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Head to head · Assistant proactive · October 2026 research run

Leon vs PicoClaw

PicoClaw scores 46.1 (D) on agent readiness against Leon's 41 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistant proactive.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 190 assistants comparisons

LeonLouis Grenard (Leon AI) · Agent harness E41/100#934 of 986 PicoClawSipeed · Agent harness D46.1/100#879 of 986

Which one, for what

Leon E

Best for A developer who wants a self-hosted assistant with memory, computer use and a local model, and who will read the source.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where PicoClaw loses 7 points for them

Watch for

No tagged release of the core since 1.0.0-beta.8 on 1 May 2023. The 2.0 Developer Preview is installed by cloning the develop branch

PicoClaw D

Best 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.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 54 against 32
  • Schema & documentation, 51 against 33
  • Agent ergonomics, 66 against 57
  • Security & auth, 51 against 34
  • Maintenance & community, 22 against 15

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

CategoryWeight this runLeonPicoClawEdge
Reliability16%203254PicoClaw +22
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.23351PicoClaw +18
Agent ergonomics13%16.25766PicoClaw +9
Security & auth14%17.53451PicoClaw +17
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.81522PicoClaw +7
Transparency & trust7%8.86056Leon +4
Negative events≤150-7
TotalE 41/100D 46.1/100

Facts side by side

FactLeonPicoClaw
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorLouis Grenard (Leon AI)Sipeed
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2023-05-012026-07-03
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno 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
Popularity18k stars30k stars

Verdicts

Leon

Connected-app credentials are encrypted per profile and the Gmail connection is read-only. The 2.0 Developer Preview has no tagged release, runs tools and a 30-minute proactive pulse with no approval step, listens on every network interface with client authentication off, and sends telemetry by default.

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

Leon

  1. Clone the develop branch for 2.0. npm install --global @leon-ai/cli and docs.getleon.ai install and describe the legacy 1.0 betas
  2. Set client_interface.auth.enabled: true and a LEON_PROFILE_TOKEN before the machine joins a shared network. The server binds 0.0.0.0
  3. Set telemetry_enabled: false and runtime.pulse_enabled: false in the profile config.yml for an unattended or private run
  4. Use availability.tools.allowed to limit tools. Shell, file writes, computer use and browser control are otherwise available to the agent with no approval prompt
  5. Back up LEON_CONNECTIONS_ENCRYPTION_KEY from the profile .env. Without it the stored connections cannot be read

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, Leon or PicoClaw?

PicoClaw scores 46.1 (D) on agent readiness against Leon's 41 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Are Leon and PicoClaw open source?

Yes. Leon is open source (MIT). PicoClaw is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Leon or PicoClaw

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