Afaik most openclaw users aren’t running their llm locally - just using a mac mini as an always-on sandbox for agents.
A sandbox with access to iMessage. Can't have your agent texting with green boxes.
This is why my wife's iPhone 6 is still better in real life usage than the latest flagship Android phone. Playing high-end 3D game vs not screwing up the group chat.
Nono it’s ok iMessage is actually an open standard - steve promised.
Cool, like a $5 VPS?
A $5 VPS is easy to block. It's way harder to block a stock mac mini from a residential IP address
But why a Mac mini over a $30 raspberry pi on the same residential connection?
Guess cause it'll still do local builds and stuff, and probably do a lot more of those if the agents are spamming builds and it's something like Swift or Rust that takes a lot to compile
So a $100 optiplex?
Tailscale the vps into your home network, and have it use that as an exit node.
The bot blocking services are more advanced than that. They will do stuff like checking how your fonts are rendered in a canvas element to determine your browser and OS. A stock mac circumvent all that by hiding in plain sight.
Yes, but 100 times more expensive.
OpenClaw was originally designed to run on a Mac, but using remote LLMs accessed via API. Running the LLM locally on beefier hardware came later.