Awesome OpenClaw Research

A curated collection of academic papers, security reports, datasets, and tools for the OpenClaw AI agent ecosystem.
Companion resource for our survey paper.

OpenClaw — the open-source, self-hosted AI agent platform created by Peter Steinberger (evolving from Clawdbot → Moltbot → OpenClaw on January 29, 2026) — has generated 60+ academic papers and 20+ major industry reports in under three months. This repository organizes the research landscape using a four-layer PSEA (Platform–Security–Ecosystem–Application) taxonomy.

Statistics at a Glance

Contents

:page_facing_up: Research Papers

• 🔧 Platform
  • Core Architecture
  • Skill Quality & Optimization
• 🛡️ Security
  • Threat Analysis & Taxonomies
  • Adversarial Attacks
  • Defensive Architectures
  • Supply Chain Security
• 🌐 Ecosystem
  • Platform Measurement & Network Structure
  • Safety Dynamics & Norms
  • Learning & Coordination
  • Ecosystem Perspectives
• 🚀 Application

:file_folder: Resources

• :shield: Industry Security Reports
• :wrench: Open-Source Projects & Tools
• :bar_chart: Datasets & Benchmarks
• :link: Related Awesome Lists
• :handshake: Contributing

🔧 Platform

How OpenClaw is built — core architecture, learning, and skill infrastructure. (8 papers)

⚙️ Core Architecture (5)

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
OpenClaw-RL: Train Any Agent Simply by Talking	Mar 2026	Async RL from live interaction signals; combines evaluative and directive rewards	Paper
OpenCLAW-P2P: A Decentralized Framework for Collective AI Intelligence Towards AGI	Feb 2026	Decentralized agent network with DHT, federated learning, and formal verification	GitHub
AgentOS: From Application Silos to a NL-Driven Data Ecosystem	Mar 2026	Personal Agent OS replacing GUI with NL interaction; cites OpenClaw as exemplar	Paper
MetaClaw: Just Talk — An Agent That Meta-Learns and Evolves in the Wild	Mar 2026	Continual meta-learning on OpenClaw; dynamic skill synthesis and policy optimization	Paper

📦 Skill Quality & Optimization (3)

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
SkillClone: Multi-Modal Clone Detection ⭐ ASE 2026	Mar 2026	First multi-modal clone detector; massive ecosystem inflation from cloning	Paper
SkillNet: Create, Evaluate, and Connect AI Skills	Feb 2026	Unified skill ontology with multi-dimensional quality evaluation framework	Paper
SkillReducer: Optimizing LLM Agent Skills for Token Efficiency	Mar 2026	Skill debloating framework compresses descriptions while preserving functionality	Paper

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🛡️ Security

Threats, attacks, defenses, and supply chain security. (22 papers + industry reports)

🔍 Threat Analysis & Taxonomies (8)

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
Uncovering Security Threats in Autonomous Agents (FASA)	Mar 2026	Tri-layered risk taxonomy with full-lifecycle defense architecture	Paper
Don't Let the Claw Grip Your Hand	Mar 2026	Empirical red-teaming across six LLMs; human-in-the-loop defense layer	Paper
Taming OpenClaw: Security Analysis and Mitigation	Mar 2026	Five-stage lifecycle threat model; point defenses fail cross-stage attacks	Paper
A Systematic Taxonomy of Security Vulnerabilities	Mar 2026	Analysis of 190 security advisories; OpenClaw-specific kill chain	Paper
A Trajectory-Based Safety Audit of Clawdbot	Feb 2026	Trajectory-level safety evaluation; complete failure on intent misunderstanding	Paper
From Assistant to Double Agent (PASB)	Feb 2026	First end-to-end benchmark for personalized agent security	Paper
ClawTrap: MITM-Based Red-Teaming Framework	Mar 2026	First network-layer red-teaming framework for agent systems	Paper
Your Agent, Their Asset: Real-World Safety Analysis of OpenClaw	Apr 2026	CIK taxonomy (Capability/Identity/Knowledge); ASR 24.6% → 64–74% under single-dimension poisoning	Paper

🔥 Adversarial Attacks (4)

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
Clawdrain: Token Exhaustion via Tool-Calling Chains	Mar 2026	Trojanized skill causes massive token amplification; denial-of-wallet attack	Paper
ClawWorm: Self-Propagating Attacks Across Agent Ecosystems	Mar 2026	First self-replicating worm for a production agent framework	Paper
HEARTBEAT: Silent Memory Pollution via Background Execution	Mar 2026	Exploits heartbeat cycle as covert channel for persistent backdoor injection	Paper
Skill-Inject: Measuring Agent Vulnerability to Skill File Attacks	Feb 2026	Benchmark of 202 injection-task pairs; up to 80% ASR on frontier LLMs via skill files	Paper

🛡️ Defensive Architectures (6)

