called OpenClaw.
Keep scrolling to read our original story on the name change.
Clawdbot has been on quite the ride. The free, open-source AI assistant has gone viral on platforms like X, where early adopters, AI superusers, and even minor internet celebrities have been singing its praises. The Clawdbot GitHub page was even briefly taken over by crypto scammers, its creator said on X. Now, the tool has become so successful that it's been forced to change its name to Moltbot.
That's right, henceforth, Clawdbot is now Moltbot.
We have to say, this is a change we saw coming from a mile away. Many Clawdbot Moltbot users rely on Claude, the family of large-language models developed by Anthropic, to power the AI assistant. And in a post on X and a new "lore" post on GitHub, Moltbot creator Peter Steinberger confirmed that he decided to change the name under what he described as "polite" pressure from Anthropic.
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Previously, Clawdbot's mascot was a "space lobster" named Clawd. Moving forward, the crustacean's name will be Molty. (Lobsters, famously, have claws. Get it?)
Molty's new bio reads:
For a while, the lobster was called Clawd, living in a Clawdbot. But in January 2026, Anthropic sent a polite email asking for a name change (trademark stuff). And so the lobster did what lobsters do best: It molted. Shedding its old shell, the creature emerged anew as Molty, living in a Moltbot. New shell, same lobster soul.
Already, Steinberger's GitHub has been renamed to reflect the name change, and the former clawd.bot website is being replaced by molt.bot.
To be honest, Moltbot isn't nearly as strong a name. Molting is not a particularly attractive verb. It would be like naming your company after shedding, itching, or picking your nose.
And speaking of legal challenges: Is it just us, or does the Moltbot mascot look a little too similar to the Android mascot?
Credit: Android / Google
Credit: Moltbot / Clawdbot
Timothy Beck Werth is the Tech Editor at Mashable, where he leads coverage and assignments for the Tech and Shopping verticals. Tim has over 15 years of experience as a journalist and editor, and he has particular experience covering and testing consumer technology, smart home gadgets, and men’s grooming and style products. Previously, he was the Managing Editor and then Site Director of SPY.com, a men's product review and lifestyle website. As a writer for GQ, he covered everything from bull-riding competitions to the best Legos for adults, and he’s also contributed to publications such as The Daily Beast, Gear Patrol, and The Awl.
Tim studied print journalism at the University of Southern California. He currently splits his time between Brooklyn, NY and Charleston, SC. He's currently working on his second novel, a science-fiction book.
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