By now, OpenClaw is probably familiar to most of us. In a very short time, this open-source agent has gone from a niche project to a full-blown hype topic and is now being described either as the future of personal computing or as a major security risk.
As is often the case, the truth is probably somewhere in between. We don’t think hype or panic is especially helpful. The more useful questions are: Where does OpenClaw create real value? Where are the risks genuinely serious? And what can you do in practice to use it responsibly?
What makes OpenClaw interesting?
Unlike traditional chatbots, which answer a question and then stop, OpenClaw is an agent. It runs locally on your own machine, connects to an LLM of your choice (e.g. ChatGPT), and can carry out real tasks: managing calendars, triaging emails, running terminal commands, and organizing files. You control it through messaging apps you already use, such as Signal, WhatsApp, or Telegram.
You can think of it as a real digital assistant, one you can give specific tasks to, and it can complete them on its own.
That is a meaningful step forward. Until now, the gap between “AI could help me with this” and “AI is actually helping me” has often been surprisingly large. OpenClaw helps close that gap. At the same time, it runs locally, which means your data does not automatically have to live on someone else’s servers. For privacy-conscious users, that is a clear advantage. (That said, the LLM you connect still has a major impact on the actual privacy risks.)
Where OpenClaw creates real value
OpenClaw offers personal automation for technically confident users who understand what permissions they are granting and what risks come with them.
From a marketing perspective, that could mean things like:
- Preparing campaign reports from local CSV files: cleaning data, calculating key metrics, and creating a summary in one flow.
- Automating repetitive file organization: cleaning up asset folders, renaming files, and sorting images by campaign.
OpenClaw can be a very powerful tool. A useful comparison is a junior intern who is not fully onboarded yet: they can take a lot off your plate, but only if you give clear instructions and communicate precisely.
And what about the risks of OpenClaw?
To be fair, OpenClaw’s security story is still maturing. A January 2026 audit revealed a significant number of vulnerabilities, and researchers found thousands of publicly reachable instances without adequate protection. A supply-chain incident known as “ClawHavoc” also showed that the community skill ecosystem needs stronger review mechanisms.
Security researcher Simon Willison describes the core challenge with AI agents as the “lethal trifecta”: access to private data, exposure to untrusted content, and the ability to act externally. OpenClaw uses all three, not by accident, but because that is exactly what makes an agent useful. In other words, this is not a “bug”; it is part of the design, which makes it even more important to treat security as a priority from the start rather than as an afterthought.
How to set up OpenClaw and minimize the risk
Step 1: Set up a separate environment
OpenClaw should not run on the same computer that stores client credentials or other sensitive data. A separate environment is strongly recommended, for example, a container or a virtual machine. This limits OpenClaw’s access and gives you much more control over what it can and cannot reach.
Step 2: Do not expose it to the public internet
It sounds obvious, but it still happens: if the instance is misconfigured or poorly secured, it may become reachable from the outside.
Step 3: Do not install community skills blindly
There are thousands of extensions built by the community, but not all of them are clean or secure. Before installing a skill (especially one that connects to social media APIs) review the code yourself or stick to verified sources.
Step 4: Install updates
The project is evolving quickly, and security issues are being fixed continuously. If you run an outdated version, you remain unnecessarily exposed to known problems.
Our conclusion on OpenClaw
OpenClaw represents a genuinely exciting direction in AI development. The idea of a personal, local, open-source agent that can actually complete tasks for you is compelling, and the momentum behind the community is remarkable.
But exciting technology and production-ready technology are not the same thing. If you use OpenClaw with clear judgment, solid security precautions, and a healthy respect for what can go wrong, it can deliver real value. If you treat it as a plug-and-play solution, you are taking on more risk than most people realize.
The smartest approach is not to be the first and not to be the last. It is to be the most informed.