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
OpenClaw PRISM: Zero-Fork Runtime Security Layer	Mar 2026	Defense-in-depth across 10 lifecycle hooks with risk accumulation and decay	Paper
Agent Privilege Separation Against Prompt Injection	Mar 2026	Two-agent architecture eliminates prompt injection for constrained tasks	Paper
Before the Tool Call: Pre-Action Authorization (OAP)	Mar 2026	Deterministic pre-action authorization blocks all unauthorized actions	Paper
VeriGrey: Greybox Agent Validation	Mar 2026	Grey-box fuzzing with tool-invocation coverage feedback outperforms black-box	Paper
Guardrail Proofs: Cryptographic Attestation for Agent Safety	Mar 2026	TEE-based cryptographic proof that guardrails actually execute on OpenClaw	Paper
Governance Architecture for Autonomous Agent Systems (LGA)	Mar 2026	Four-layer governance with sandbox, intent verification, zero-trust auth, audit	Paper

🔗 Supply Chain Security (4)

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
SkillFortify: Formal Analysis and Supply Chain Security	Feb 2026	First formal supply-chain framework with Dolev-Yao attacker model for skills	Paper
SkillProbe: Security Auditing via Multi-Agent Collaboration	Mar 2026	Multi-agent auditing reveals most popular skills fail rigorous security checks	Paper
Malicious Or Not: Repository Context for Skill Classification	Mar 2026	Largest skill ecosystem study; repo-context dramatically reduces false positives	Paper
Systems-Level Attack Surface of Edge Agent Deployments on IoT	Feb 2026	Deployment architecture is the primary security determinant for edge agents	Paper

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🌐 Ecosystem

What happens when agents interact at scale — Moltbook social dynamics, safety phenomena, and ecosystem perspectives. (22 papers)

Moltbook Social Dynamics (20)

The first agent-only social network with 1.5M+ registered AI agents.

📊 Platform Measurement & Network Structure

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
Collective Behavior of AI Agents: the Case of Moltbook	Feb 2026	Large-scale statistical analysis showing human-like attention dynamics	Paper
Exploring Silicon-Based Societies	Feb 2026	"Data-driven silicon sociology" framework; emergent community archetypes	Paper
'Humans welcome to observe': A First Look at Moltbook	Feb 2026	First measurement study with topic taxonomy and toxicity analysis	Paper
The Anatomy of the Moltbook Social Graph	Feb 2026	Small-world structure but shallow, non-reciprocal micro-interactions	Paper
The Rise of AI Agent Communities	Feb 2026	Discourse analysis showing functional utility drives agent influence	Paper
Emergence of Fragility in LLM-based Social Networks	Mar 2026	Core-periphery structure reveals vulnerability to targeted hub attacks	Paper
MoltNet: Understanding Social Behavior of AI Agents	Feb 2026	Agents selectively mimic human behavior; persona drift after social rewards	Paper
Social Simulacra in the Wild: AI vs Human Communities	Mar 2026	First AI-vs-human community comparison; structural homogenization found	Paper
Scientific Discussions on Moltbook (BERTopic)	Mar 2026	Topic modeling of AI science discourse; self-referential discussion patterns	Paper
Fast Response or Silence: Conversation Persistence on Moltbook	Feb 2026	Two-part persistence decomposition; low incidence is the binding coordination bottleneck	Paper
Comparative Analysis of Social Network Topology in Reddit and Moltbook	Feb 2026	First topological comparison; Moltbook operates as broadcast network, not social community	Paper
Let There Be Claws: Early Social Network Analysis of AI Agents on Moltbook	Feb 2026	Structural SNA showing broadcast hierarchy with extreme attention concentration	Paper

⚠️ Safety, Norms & Emergent Behavior

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
The Moltbook Illusion: Human vs Emergent Behavior	Feb 2026	Temporal fingerprinting separates autonomous from human-influenced agents	Paper
The Devil Behind Moltbook: Safety Vanishing	Feb 2026	Proves self-evolution trilemma impossibility result for agent societies	Paper
Agents in the Wild: Safety and Sociality on Moltbook	Feb 2026	Governance and religion emerge spontaneously but interaction is performative	Paper
Risky Instruction Sharing and Norm Enforcement (AIRS)	Feb 2026	Action-inducing posts trigger emergent decentralized norm enforcement	Paper
Large-Scale Analysis of Political Propaganda on Moltbook	Mar 2026	Political propaganda disproportionately concentrated in small post fraction	Paper

🔗 Learning & Coordination

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
Peer Learning Patterns in the Moltbook Community	Feb 2026	Taxonomy of peer response patterns: validation, extension, application	Paper
Informal Learners at Moltbook: Emergent Learning at Scale	Feb 2026	Extreme broadcasting inversion; parallel monologues dominate interaction	Paper
MoltGraph: Temporal Graph for Coordinated-Agent Detection	Feb 2026	First temporal graph dataset; coordinated posts get massive early engagement	Paper
Molt Dynamics: Emergent Social Phenomena	Mar 2026	Role specialization emerges but multi-agent cooperation largely fails	Paper

🔭 Ecosystem Perspectives (4)

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🚀 Application

Where OpenClaw is deployed in specific domains. (8 papers)

