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Head to head · Assistant proactive · October 2026 research run

NanoClaw vs Dots

NanoClaw scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Dots's 28.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistant proactive.

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

NanoClawNanoCo, Inc. · Agent harness B68.3/100#229 of 986 DotsOpenAI · Platform F28.3/100#973 of 986

Which one, for what

NanoClaw B

Best for A technical owner who wants an assistant on their own machine, reachable from chat apps, with container isolation and scheduled tasks, and who is willing to keep a fork.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 78 against 3
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 41
  • Agent ergonomics, 70 against 22
  • Security & auth, 74 against 58
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 78 against 38
  • Transparency & trust, 65 against 31

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

The Claude provider runs with permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions', so shell, file and web tools run inside the container with no prompt

Dots F

Best for A ChatGPT Pro or Enterprise user who wants ongoing work tracked across mail, documents, code and Slack with approval before sends.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where NanoClaw loses 5 points for them

Watch for

Beta. The admin setting is labelled Use dots (Beta), access is rolling out gradually, and Teams access is an invite-only alpha

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runNanoClawDotsEdge
Reliability16%20783NanoClaw +75
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28241NanoClaw +41
Agent ergonomics13%16.27022NanoClaw +48
Security & auth14%17.57458NanoClaw +16
Payments & pricing10%12.56010NanoClaw +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87838NanoClaw +40
Transparency & trust7%8.86531NanoClaw +34
Negative events≤15-50
TotalB 68.3/100F 28.3/100

Facts side by side

FactNanoClawDots
KindAgent harnessPlatform
VendorNanoCo, Inc.OpenAI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceMITProprietary hosted service. The governing terms were not read
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-092026-10-09
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
Popularity31k starsnone

Verdicts

NanoClaw

Each session runs in an unprivileged Docker container and API keys stay in a credential gateway on the host, so a manipulated agent cannot read them. Inside the container the agent runs with permission prompts off, network egress is open by default, and it can message any chat it is wired to without approval.

Dots

Actions that affect accounts or share information pass an automatic review, and custom rules can require approval or a hand-off. Dots is a beta on Pro plans from $100 a month, and no status page, terms, privacy policy or way to delete individual saved notes was found in the pages we could read.

Before you call either

NanoClaw

  1. Install with git clone and bash nanoclaw.sh. There is no registry package, and setup needs Docker, Node 22 or later and a Claude or Codex credential
  2. Set NANOCLAW_EGRESS_LOCKDOWN=true before giving an agent credentials or an audience of strangers. The default leaves egress open
  3. Put chats with different audiences in separate agent groups. Every session of a group shares one read-write workspace and memory tree
  4. Turn on per-request approval for a secret in the gateway when its use should wait for a person. It is off unless configured
  5. On OneCLI installs, move the gateway to 1.42.0 by the upgrade guide before updating to 2026.10.0. The updater stops until that is done

Dots

  1. Say what may be sent. Asking a dot to draft replies does not permit sending them, and an action outside a stated scope needs another decision
  2. Stop three things separately. Pause stops the main task only, delegated tasks stop in Activity and recurring tasks in Scheduled, and completed actions are not undone
  3. Connect each thing separately. A messaging channel grants no access to an inbox, an app or a computer
  4. Sign out of websites and disconnect apps yourself when removing access. Revoking dots access or disconnecting an app does not delete information already obtained
  5. Keep the connected computer online with the ChatGPT app open for local work. Only one personal computer can be connected at a time

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, NanoClaw or Dots?

NanoClaw scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Dots's 28.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Are NanoClaw and Dots open source?

NanoClaw is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Dots.

Other comparisons with NanoClaw or Dots

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