# IronClaw vs ZeroClaw

> ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) to IronClaw's 66.7 (B) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zeroclaw
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zeroclaw.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-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 IronClaw's 66.7 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. IronClaw leads on transparency & trust. 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
- 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

### 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:
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 64

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

### 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 67
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 74
- Security & auth, 76 against 66
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 74

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

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 | IronClaw | ZeroClaw | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 74 | ZeroClaw +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 82 | ZeroClaw +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 72 | ZeroClaw +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 76 | ZeroClaw +10 |
| 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 | 80 | ZeroClaw +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 64 | IronClaw +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **66.7 · B** | **70.2 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | IronClaw | ZeroClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | NEAR AI | ZeroClaw Labs |
| 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 OR Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-05 |
| 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 | 33k 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.

**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

### 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

### 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, IronClaw or ZeroClaw?

ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) on agent readiness against IronClaw's 66.7 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. IronClaw leads on transparency & trust.

### Are IronClaw and ZeroClaw open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with IronClaw or ZeroClaw

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- [Gemini Spark vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-ironclaw.md)
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- [Haven vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-ironclaw.md)
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- [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 ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw.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 PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-picoclaw.md)
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- [IronClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.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)
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