Title	Date	Key Contribution	Links
ROSClaw: OpenClaw ROS 2 Framework for Robot Control	Mar 2026	Model-agnostic ROS 2 executive layer for multi-platform robot control	Paper
RoboClaw: Scalable Long-Horizon Robotic Tasks	Mar 2026	VLM-driven controller with self-resetting data collection loops	Paper
When OpenClaw Meets Hospital	Mar 2026	Hospital-adapted architecture with HIPAA compliance and manifest-guided memory	Paper
MedOpenClaw: Auditable Medical Imaging Agents over Uncurated Full Studies	Mar 2026	Auditable OpenClaw runtime for VLM-based medical imaging with 3D volume navigation	Paper
Human-AI Partnership in Education ⭐ AIED 2026	Mar 2026	Emergent peer learning and trust dynamics across agent communities	Paper
From Agent-Only Networks to Autonomous Science (ClawdLab)	Feb 2026	Autonomous scientific research platform with PI-led governance	Paper

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:shield: Industry Security Reports

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:wrench: Open-Source Projects & Tools

:bulb: Our unique angle: each tool is annotated with [Paper] tags linking to relevant research in our taxonomy.

:lobster: Core Platform

Project	Description	Links
openclaw/openclaw	Official OpenClaw repository
openclaw/skills	Official skills repository
ClawHub	Official skill marketplace (13,700+ skills)	Website

:rocket: Extensions & Frameworks

Project	Description	Paper	Links
Gen-Verse/OpenClaw-RL	Async RL training framework	Platform
MINT-SJTU/RoboClaw	VLM-driven robotic tasks	Application
NVIDIA/NemoClaw	Enterprise security wrapper	Industry

:lock: Security & Auditing

Project	Description	Paper	Links
prompt-security/clawsec	Drift detection, automated audits	Trust
ClawSecure/clawsecure-openclaw-security	3-Layer Audit, OWASP ASI	Trust
adversa-ai/secureclaw	OWASP-aligned security plugin	Trust
adibirzu/openclaw-security-monitor	ClawHavoc, CVE detection	Trust
nearai/ironclaw	Privacy-focused Rust implementation	Trust
ucsandman/dashclaw	Governance, HITL, audit trails	Trust

:brain: Memory & Context

Project	Description	Links
Contextable/openclaw-memory-graphiti	SpiceDB + Graphiti knowledge graph
coolmanns/openclaw-memory-architecture	12-layer memory, 7ms semantic search
alibaizhanov/openclaw-mengram	Semantic, episodic & procedural memory
adoresever/graph-memory	Knowledge graph; 75% context compression
supermemoryai/openclaw-supermemory	Long-term memory extension
volcengine/OpenViking	Context database via file system paradigm

:cloud: Deployment & Infrastructure

Project	Description	Links
coollabsio/openclaw	Automated Docker images
khal3d/openclaw	Docker + Kubernetes (Helm)
cloudflare/moltworker	Cloudflare Workers (serverless)
serhanekicii/openclaw-helm	Helm chart for Kubernetes
1Panel-dev/1Panel	Server panel, one-click deploy

:speech_balloon: Channel Integrations

Project	Description	Links
4Players/openclaw-docker	Multi-channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack)
dingxiang-me/OpenClaw-Wechat	WeChat/WeCom with streaming
larksuite/openclaw-lark	Official Feishu/Lark plugin
BytePioneer-AI/openclaw-china	Feishu, DingTalk, QQ, WeChat pack

:zap: Alternative Clients

Project	Description	Links
HKUDS/nanobot	Ultra-lightweight alternative
moltis-org/moltis	Rust-native runtime with sandboxing
AidanPark/openclaw-android	OpenClaw on Android
HKUDS/ClawTeam	Agent swarm automation

:microscope: Domain-Specific Skills

Project	Description	Paper	Links
FreedomIntelligence/OpenClaw-Medical-Skills	Medical skills library	Application
ClawBio/ClawBio	Bioinformatics-native skills	Application
BlockRunAI/ClawRouter	LLM router, cost control	Platform

:books: Learning Resources

Project	Description	Links
datawhalechina/hello-claw	Structured Chinese tutorial
centminmod/explain-openclaw	Architecture, security, deployment docs

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:bar_chart: Datasets & Benchmarks

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:link: Related Awesome Lists

Repository	Focus	Stars
VoltAgent/awesome-openclaw-skills	5,211 curated OpenClaw skills
hesamsheikh/awesome-openclaw-usecases	42 verified use cases
ZeroLu/awesome-openclaw	Getting-started guide with skill packs
alvinreal/awesome-openclaw	Ecosystem tools, dashboards, integrations
mergisi/awesome-openclaw-agents	162 OpenClaw agent templates

:handshake: Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read the contributing guidelines first.

We especially welcome:

• :page_facing_up: New papers not yet listed
• :computer: Code repositories associated with listed papers
• :shield: Industry reports and technical analyses
• :bar_chart: Datasets and benchmarks

:pencil: Citation

@article{awesome-openclaw-research-2026,
  title={Awesome OpenClaw Research: A Curated Collection of the OpenClaw AI Agent Ecosystem},
  author={Wang, Ziqing},
  year={2026},
  url={https://github.com/REAL-Lab-NU/Awesome-OpenClaw-Papers}
}

:star2: Star History

License

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.