From ClawdBot to MoltBot to OpenClaw: The Wild Story Behind Three Name Changes in One Week
The open-source AI agent that went viral also went through three names in seven days. Here's what happened with Anthropic, the trademark dispute, and why 'MoltBot' only lasted 48 hours.
If you've been following the AI agent space over the past few weeks, you might be confused about whether we're talking about ClawdBot, MoltBot, or OpenClaw. Spoiler: they're all the same project. And the story of how one open-source tool got three different names in seven days is wilder than you'd think.
January 20: ClawdBot Is Born
Austrian software developer Peter Steinberger released ClawdBot on GitHub as an open-source AI agent that could actually control your computer—reading your screen, clicking buttons, sending emails, and messaging you proactively when tasks were done.
The name "ClawdBot" was a playful riff on Anthropic's Claude AI, which powers many of the agent's capabilities. It made sense: Claude + Bot = ClawdBot. Users loved the crustacean branding (crabs have claws, get it?).
Within days, ClawdBot exploded. The repo hit 80,000+ GitHub stars in under two weeks. Developers were forking it, building skills for it, and Reddit was buzzing with "I just installed ClawdBot and it's insane" posts.
Then Anthropic's lawyers noticed.
January 27: The Anthropic Trademark Notice
On January 27, 2026, Anthropic sent a trademark notice to Peter Steinberger. The concern? "ClawdBot" was too similar to "Claude."
From a legal standpoint, this makes sense. If your brand is Claude and someone launches a viral product called ClawdBot that explicitly uses your AI under the hood, you're going to protect your trademark. It's not about being aggressive—it's about preventing brand confusion.
Steinberger didn't fight it. Within hours, he announced the project would rebrand. But the new name? MoltBot.
January 27-29: MoltBot (The 48-Hour Name)
The logic behind "MoltBot" was actually clever: crustaceans molt their shells as they grow. ClawdBot was shedding its old name to grow into something bigger.
Reddit's reaction? Mixed.
From r/clawdbot on January 28:
"WTF? Although I must say moltbot was a crap name. Openclaw - yeah I sort of like that."
Another user:
"Nice! Excited to see what it will be called tomorrow."
That comment turned out to be prophetic.
The problem with MoltBot wasn't just that it sounded awkward—it was that the community was already confused. People who'd installed ClawdBot two days ago were now being told it was MoltBot. GitHub stars were split across repos. Documentation was outdated. The subreddit was still r/clawdbot. For more, see how OpenClaw hit 145K GitHub stars.
January 30: OpenClaw (The Final Name... Probably)
On January 30—just 48 hours after MoltBot launched—Peter Steinberger announced the second rebrand: OpenClaw.
The reasoning:
- "Open" signals open-source (like OpenAI, OpenRouter)
- "Claw" keeps the crustacean theme without directly referencing Claude
- It's a clean break from the naming chaos
From the official announcement:
"This is a reset. We're done changing names. OpenClaw is permanent."
The community breathed a sigh of relief. r/clawdbot became r/openclaw. Documentation was rewritten. GitHub redirects were set up.
As one user put it:
"Nice crustacean theme. The Clawd crab molted into OpenClaw."
What This Tells Us About Open-Source AI
The ClawdBot → MoltBot → OpenClaw saga is funny, but it's also a case study in **how fast AI projects can grow—and how unprepared creators can be for that growth. For more, see where OpenClaw's creator ended up next. **
Peter Steinberger built ClawdBot as a side project. Within two weeks, he had:
- 145,000+ GitHub stars
- Trademark disputes with billion-dollar companies
- A community demanding stability
- Security researchers finding critical vulnerabilities
- Enterprise IT departments blocking it on corporate networks
He went from "fun weekend hack" to "managing a viral open-source project with legal and security implications" in 14 days.
The name changes weren't just branding mistakes—they were symptoms of a project scaling faster than its creator could manage.
What's Next for OpenClaw?
As of February 2026, OpenClaw is sticking with its name. The project has:
- Patched the critical CVE-2026-25253 RCE vulnerability
- Launched ClawHub (a skill marketplace)
- Spawned Moltbook (an AI-only social network with 1.5M agents)
- Been covered by CNBC, IBM, and Scientific American
But the naming saga isn't entirely over. As one Reddit user joked:
"Excited to see what it will be called tomorrow."
For now, it's OpenClaw. And if Peter Steinberger has his way, it'll stay that way.
