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Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

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221–230 of 274 posts

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was hoping for a real world example.

Like https://www.securityweek.com/hackers-target-popular-nx-build... ? Or the many people putting content in their LI profiles, forums like these, etc because they know scrapers are targeting them ? Or the above, for the users stating they are using it to scrape hn?

> Like https://www.securityweek.com/hackers-target-popular-nx-build... ?

I only had time to skim this, but it doesn't seem like prompt injection to me, just good old fashioned malware in a node package.

Your other two examples do seem to open the door for prompt injection, I was just asking about documented cases of it succeeding.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#222
post #171

Thanks for sharing. For the past month or so I've been slowly having claude build something in the same ballpark. Basically something to nag you to take care of grown-up things so your boss/spouse/local municipality doesn't have to. I was going to call it "Nagatha Christy", but the joke gets old after 48 hours. At the moment, its called "Jarbis" (old Simpsons reference). For me, checklists are useful but I suck at cr…

I've been spending some nights & weekends building exactly this recently. I wanted something that managed my email & calendar, and proactively helped out (or nagged me) when it identified anything important.

It has a handful of core features:

- key obligations & insights are grok'd from emails and calendar events - these get turned into an ever-evolving always-up-to-date set of tasks; displayed on a web UX and sent to you in a personalized daily briefing - you can chat via telegram or email with the agent, and it can research/query your inbox or calendar/create or resolve tasks/email others/etc - if the AI identifies opportunities to be proactive (eg upcoming deadline or lack of RSVP on an event), it pings you with more context and you can give the green light for the agent to execute

Generally trying to identify finite list of busywork tasks that could be automated, and let users delegate the agent to execute them. Or, in the future (and with high enough confidence), let the agent just execute automatically.

Built the stack on Cloudflare (d1, Cloudflare Workers/Workfolows/queues, Vectorize), using gemini-3-flash as the model.

Would love any feedback: https://elani.ai.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and it got excited and decided to WhatsApp me about it. I find the anthropomorphism here kind of odious.

Why is it odious to say “it got excited” about a process that will literally use words in the vein of “I got excited so I did X”? This is “talks like a duck” territory. Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound… If that’s odious to you then your dislike of not-ducks , or for the people who claim they’ll lay endless golden eggs, is getting in the way of more important things when the folks who hear…

> Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound

How does a program get excited? It's a program, it doesn't have emotions. It's not producing a faux-emotion in the way a "not-duck quacks", it lacks them entirely. Any emotion you read from an LLM is anthropomorphism, and that's what I find odious.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#224
Had a similar thought since I started using the Slack MCP in Claude Code. It's handy for instance during an incident to be researching the problem, digging through Sentry or Clickhouse or the code and have it post updates directly to our #engineering channel for the team to see. But... they can't reply. Or rather they can but Claude has to poll each thread or channel to see replies which is a pretty clumsy workflow.

So anyway long story short I made something like Clawdbot but in the cloud: https://stumpy.ai/

Didn't occur to me to design it to run locally and leave running on my machine. You can't close your laptop or Clawdbot dies? It can read all your files? Rather run agents in the cloud. I gave them sandboxes (Fly sprites) so you can still have them do software development or whatever.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it odious to say “it got excited” about a process that will literally use words in the vein of “I got excited so I did X”? This is “talks like a duck” territory. Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound… If that’s odious to you then your dislike of not-ducks , or for the people who claim they’ll lay endless golden eggs, is getting in the way of more important things when the folks who hear…

> Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound How does a program get excited? It's a program, it doesn't have emotions. It's not producing a faux-emotion in the way a "not-duck quacks", it lacks them entirely. Any emotion you read from an LLM is anthropomorphism, and that's what I find odious.

We say that a shell script "is trying to open this file". We say that a flaky integration "doesn't feel like working today". And these are all way less emotive-presenting interactions than a message that literally expresses excitement.

Yes, I know it's not conscious in the same way as a living biological thing is. Yes, we all know you know that too. Nobody is being fooled.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#226
post #192

This thing is cool except: 1) It chews through tokens. If you're on a metered API plan I would avoid it. I've spent $300+ on this just in the last 2 days, doing what I perceived to be fairly basic tasks. 2) It's terrifying. No directory sandboxing, etc. On one hand, it's cool that this thing can modify anything on my machine that I can. On the other, it's terrifying that it can modify anything on my machine that I ca…

> It chews through tokens. If you're on a metered API plan I would avoid it. I've spent $300+ on this just in the last 2 days, doing what I perceived to be fairly basic tasks.

Didn’t Anthropic make it so you can’t use your Claude Code Pro/Max with other tools? Has anyone experienced a block because of that policy while using this tool?

Also really curious what kind of tasks ran up $300 in 2 days? Definitely believe it’s possible. Just curious.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound How does a program get excited? It's a program, it doesn't have emotions. It's not producing a faux-emotion in the way a "not-duck quacks", it lacks them entirely. Any emotion you read from an LLM is anthropomorphism, and that's what I find odious.

