# Instinct vs ZeroClaw

> ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) to Instinct's 11.4 (F) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw.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
- Updated: 2026-10-12

ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Instinct's 11.4 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistant proactive.

- Instinct: grade F, 11.4/100, rank #984 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/instinct.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/instinct.json
- ZeroClaw: grade BB, 70.2/100, rank #161 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zeroclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zeroclaw.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 190 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Instinct (F)

Good for: A consumer assistant for one adult who wants errands done by text or phone call, such as bill disputes, gifts, groceries, appointments and travel, and who accepts that it acts and spends as their agent.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where ZeroClaw loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No price is published. The terms say fees may apply to certain functions, are charged in US dollars and are non-refundable

### ZeroClaw (BB)

Good for: One person who wants an assistant on their own hardware that answers on Telegram, Discord, Matrix or email, asks before it writes or runs commands, and works with a local model.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 74 against 5
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 3
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 5
- Security & auth, 76 against 25
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 3
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 51

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: The docs state that command execution is not audited. `[security.audit]` records certificate events only, and tool receipts are opt-in and not durable


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Instinct | ZeroClaw | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 5 | 74 | ZeroClaw +69 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 3 | 82 | ZeroClaw +79 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 5 | 72 | ZeroClaw +67 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 25 | 76 | ZeroClaw +51 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 60 | ZeroClaw +60 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 3 | 80 | ZeroClaw +77 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 64 | ZeroClaw +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **11.4 · F** | **70.2 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Instinct | ZeroClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Spear Street Technology, Inc. | ZeroClaw Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Instinct's Terms of Service, which grant personal use only | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-26 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-26 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | none | 33k stars |

## Verdicts

**Instinct.** The terms and privacy policy are specific about connected accounts, model training and the risks of autonomous actions, and security.txt is valid. No price, documentation, status page, changelog or programmatic interface is published, and customer content trains AI models unless the owner opts out.

**ZeroClaw.** Supervised autonomy is the default, so tools outside a short read-only list wait for the owner's approval, and secrets are encrypted in the config file. The docs state that command execution is not written to an audit log, and the project publishes no privacy policy or terms.

## Before you call either

### Instinct

1. Do not plan on calling Instinct from a program. No API, MCP server or key was found, and the terms forbid automation software and benchmarking
2. A person signs in at app.instinct.com with a phone number and a one-time code by text, and may wait for a place when the service is at capacity
3. Tell the owner to opt out of model training at app.instinct.com/settings before connecting mail or files, since training is on by default
4. Disconnecting an account does not delete what was indexed from it. Delete that data at app.instinct.com/workspace
5. Treat purchases and bookings as final. The terms say actions may not be reversible and that confirmation controls are not guaranteed

### ZeroClaw

1. Keep `[risk_profiles.<alias>] level = "supervised"`. `full` runs every tool not listed in `always_ask`, and the YOLO preset removes the sandbox and path rules too
2. Add sending and account tools such as `send_via`, `google_workspace` and `http_request` to `always_ask` so a session-level Always grant cannot skip the prompt
3. List senders in `[peer_groups.<name>] external_peers`. `["*"]` accepts anyone on that channel
4. Set `[web_fetch].allowed_domains` and `[http_request].allowed_domains`. Fetches run unprompted and the OS sandbox does not block egress
5. Run one-shot tasks with `zeroclaw agent -a <alias> -m "<task>"`. A cron or webhook turn has no prompt, so shell calls fall to the command policy

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Instinct or ZeroClaw?

ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Instinct's 11.4 (F), and leads in every scored category.

### Are Instinct and ZeroClaw open source?

No open-source release is listed for Instinct. ZeroClaw is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Instinct or ZeroClaw

- [AstrBot vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-instinct.md)
- [AstrBot vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [CowAgent vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-instinct.md)
- [CowAgent vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [GAIA vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-instinct.md)
- [GAIA vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-instinct.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-instinct.md)
- [Grok Bot vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Haven vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-instinct.md)
- [Haven vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-instinct.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Instinct vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Instinct vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-leon.md)
- [Instinct vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-lindy.md)
- [Instinct vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Instinct vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [Instinct vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [Instinct vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openclaw.md)
- [Instinct vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Instinct vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-poke.md)
- [Instinct vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Instinct vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [IronClaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Leon vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Lindy vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [nanobot vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [NanoClaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Dots vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [OpenClaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [PicoClaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Poke vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [QwenPaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwenpaw-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [ZeroClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/zeroclaw-vs-zo-computer.md)