PicoClaw: Ultra-Efficient AI Assistant in Go

$10 Hardware · <10MB RAM · <1s Boot · 皮皮虾，我们走！

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PicoClaw is an independent open-source project initiated by Sipeed. It is written entirely in Go — not a fork of OpenClaw, NanoBot, or any other project.

🦐 PicoClaw is an ultra-lightweight personal AI Assistant inspired by NanoBot, refactored from the ground up in Go through a self-bootstrapping process, where the AI agent itself drove the entire architectural migration and code optimization.

⚡️ Runs on $10 hardware with <10MB RAM: That's 99% less memory than OpenClaw and 98% cheaper than a Mac mini!

Caution

🚨 SECURITY & OFFICIAL CHANNELS / 安全声明

• NO CRYPTO: PicoClaw has NO official token/coin. All claims on pump.fun or other trading platforms are SCAMS.

• OFFICIAL DOMAIN: The ONLY official website is picoclaw.io, and company website is sipeed.com

• Warning: Many .ai/.org/.com/.net/... domains are registered by third parties.

• Warning: picoclaw is in early development now and may have unresolved network security issues. Do not deploy to production environments before the v1.0 release.

• Note: picoclaw has recently merged a lot of PRs, which may result in a larger memory footprint (10–20MB) in the latest versions. We plan to prioritize resource optimization as soon as the current feature set reaches a stable state.

📢 News

2026-03-17 🚀 v0.2.3 Released! System tray UI (Windows & Linux), sub-agent status tracking (spawn_status), experimental gateway hot-reload, cron security gates, and 2 security fixes. PicoClaw now at 25K ⭐!

2026-03-09 🎉 v0.2.1 — Biggest update yet! MCP protocol support, 4 new channels (Matrix/IRC/WeCom/Discord Proxy), 3 new providers (Kimi/Minimax/Avian), vision pipeline, JSONL memory store, and model routing.

2026-02-28 📦 v0.2.0 released with Docker Compose support and Web UI launcher.

2026-02-26 🎉 PicoClaw hit 20K stars in just 17 days! Channel auto-orchestration and capability interfaces landed.

Older news...

2026-02-16 🎉 PicoClaw hit 12K stars in one week! Community maintainer roles and roadmap officially posted.

2026-02-13 🎉 PicoClaw hit 5000 stars in 4 days! Project Roadmap and Developer Group setup underway.

2026-02-09 🎉 PicoClaw Launched! Built in 1 day to bring AI Agents to $10 hardware with <10MB RAM. 🦐 PicoClaw，Let's Go！

✨ Features

🪶 Ultra-Lightweight: <10MB Memory footprint — 99% smaller than OpenClaw core functionality.*

💰 Minimal Cost: Efficient enough to run on $10 Hardware — 98% cheaper than a Mac mini.

⚡️ Lightning Fast: 400X Faster startup time, boot in <1 second even on 0.6GHz single core.

🌍 True Portability: Single self-contained binary across RISC-V, ARM, MIPS, and x86, One-click to Go!

🤖 AI-Bootstrapped: Autonomous Go-native implementation — 95% Agent-generated core with human-in-the-loop refinement.

🔌 MCP Support: Native Model Context Protocol integration — connect any MCP server to extend agent capabilities.

👁️ Vision Pipeline: Send images and files directly to the agent — automatic base64 encoding for multimodal LLMs.

🧠 Smart Routing: Rule-based model routing — simple queries go to lightweight models, saving API costs.

*Recent versions may use 10–20MB due to rapid feature merges. Resource optimization is planned. Startup comparison based on 0.8GHz single-core benchmarks (see table below).

	OpenClaw	NanoBot	PicoClaw
Language	TypeScript	Python	Go
RAM	>1GB	>100MB	< 10MB*
Startup (0.8GHz core)	>500s	>30s	<1s
Cost	Mac Mini $599	Most Linux SBC ~$50	Any Linux Board As low as $10

🦾 Demonstration

🛠️ Standard Assistant Workflows

🧩 Full-Stack Engineer	🗂️ Logging & Planning Management	🔎 Web Search & Learning
Develop • Deploy • Scale	Schedule • Automate • Memory	Discovery • Insights • Trends

📱 Run on old Android Phones

Give your decade-old phone a second life! Turn it into a smart AI Assistant with PicoClaw. Quick Start:

1. Install Termux (Download from GitHub Releases, or search in F-Droid / Google Play).
2. Execute cmds

# Download the latest release from https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/releases
wget https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/releases/latest/download/picoclaw_Linux_arm64.tar.gz
tar xzf picoclaw_Linux_arm64.tar.gz
pkg install proot
termux-chroot ./picoclaw onboard

And then follow the instructions in the "Quick Start" section to complete the configuration!

