6 karma · joined January 21, 2026
But I can imagine that medium-sized companies will want to use AI as a backend in the future, without wanting to be dependent on Antropic.
After all, there are already quite a few companies using OpenClaw.
A self-hosted OpenClaw instance (or other solutions in the future) with Relay would be a good alternative to Claude Cowork.
I'm not entirely sure what Cowork means by “sandboxed VM” right now. Relay simply has access to the folder you've defined for the project.
Relay connects to OpenClaw. OpenClaw connects to whatever model provider you choose (Claude, GPT-4, Llama, custom endpoint, whatever).
So the stack is: Your local files → Relay → OpenClaw gateway → Your chosen model.
That said, your point about abstraction overhead still stands. Each layer adds cost. We think the tradeoff is worth it for teams that need always-on agents + local file access + approval workflows. But if you just want to hit an API directly, you're right — this isn't for you.