# IronClaw vs PicoClaw

> IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) to PicoClaw's 46.1 (D) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-picoclaw
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-picoclaw.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-picoclaw.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-picoclaw.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

IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against PicoClaw's 46.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistant proactive.

- IronClaw: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #288 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ironclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ironclaw.json
- PicoClaw: grade D, 46.1/100, rank #879 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/picoclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/picoclaw.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

### IronClaw (B)

Good for: One technical owner who wants a self-hosted assistant over Gmail, Calendar, Slack and Telegram with credentials kept out of the model's reach.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 54
- Schema & documentation, 74 against 51
- Security & auth, 66 against 51
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 22
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 56

Watch for: Global auto-approve defaults to on in the 1.4.1 source, so tools marked ask (send, trash, delete) run without a prompt. Only financial, approval and budget effects always ask

### PicoClaw (D)

Good for: A person who wants a chat-app assistant on a cheap Linux board, an old Android phone or a home server, with reminders, web search and file memory, and who accepts running software its maker calls pre-production.

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No commit on main since 19 August 2026 and no release since v0.3.1 on 3 July 2026. An issue of 6 October calls the repository unmaintained, with no reply


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | IronClaw | PicoClaw | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 54 | IronClaw +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 51 | IronClaw +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 66 | IronClaw +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 51 | IronClaw +15 |
| 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) | 74 | 22 | IronClaw +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 56 | IronClaw +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -7 | |
| **Total** | | **66.7 · B** | **46.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | IronClaw | PicoClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | NEAR AI | Sipeed |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-07-03 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 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 | 13k stars | 30k stars |

## Verdicts

**IronClaw.** Credentials stay in an encrypted store and are injected at the host boundary, and extensions declare per-tool permissions, network targets and OAuth scopes. The global auto-approve setting defaults to on in the 1.4.1 source, so tools marked ask, such as `gmail.send_message`, run unprompted until the owner turns it off.

**PicoClaw.** Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with 19 documented chat channels, scheduled and heartbeat tasks, and local file memory. The repository has had no commit since 19 August 2026 and no release since 3 July, and 15 CVEs are listed against it with no advisory or security policy from the project.

## Before you call either

### IronClaw

1. Open Settings and turn off global auto-approve, or set send and delete tools to ask each time, before connecting mail or chat accounts
2. Install with the release installer and run `ironclaw onboard`. 1.x does not migrate 0.29 data, so use a fresh home directory
3. Call `POST /api/v1/responses` with the bearer token from `~/.ironclaw/reborn/webui-token`. Keep under 30 requests in 60 seconds
4. Resolve approval and OAuth gates in the web interface. The Responses API fails the turn instead of surfacing them
5. Connect MCP servers over HTTP only. The stdio transport is rejected

### PicoClaw

1. Set `allow_from` to the owner's user ID on every channel before starting the gateway. An empty list accepts messages from anyone
2. Set `tools.exec.allow_remote` to `false` unless chats must run shell commands. The shipped default is `true`, whatever docs/guides/configuration.md says
3. Set `isolation.enabled` to `true` on Linux (needs `bwrap`) or run in a container. The deny patterns do not inspect child processes
4. Use `PICOCLAW_KEY_PASSPHRASE` for credential encryption. One docs page names `PICOCLAW_CREDENTIAL_PASSPHRASE`, which the source does not read
5. Treat the README's ClawdChat line (read a remote skill file and follow it) as untrusted third-party instructions

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, IronClaw or PicoClaw?

IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against PicoClaw's 46.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are IronClaw and PicoClaw open source?

Yes. IronClaw is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0). PicoClaw is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with IronClaw or PicoClaw

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