We say that a shell script "is trying to open this file". We say that a flaky integration "doesn't feel like working today". And these are all way less emotive-presenting interactions than a message that literally expresses excitement. Yes, I know it's not conscious in the same way as a living biological thing is. Yes, we all know you know that too. Nobody is being fooled.

> We say that a shell script "is trying to open this file".

I don't think this is a good example, how else would you describe what the script is actively doing using English? There's a difference between describing something and anthropomorhpizing it.

> We say that a flaky integration "doesn't feel like working today".

When people say this they're doing it with a tongue in their cheek. Nobody is actually prescribing volition or emotion to the flaky integration. But even if they were, the difference is that there isn't an entire global economy propped up behind convincing you that your flaky integration is nearing human levels of intelligence and sentience.

> Nobody is being fooled.

Are you sure about that? I'm entirely unconvinced that laymen out there – or, indeed, even professionals here on HN – know (or care about) the difference, and language like "it got excited and decided to send me a WhatsApp message" is both cringey and, frankly, dangerous because it pushes the myth of AGI.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#228
post #4

Clawdbot is interesting but I finally feel like those people who look at people like me raving about Claude code when it barely works for them. I have no doubt clawdBot, when it works, must feel great. But I’ve had the tough time setting it up and found it to be very buggy. My first couple of conversations? It forgot the context literally seconds later when I responded. Nevertheless, I’m sure it’s improving by the da…

I agree with this - the sudden prevalence of Clawdbot everywhere feels like tactical astroturfing.

definitely. I got ad blitzed the last two days by "wow" YT videos which I admit is why I even ended up clicking through todays "bot news" to this site. It's been uber hyped with marketing strategy for sure, its only coz it was OSS I paid attention but was surprised by the marketing for OSS since that doesnt usually happen.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it odious to say “it got excited” about a process that will literally use words in the vein of “I got excited so I did X”? This is “talks like a duck” territory. Saying the not-duck “quacked” when it produced the same sound… If that’s odious to you then your dislike of not-ducks , or for the people who claim they’ll lay endless golden eggs, is getting in the way of more important things when the folks who hear…

OP did't like anthropomorphizing an LLM. And you tried to explain the whole thing to him from the perspective of a duck.

I know, seems a bit silly right? But go with me for a moment. First, I'm assuming you get the duck reference? If not, it's probably a cultural difference, but in US English, "If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck..." is basically saying "well, treat it like a duck". or "it's a duck". Usage varies, metaphors are fluid, so it goes. I figured even if this idiom wasn't shared, the meaning still wouldn't be lost.

That aside, why? Because the normal rhetorical sticks don't really work in conversation, and definitely not short bits like comments here on HN, when it comes to asking a person to consider a different point of view. So, I try to go in a little sideways, slightly different approach in terms of comparisons or metaphors-- okay, lots of time more than slightly different-- and lots of times? more meaningful conversation and exchanges come from it than the standard form because, to respond at all, its difficult to respond in quite the same pat formulaic dismissal that is the common reflex-- mine included-- I'm not claiming perfection, only attempts at doing better.

Results vary, but I've had more good discussions come of it than bad, and heard much better and more eye-opening-- for me-- explanations of peoples' points of view when engaging in a way that is both genuine and novel. And on the more analytical end of things, this general approach, when teaching logic & analysis? It's not my full time profession, and I haven't taught in a while, but I've forced a few hundred college students to sit through my style of speechifying and rhetoricalizing, and they seem to learn better and give better answers if I don't get too mechanical and use the same form and syntax, words and phrases and idioms they've always heard.

Re: Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We say that a shell script "is trying to open this file". We say that a flaky integration "doesn't feel like working today". And these are all way less emotive-presenting interactions than a message that literally expresses excitement. Yes, I know it's not conscious in the same way as a living biological thing is. Yes, we all know you know that too. Nobody is being fooled.

> We say that a shell script "is trying to open this file". I don't think this is a good example, how else would you describe what the script is actively doing using English? There's a difference between describing something and anthropomorhpizing it. > We say that a flaky integration "doesn't feel like working today". When people say this they're doing it with a tongue in their cheek. Nobody is actually prescribing…

I think you're conflating two different things. It's entirely possible (and, I think, quite likely) that AI is simultaneously not anthropomorphic (and is not ACTUALLY "excited" in the way I thought you were objecting to earlier), but also IS "intelligent" for all intents and purposes. Is it the same type and nature as human intelligence? No, probably not. Does that mean it's "just a flaky integration" and won't have a seismic effect on the economy? I wouldn't bet on it. It's certainly not a foregone conclusion, whichever way it ends up landing.

And I don't think AGI is a "myth." It may or may not be achieved in the near future with current LLM-like techniques, but it's certainly not categorically impossible just because it won't be "sentient".

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