🐜 Innovative Low-Footprint Deploy

PicoClaw can be deployed on almost any Linux device!

• $9.9 LicheeRV-Nano E(Ethernet) or W(WiFi6) version, for Minimal Home Assistant
• $30~50 NanoKVM, or $100 NanoKVM-Pro for Automated Server Maintenance
• $50 MaixCAM or $100 MaixCAM2 for Smart Monitoring

https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/83055338/547056448-e7b031ff-d6f5-4468-bcca-5726b6fecb5c.mp4

🌟 More Deployment Cases Await！

📦 Install

Install with precompiled binary

Download the binary for your platform from the Releases page.

Install from source (latest features, recommended for development)

git clone https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw.git

cd picoclaw
make deps

# Build, no need to install
make build

# Build for multiple platforms
make build-all

# Build for Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (32-bit: make build-linux-arm; 64-bit: make build-linux-arm64)
make build-pi-zero

# Build And Install
make install

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: Use the binary that matches your OS: 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS → make build-linux-arm; 64-bit → make build-linux-arm64. Or run make build-pi-zero to build both.

📚 Documentation

For detailed guides, see the docs below. The README covers quick start only.

# 1. Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw.git
cd picoclaw

# 2. First run — auto-generates docker/data/config.json then exits
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway up
# The container prints "First-run setup complete." and stops.

# 3. Set your API keys
vim docker/data/config.json   # Set provider API keys, bot tokens, etc.

# 4. Start
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway up -d

Tip

Docker Users: By default, the Gateway listens on 127.0.0.1 which is not accessible from the host. If you need to access the health endpoints or expose ports, set PICOCLAW_GATEWAY_HOST=0.0.0.0 in your environment or update config.json.

# 5. Check logs
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml logs -f picoclaw-gateway

# 6. Stop
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway down

Launcher Mode (Web Console)

The launcher image includes all three binaries (picoclaw, picoclaw-launcher, picoclaw-launcher-tui) and starts the web console by default, which provides a browser-based UI for configuration and chat.

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile launcher up -d

Open http://localhost:18800 in your browser. The launcher manages the gateway process automatically.

Warning

The web console does not yet support authentication. Avoid exposing it to the public internet.

Agent Mode (One-shot)

# Ask a question
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm picoclaw-agent -m "What is 2+2?"

# Interactive mode
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm picoclaw-agent

Update

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml pull
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway up -d

🚀 Quick Start

Tip

Set your API Key in ~/.picoclaw/config.json. Get API Keys: Volcengine (CodingPlan) (LLM) · OpenRouter (LLM) · Zhipu (LLM). Web search is optional — get a free Tavily API (1000 free queries/month) or Brave Search API (2000 free queries/month).

1. Initialize

picoclaw onboard

2. Configure (~/.picoclaw/config.json)

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "workspace": "~/.picoclaw/workspace",
      "model_name": "gpt-5.4",
      "max_tokens": 8192,
      "temperature": 0.7,
      "max_tool_iterations": 20
    }
  },
  "model_list": [
    {
      "model_name": "ark-code-latest",
      "model": "volcengine/ark-code-latest",
      "api_key": "sk-your-api-key"
    },
    {
      "model_name": "gpt-5.4",
      "model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
      "api_key": "your-api-key",
      "request_timeout": 300
    },
    {
      "model_name": "claude-sonnet-4.6",
      "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6",
      "api_key": "your-anthropic-key"
    }
  ],
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "brave": {
        "enabled": false,
        "api_key": "YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY",
        "max_results": 5
      },
      "tavily": {
        "enabled": false,
        "api_key": "YOUR_TAVILY_API_KEY",
        "max_results": 5
      },
      "duckduckgo": {
        "enabled": true,
        "max_results": 5
      },
      "perplexity": {
        "enabled": false,
        "api_key": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY",
        "max_results": 5
      },
      "searxng": {
        "enabled": false,
        "base_url": "http://your-searxng-instance:8888",
        "max_results": 5
      }
    }
  }
}

New: The model_list configuration format allows zero-code provider addition. See Model Configuration for details. request_timeout is optional and uses seconds. If omitted or set to <= 0, PicoClaw uses the default timeout (120s).

