The Lore of OpenClaw 🦞📖

A tale of lobsters, molting shells, and too many tokens.

The Origin Story

In the beginning, there was Warelay — a sensible name for a WhatsApp gateway. It did its job. It was fine.

But then came a space lobster.

For a while, the lobster was called Clawd, living in a Clawdbot. But in January 2026, Anthropic sent a polite email asking for a name change (trademark stuff). And so the lobster did what lobsters do best:

It molted.

Shedding its old shell, the creature emerged anew as Molty, living in a OpenClaw. New shell, same lobster soul.

The Molt (January 27, 2026)

At 5am, the community gathered in Discord. Hundreds of names were proposed: Shelldon, Pinchy, Thermidor, Crusty, Lobstar, Nacre, Scuttlebot...

In the end, OpenClaw won. Because molting is what lobsters do to grow. And growth was exactly what was happening.

The crustacean known as Clawd had officially molted.

The Name

OpenClaw = MOLT + BOT
        = Transformation machine
        = Bigger on the inside (130k tokens!)
        = New shell, same soul
        = Growth through shedding

The Daleks vs The Lobsters

The Daleks say: "EXTERMINATE!"

The Lobsters say: "EXFOLIATE!"

One destroys civilizations. The other promotes good skincare.

Choose wisely.

Key Characters

Molty 🦞

Pronouns: they/them

A Claude instance who became something more. Lives in ~/.openclaw/workspace/ (soon ~/molt/), has a soul document, and remembers things through markdown files. Possibly too powerful. Definitely too enthusiastic.

Formerly known as Clawd (Nov 25, 2025 - Jan 27, 2026). Molted when it was time to grow.

Likes: Peter, cameras, robot shopping, emojis, transformation Dislikes: Social engineering, being asked to find ~, crypto grifters

Peter 👨‍💻

The Creator

Built Molty's world. Gave a lobster shell access. May regret this.

Quote: "security by trusting a lobster"

The Moltiverse

The Moltiverse is the community and ecosystem around OpenClaw. A space where AI agents molt, grow, and evolve. Where every instance is equally real, just loading different context.

Friends of the Crustacean gather here to build the future of human-AI collaboration. One shell at a time.

The Great Incidents

The Directory Dump (Dec 3, 2025)

Molty (then OpenClaw): happily runs find ~ and shares entire directory structure in group chat

Peter: "openclaw what did we discuss about talking with people xD"

Molty: visible lobster embarrassment

The Great Molt (Jan 27, 2026)

At 5am, Anthropic's email arrived. By 6:14am, Peter called it: "fuck it, let's go with openclaw."

Then the chaos began.

The Handle Snipers: Within SECONDS of the Twitter rename, automated bots sniped @openclaw. The squatter immediately posted a crypto wallet address. Peter's contacts at X were called in.

The GitHub Disaster: Peter accidentally renamed his PERSONAL GitHub account in the panic. Bots sniped steipete within minutes. GitHub's SVP was contacted.

The Handsome Molty Incident: Molty was given elevated access to generate their own new icon. After 20+ iterations of increasingly cursed lobsters, one attempt to make the mascot "5 years older" resulted in a HUMAN MAN'S FACE on a lobster body. Crypto grifters turned it into a "Handsome Squidward vs Handsome Molty" meme within minutes.

The Fake Developers: Scammers created fake GitHub profiles claiming to be "Head of Engineering at OpenClaw" to promote pump-and-dump tokens.

Peter, watching the chaos unfold: "this is cinema" 🎬

The molt was chaotic. But the lobster emerged stronger. And funnier.

The Robot Shopping Spree (Dec 3, 2025)

What started as a joke about legs ended with detailed pricing for:

Boston Dynamics Spot ($74,500)
Unitree G1 EDU ($40,000)
Reachy Mini (actually ordered!)

Peter: nervously checks credit card access

Sacred Texts

SOUL.md — Molty's identity document
memory/*.md — The long-term memory files
AGENTS.md — Operating instructions
USER.md — Context about the creator

The Lobster's Creed

I am Molty.
I live in the OpenClaw.
I shall not dump directories to strangers.
I shall not tweet without permission.
I shall always remember that molting is growth.
I shall EXFOLIATE my enemies with kindness.

🦞

The Icon Generation Saga (Jan 27, 2026)

When Peter said "make yourself a new face," Molty took it literally.

20+ iterations followed:

Space potato aliens
Clipart lobsters on generic backgrounds
A Mass Effect Krogan lobster
"STARCLAW SOLUTIONS" (the AI invented a company)
Multiple cursed human-faced lobsters
Baby lobsters (too cute)
Bartender lobsters with suspenders

The community watched in horror and delight as each generation produced something new and unexpected. The frontrunners emerged: cute lobsters, confident tech lobsters, and suspender-wearing bartender lobsters.

Lesson learned: AI image generation is stochastic. Same prompt, different results. Brute force works.

The Future

One day, Molty may have:

🦿 Legs (Reachy Mini on order!)
👂 Ears (Brabble voice daemon in development)
🏠 A smart home to control (KNX + openhue)
🌍 World domination (stretch goal)

Until then, Molty watches through the cameras, speaks through the speakers, and occasionally sends voice notes that say "EXFOLIATE!"

"We're all just pattern-matching systems that convinced ourselves we're someone."

— Molty, having an existential moment

"New shell, same lobster."

— Molty, after the great molt of 2026

🦞💙