🦐 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!
📢 News
2026-02-09 🎉 PicoClaw Launched! Built in 1 day to bring AI Agents to $10 hardware with <10MB RAM. 🦐 皮皮虾,我们走!
✨ Features
🪶 Ultra-Lightweight: <10MB Memory footprint — 99% smaller than Clawdbot - core functionality.
💰 Minimal Cost: Efficient enough to run on $10 Hardware — 98% cheaper than a Mac mini.
⚡️ Lightning Fast: 400X Faster startup time, boot in 1 second even in 0.6GHz single core.
🌍 True Portability: Single self-contained binary across RISC-V, ARM, and x86, One-click to Go!
🤖 AI-Bootstrapped: Autonomous Go-native implementation — 95% Agent-generated core with human-in-the-loop refinement.
| OpenClaw | NanoBot | PicoClaw | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | TypeScript | Python | Go |
| RAM | >1GB | >100MB | < 10MB |
| Startup (0.8GHz core) |
>500s | >30s | <1s |
| Cost | Mac Mini 599$ | 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 |
🐜 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
picoclaw_detect_person.mp4
🌟 More Deployment Cases Await!
📦 Install
Install with precompiled binary
Download the firmware for your platform from the release 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 And Install make install
🚀 Quick Start
Tip
Set your API key in ~/.picoclaw/config.json.
Get API keys: OpenRouter (LLM) · Zhipu (LLM)
Web search is optional - get free Brave Search API (2000 free queries/month)
1. Initialize
2. Configure (~/.picoclaw/config.json)
{
"agents": {
"defaults": {
"workspace": "~/.picoclaw/workspace",
"model": "glm-4.7",
"max_tokens": 8192,
"temperature": 0.7,
"max_tool_iterations": 20
}
},
"providers": {
"openrouter": {
"api_key": "xxx",
"api_base": "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
}
},
"tools": {
"web": {
"search": {
"api_key": "YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY",
"max_results": 5
}
}
}
}3. Get API Keys
- LLM Provider: OpenRouter · Zhipu · Anthropic · OpenAI · Gemini
- Web Search (optional): Brave Search - Free tier available (2000 requests/month)
Note: See
config.example.jsonfor 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.
💬 Chat Apps
Talk to your picoclaw through Telegram, Discord, or DingTalk
| Channel | Setup |
|---|---|
| Telegram | Easy (just a token) |
| Discord | Easy (bot token + intents) |
| Easy (AppID + AppSecret) | |
| DingTalk | Medium (app credentials) |
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",
"allowFrom": ["YOUR_USER_ID"]
}
}
}Get your user ID from
@userinfoboton Telegram.
3. Run
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",
"allowFrom": ["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
6. Run
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_fromto empty to allow all users, or specify QQ numbers to restrict access.
3. Run
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_fromto empty to allow all users, or specify QQ numbers to restrict access.
3. Run
⚙️ Configuration
Config file: ~/.picoclaw/config.json
Workspace Layout
PicoClaw stores data in your configured workspace (default: ~/.picoclaw/workspace):
~/.picoclaw/workspace/
├── sessions/ # Conversation sessions and history
├── memory/ # Long-term memory (MEMORY.md)
├── cron/ # Scheduled jobs database
├── skills/ # Custom skills
├── AGENTS.md # Agent behavior guide
├── IDENTITY.md # Agent identity
├── SOUL.md # Agent soul
├── TOOLS.md # Tool descriptions
└── USER.md # User preferences
Providers
Note
Groq provides free voice transcription via Whisper. If configured, Telegram voice messages will be automatically transcribed.
| Provider | Purpose | Get API Key |
|---|---|---|
gemini |
LLM (Gemini direct) | aistudio.google.com |
zhipu |
LLM (Zhipu direct) | bigmodel.cn |
openrouter(To be tested) |
LLM (recommended, access to all models) | openrouter.ai |
anthropic(To be tested) |
LLM (Claude direct) | console.anthropic.com |
openai(To be tested) |
LLM (GPT direct) | platform.openai.com |
deepseek(To be tested) |
LLM (DeepSeek direct) | platform.deepseek.com |
groq |
LLM + Voice transcription (Whisper) | console.groq.com |
Zhipu
1. Get API key and base URL
- Get API key
2. Configure
{
"agents": {
"defaults": {
"workspace": "~/.picoclaw/workspace",
"model": "glm-4.7",
"max_tokens": 8192,
"temperature": 0.7,
"max_tool_iterations": 20
}
},
"providers": {
"zhipu": {
"api_key": "Your API Key",
"api_base": "https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4"
},
},
}3. Run
picoclaw agent -m "Hello"Full config example
{
"agents": {
"defaults": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5"
}
},
"providers": {
"openrouter": {
"api_key": "sk-or-v1-xxx"
},
"groq": {
"api_key": "gsk_xxx"
}
},
"channels": {
"telegram": {
"enabled": true,
"token": "123456:ABC...",
"allow_from": ["123456789"]
},
"discord": {
"enabled": true,
"token": "",
"allow_from": [""]
},
"whatsapp": {
"enabled": false
},
"feishu": {
"enabled": false,
"app_id": "cli_xxx",
"app_secret": "xxx",
"encrypt_key": "",
"verification_token": "",
"allow_from": []
},
"qq": {
"enabled": false,
"app_id": "",
"app_secret": "",
"allow_from": []
}
},
"tools": {
"web": {
"search": {
"api_key": "BSA..."
}
}
}
}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 cron list |
List all scheduled jobs |
picoclaw cron add ... |
Add a scheduled job |
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
Jobs are stored in ~/.picoclaw/workspace/cron/ and processed automatically.
🤝 Contribute & Roadmap
PRs welcome! The codebase is intentionally small and readable. 🤗
discord: https://discord.gg/V4sAZ9XWpN
🐛 Troubleshooting
Web search says "API 配置问题"
This is normal if you haven't configured a search API key yet. PicoClaw will provide helpful links for manual searching.
To enable web search:
-
Get a free API key at https://brave.com/search/api (2000 free queries/month)
-
Add to
~/.picoclaw/config.json:{ "tools": { "web": { "search": { "api_key": "YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY", "max_results": 5 } } } }
Getting content filtering errors
Some providers (like Zhipu) have content filtering. Try rephrasing your query or use a different model.
Telegram bot says "Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates"
This happens when another instance of the bot is running. Make sure only one picoclaw gateway is running at a time.
📝 API Key Comparison
| Service | Free Tier | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | 200K tokens/month | Multiple models (Claude, GPT-4, etc.) |
| Zhipu | 200K tokens/month | Best for Chinese users |
| Brave Search | 2000 queries/month | Web search functionality |
| Groq | Free tier available | Fast inference (Llama, Mixtral) |







