Yes, they're the same
OpenClaw, Clawdbot, and Moltbot are all the same open-source AI agent platform. The project has been renamed twice in its short history, and all three names still appear in search results, blog posts, and community discussions.
The timeline
November 2025: Peter Steinberger launches the project as Clawdbot. January 27, 2026: Anthropic sends a trademark request — the name is too similar to Claude. The project is renamed to Moltbot (from molting, how lobsters shed their shell to grow). January 28, 2026: The community settles on OpenClaw as the permanent name. The rapid back-to-back rebrands generated massive press coverage, pushing the project to 100K+ GitHub stars in a single week. February 14, 2026: Steinberger announces he's joining OpenAI. OpenClaw continues under an independent open-source foundation.
What this means for you
If you're searching for setup guides, troubleshooting help, or consulting services, all three names refer to the same software. Many older guides and blog posts still use 'Clawdbot' or 'Moltbot.' The configuration files, skills, and architecture are identical regardless of which name was used when the content was written. If you have an older Clawdbot or Moltbot installation, it can be upgraded to the current OpenClaw release without data loss.