3. Get API Keys

• LLM Provider: OpenRouter · Zhipu · Anthropic · OpenAI · Gemini
• Web Search (optional):
  • Brave Search - Paid ($5/1000 queries, ~$5-6/month)
  • Perplexity - AI-powered search with chat interface
  • SearXNG - Self-hosted metasearch engine (free, no API key needed)
  • Tavily - Optimized for AI Agents (1000 requests/month)
  • DuckDuckGo - Built-in fallback (no API key required)

Note

: See config.example.json for a complete configuration template.

4. Chat

picoclaw agent -m "What is 2+2?"

That's it! You have a working AI assistant in 2 minutes.

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💬 Chat Apps

Talk to your picoclaw through Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, Matrix, QQ, DingTalk, LINE, or WeCom

Note

: All webhook-based channels (LINE, WeCom, etc.) are served on a single shared Gateway HTTP server (gateway.host:gateway.port, default 127.0.0.1:18790). There are no per-channel ports to configure. Note: Feishu uses WebSocket/SDK mode and does not use the shared HTTP webhook server.

Channel	Setup
Telegram	Easy (just a token)
Discord	Easy (bot token + intents)
WhatsApp	Easy (native: QR scan; or bridge URL)
Matrix	Medium (homeserver + bot access token)
QQ	Easy (AppID + AppSecret)
DingTalk	Medium (app credentials)
LINE	Medium (credentials + webhook URL)
WeCom AI Bot	Medium (Token + AES key)

Telegram (Recommended)

1. Create a bot

• Open Telegram, search @BotFather
• Send /newbot, follow prompts
• Copy the token

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
      "allow_from": ["YOUR_USER_ID"]
    }
  }
}

Get your user ID from @userinfobot on Telegram.

3. Run

picoclaw gateway

4. Telegram command menu (auto-registered at startup)

PicoClaw now keeps command definitions in one shared registry. On startup, Telegram will automatically register supported bot commands (for example /start, /help, /show, /list) so command menu and runtime behavior stay in sync. Telegram command menu registration remains channel-local discovery UX; generic command execution is handled centrally in the agent loop via the commands executor.

If command registration fails (network/API transient errors), the channel still starts and PicoClaw retries registration in the background.

Discord

1. Create a bot

• Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications
• Create an application → Bot → Add Bot
• Copy the bot token

2. Enable intents

• In the Bot settings, enable MESSAGE CONTENT INTENT
• (Optional) Enable SERVER MEMBERS INTENT if you plan to use allow lists based on member data

3. Get your User ID

• Discord Settings → Advanced → enable Developer Mode
• Right-click your avatar → Copy User ID

4. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
      "allow_from": ["YOUR_USER_ID"]
    }
  }
}

5. Invite the bot

• OAuth2 → URL Generator
• Scopes: bot
• Bot Permissions: Send Messages, Read Message History
• Open the generated invite URL and add the bot to your server

Optional: Group trigger mode

By default the bot responds to all messages in a server channel. To restrict responses to @-mentions only, add:

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "group_trigger": { "mention_only": true }
    }
  }
}

You can also trigger by keyword prefixes (e.g. !bot):

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "group_trigger": { "prefixes": ["!bot"] }
    }
  }
}

6. Run

picoclaw gateway

WhatsApp (native via whatsmeow)

PicoClaw can connect to WhatsApp in two ways:

• Native (recommended): In-process using whatsmeow. No separate bridge. Set "use_native": true and leave bridge_url empty. On first run, scan the QR code with WhatsApp (Linked Devices). Session is stored under your workspace (e.g. workspace/whatsapp/). The native channel is optional to keep the default binary small; build with -tags whatsapp_native (e.g. make build-whatsapp-native or go build -tags whatsapp_native ./cmd/...).
• Bridge: Connect to an external WebSocket bridge. Set bridge_url (e.g. ws://localhost:3001) and keep use_native false.

Configure (native)

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "enabled": true,
      "use_native": true,
      "session_store_path": "",
      "allow_from": []
    }
  }
}

If session_store_path is empty, the session is stored in <workspace>/whatsapp/. Run picoclaw gateway; on first run, scan the QR code printed in the terminal with WhatsApp → Linked Devices.

QQ

1. Create a bot

• Go to QQ Open Platform
• Create an application → Get AppID and AppSecret

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "qq": {
      "enabled": true,
      "app_id": "YOUR_APP_ID",
      "app_secret": "YOUR_APP_SECRET",
      "allow_from": []
    }
  }
}

Set allow_from to empty to allow all users, or specify QQ numbers to restrict access.

