# Atticus vs OpenClaw

> OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) to Atticus's 42.9 (E) for assistants that remember you. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-openclaw
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-openclaw.md (~3,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-openclaw.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-openclaw.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-15

OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Atticus's 42.9 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistants that remember you.

- Atticus: grade E, 42.9/100, rank #974 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/atticus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/atticus.json
- OpenClaw: grade B, 67.1/100, rank #280 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openclaw.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 875 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Atticus (E)

Good for: A person on macOS 26 with a Claude Pro or Max plan who wants voice control of apps, windows, files and the browser.

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where OpenClaw loses 8 points for them

Watch for: No API, MCP server or documented command an outside agent can call

### OpenClaw (B)

Good for: A technical owner who wants an assistant on their own machine across many chat apps, with their choice of model and files they can read and delete.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 68
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 15
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 9
- Security & auth, 74 against 49
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 51
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 56

Watch for: Without configuration the default is full access. Host exec runs with no approval and sandboxing is off


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Atticus | OpenClaw | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 75 | OpenClaw +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 15 | 84 | OpenClaw +69 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 9 | 77 | OpenClaw +68 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 74 | OpenClaw +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 86 | OpenClaw +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 68 | OpenClaw +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -8 | |
| **Total** | | **42.9 · E** | **67.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Atticus | OpenClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Agent harness |
| Vendor | SaarthurR (Saarth Ranka) | OpenClaw Foundation |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-12 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 163 stars | 392k stars |

## Verdicts

**Atticus.** Atticus runs a person's Mac by voice on their existing Claude or Devin plan, with a sandboxed safe mode and a local log of every command. It has no API, MCP server or documented command for another agent, it is five days old, and it rebuilds itself from the main branch every six hours by default.

**OpenClaw.** Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with state, memory and credentials kept on the owner's machine and no paid tier. A fresh install runs tools on the host with full access, no approval prompt and no sandbox, and the project has published 722 security advisories since January 2026, 14 of them critical.

## Before you call either

### Atticus

1. Don't plan to call Atticus from another agent. It takes requests only from its own shortcut and typing box
2. If a user runs Atticus beside you, expect it to move windows and type into apps on the same Mac
3. Point a user who wants pinned versions to Settings > About & Updates to turn off self-update

### OpenClaw

1. Set a session permission mode of `guarded` or `workspace`, or `tools.exec.mode`, before connecting mail. The default runs host commands without approval
2. Turn on `agents.defaults.sandbox` for any agent that reads mail, web pages or attachments. Sandboxing is off by default
3. Set `tools.message.crossContext.allowAcrossProviders` and `allowWithinProvider` to `false` to confine sends to the current conversation
4. Route incoming mail to a restricted reader agent, as the IMAP and Gmail guides show, and deny `gateway`, `cron`, `sessions_spawn` and `sessions_send` for it
5. Run `openclaw security audit` after setup, and treat the Gateway token as an owner credential. `POST /tools/invoke` accepts it with full operator access

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Atticus or OpenClaw?

OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Atticus's 42.9 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are Atticus and OpenClaw open source?

Yes. Atticus is open source (MIT). OpenClaw is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-openclaw.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-openclaw.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "atticus", "b": "openclaw"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare atticus openclaw`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/atticus.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openclaw.json

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