Ask HN: Is OpenClaw Still Worth Exploring or Is It “So Last Year”? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is OpenClaw Still Worth Exploring or Is It “So Last Year”?

5 pointsAbstractH248 comments

Leaning into automation for tasks in my own life. Repurposed an old 2017 Intel MacBook to be an always on computer and for the moment it’s just fine*.

Most of what I’ve done so far is deterministic and has no need for AI after it’s built. But wondering if I should explore OpenClaw next. I never leaned in when it was all the headlines last Home Assistant

* interestingly, the one area I’ve had trouble was Home Assistant. The virtual computer I had to install to run it on cause the MacBook to overheat and iCloud syncing to stop. That in turn broke automation that wrote to Obsidian. Was better off running Home Assistant on a Raspberry PI than a 2017 MacBook

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It wasn't really worth exploring last year either.

For your use case n8n may be a good fit, and Claude or Codex will be happy to set it up for you.

If you want this "messenger interface with computers for the agents" feature set Grok Bot is quite good and effortless to use. With Tailscale configured on its personal VM it can connect to machines on your network easily.

Those are all the things I have now. But thank you for offering your service

I have asked multiple times on who is making money on OpenClaw directly other than the service providers.

It is clear that almost no-one is and it appears to be a hyped-up fad.

That’s how it seemed last year, but I never even took the type to look into it past hearing others discuss it on message boards or podcasts. I’ll be honest.

Just saw an ad for someone selling headless servers preloaded with OpenClaw that’ll sort your emails. A tool I really would like, particularly if it uses open models. Made me wonder if it’s time to investigate it and implementing what they’re selling.

you dont need open claw, any regular harness will do these days

the difference is mainly that you can interact with the agents via a phone chat app like telegram

Scion is an alternative I have my eye on

I'll be honest, i'm not up to date on the concept of a harness. Where should I look to learn more?

harness is the tool you interact with, like OpenCode. It's the thing that calls the llm API, has the system prompts, provides tools, etc

Does the point need to be a making money? I know some people who use intercommunicating agents (claw style) to automate boring personal life stuff like staying on top of their bills or researching a vacation

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