Project Rebranding: WhatsApp Relay Becomes OpenClaw After Naming Journey
By
ed
Pure flour-power. Hearty enough to carry you through lunch.
Summary
The article announces the rebranding of a popular open-source project from its original name 'WhatsApp Relay' to 'OpenClaw'. The project gained significant traction with over 100,000 GitHub stars and 2 million weekly visitors. The naming journey included previous names 'Clawd' (a pun on Claude that faced legal issues from Anthropic) and 'Moltbot' (chosen in a community brainstorm, representing growth through molting like lobsters). The author explains why 'OpenClaw' is the final, permanent name for the project.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledWhat started as 'WhatsApp Relay' now has over 100,000 GitHub stars and drew 2 million visitors in a single week.
Clawd was born in November 2025—a playful pun on 'Claude' with a claw. It felt perfect until Anthropic's legal team politely asked us to reconsider.
Moltbot came next, chosen in a chaotic 5am Discord brainstorm with the community. Molting represents growth - lobsters shed their shells to become something bigger.
Today, I'm excited to announce our new name: OpenClaw.
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