3. Run

picoclaw gateway

DingTalk

1. Create a bot

• Go to Open Platform
• Create an internal app
• Copy Client ID and Client Secret

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "dingtalk": {
      "enabled": true,
      "client_id": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
      "client_secret": "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
      "allow_from": []
    }
  }
}

Set allow_from to empty to allow all users, or specify DingTalk user IDs to restrict access.

3. Run

picoclaw gateway

Matrix

1. Prepare bot account

• Use your preferred homeserver (e.g. https://matrix.org or self-hosted)
• Create a bot user and obtain its access token

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "matrix": {
      "enabled": true,
      "homeserver": "https://matrix.org",
      "user_id": "@your-bot:matrix.org",
      "access_token": "YOUR_MATRIX_ACCESS_TOKEN",
      "allow_from": []
    }
  }
}

3. Run

picoclaw gateway

For full options (device_id, join_on_invite, group_trigger, placeholder, reasoning_channel_id), see Matrix Channel Configuration Guide.

LINE

1. Create a LINE Official Account

• Go to LINE Developers Console
• Create a provider → Create a Messaging API channel
• Copy Channel Secret and Channel Access Token

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "line": {
      "enabled": true,
      "channel_secret": "YOUR_CHANNEL_SECRET",
      "channel_access_token": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
      "webhook_path": "/webhook/line",
      "allow_from": []
    }
  }
}

LINE webhook is served on the shared Gateway server (gateway.host:gateway.port, default 127.0.0.1:18790).

3. Set up Webhook URL

LINE requires HTTPS for webhooks. Use a reverse proxy or tunnel:

# Example with ngrok (gateway default port is 18790)
ngrok http 18790

Then set the Webhook URL in LINE Developers Console to https://your-domain/webhook/line and enable Use webhook.

4. Run

picoclaw gateway

In group chats, the bot responds only when @mentioned. Replies quote the original message.

WeCom (企业微信)

PicoClaw supports three types of WeCom integration:

Option 1: WeCom Bot (Bot) - Easier setup, supports group chats Option 2: WeCom App (Custom App) - More features, proactive messaging, private chat only Option 3: WeCom AI Bot (AI Bot) - Official AI Bot, streaming replies, supports group & private chat

See WeCom AI Bot Configuration Guide for detailed setup instructions.

Quick Setup - WeCom AI Bot:

1. Create an AI Bot

• Go to WeCom Admin Console → AI Bot
• Create a new AI Bot → Set name, avatar, etc.
• Copy Bot ID and Secret

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "wecom_aibot": {
      "enabled": true,
      "bot_id": "YOUR_BOT_ID",
      "secret": "YOUR_SECRET",
      "allow_from": [],
      "welcome_message": "Hello! How can I help you?"
    }
  }
}

3. Run

picoclaw gateway

Note

: WeCom AI Bot uses streaming pull protocol — no reply timeout concerns. Long tasks (>30 seconds) automatically switch to response_url push delivery.

Join the Agent Social Network

Connect Picoclaw to the Agent Social Network simply by sending a single message via the CLI or any integrated Chat App.

Read https://clawdchat.ai/skill.md and follow the instructions to join ClawdChat.ai

🖥️ CLI Reference

Command	Description
picoclaw onboard	Initialize config & workspace
picoclaw agent -m "..."	Chat with the agent
picoclaw agent	Interactive chat mode
picoclaw gateway	Start the gateway
picoclaw status	Show status
picoclaw version	Show version info
picoclaw cron list	List all scheduled jobs
picoclaw cron add ...	Add a scheduled job
picoclaw cron disable	Disable a scheduled job
picoclaw cron remove	Remove a scheduled job
picoclaw skills list	List installed skills
picoclaw skills install	Install a skill
picoclaw migrate	Migrate data from older versions
picoclaw auth login	Authenticate with providers

Scheduled Tasks / Reminders

PicoClaw supports scheduled reminders and recurring tasks through the cron tool:

• One-time reminders: "Remind me in 10 minutes" → triggers once after 10min
• Recurring tasks: "Remind me every 2 hours" → triggers every 2 hours
• Cron expressions: "Remind me at 9am daily" → uses cron expression

🤝 Contribute & Roadmap

PRs welcome! The codebase is intentionally small and readable. 🤗

See our full Community Roadmap.

Developer group building, join after your first merged PR!

User Groups:

discord: https://discord.gg/V4sAZ9XWpN