Nanobot: Ultra-Lightweight Alternative to OpenClaw

🐈 nanobot is an ultra-lightweight personal AI assistant inspired by Clawdbot

⚡️ Delivers core agent functionality in just ~4,000 lines of code — 99% smaller than Clawdbot's 430k+ lines.

📢 News

2026-02-04 🚀 v0.1.3.post4 released with multi-provider & Docker support! Check release notes for details.
2026-02-01 🎉 nanobot launched! Welcome to try 🐈 nanobot!

Key Features of nanobot:

🪶 Ultra-Lightweight: Just ~4,000 lines of code — 99% smaller than Clawdbot - core functionality.

🔬 Research-Ready: Clean, readable code that's easy to understand, modify, and extend for research.

⚡️ Lightning Fast: Minimal footprint means faster startup, lower resource usage, and quicker iterations.

💎 Easy-to-Use: One-click to depoly and you're ready to go.

🏗️ Architecture

✨ Features

📈 24/7 Real-Time Market Analysis	🚀 Full-Stack Software Engineer	📅 Smart Daily Routine Manager	📚 Personal Knowledge Assistant

Discovery • Insights • Trends	Develop • Deploy • Scale	Schedule • Automate • Organize	Learn • Memory • Reasoning

📦 Install

Install from source (latest features, recommended for development)

git clone https://github.com/HKUDS/nanobot.git
cd nanobot
pip install -e .

Install with uv (stable, fast)

uv tool install nanobot-ai

Install from PyPI (stable)

🚀 Quick Start

Tip

Set your API key in ~/.nanobot/config.json. Get API keys: OpenRouter (LLM) · Brave Search (optional, for web search) You can also change the model to minimax/minimax-m2 for lower cost.

1. Initialize

2. Configure (~/.nanobot/config.json)

{
  "providers": {
    "openrouter": {
      "apiKey": "sk-or-v1-xxx"
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5"
    }
  },
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "search": {
        "apiKey": "BSA-xxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Chat

nanobot agent -m "What is 2+2?"

That's it! You have a working AI assistant in 2 minutes.

🖥️ Local Models (vLLM)

Run nanobot with your own local models using vLLM or any OpenAI-compatible server.

1. Start your vLLM server

vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct --port 8000

2. Configure (~/.nanobot/config.json)

{
  "providers": {
    "vllm": {
      "apiKey": "dummy",
      "apiBase": "http://localhost:8000/v1"
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": "meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct"
    }
  }
}

3. Chat

nanobot agent -m "Hello from my local LLM!"

Tip

The apiKey can be any non-empty string for local servers that don't require authentication.

💬 Chat Apps

Talk to your nanobot through Telegram, WhatsApp, or Feishu — anytime, anywhere.

Channel	Setup
Telegram	Easy (just a token)
WhatsApp	Medium (scan QR)
Feishu	Medium (app credentials)

Telegram (Recommended)

1. Create a bot

Open Telegram, search @BotFather
Send /newbot, follow prompts
Copy the token

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
      "allowFrom": ["YOUR_USER_ID"]
    }
  }
}

Get your user ID from @userinfobot on Telegram.

3. Run

WhatsApp

Requires Node.js ≥18.

1. Link device

nanobot channels login
# Scan QR with WhatsApp → Settings → Linked Devices

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "enabled": true,
      "allowFrom": ["+1234567890"]
    }
  }
}

3. Run (two terminals)

# Terminal 1
nanobot channels login

# Terminal 2
nanobot gateway

Feishu (飞书)

Uses WebSocket long connection — no public IP required.

pip install nanobot-ai[feishu]

1. Create a Feishu bot

Visit Feishu Open Platform
Create a new app → Enable Bot capability
Permissions: Add im:message (send messages)
Events: Add im.message.receive_v1 (receive messages)
- Select Long Connection mode (requires running nanobot first to establish connection)
Get App ID and App Secret from "Credentials & Basic Info"
Publish the app

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "feishu": {
      "enabled": true,
      "appId": "cli_xxx",
      "appSecret": "xxx",
      "encryptKey": "",
      "verificationToken": "",
      "allowFrom": []
    }
  }
}

encryptKey and verificationToken are optional for Long Connection mode. allowFrom: Leave empty to allow all users, or add ["ou_xxx"] to restrict access.

3. Run

[!TIP] Feishu uses WebSocket to receive messages — no webhook or public IP needed!

⚙️ Configuration

Config file: ~/.nanobot/config.json

Providers

Note

Groq provides free voice transcription via Whisper. If configured, Telegram voice messages will be automatically transcribed.

Provider	Purpose	Get API Key
`openrouter`	LLM (recommended, access to all models)	openrouter.ai
`anthropic`	LLM (Claude direct)	console.anthropic.com
`openai`	LLM (GPT direct)	platform.openai.com
`deepseek`	LLM (DeepSeek direct)	platform.deepseek.com
`groq`	LLM + Voice transcription (Whisper)	console.groq.com
`gemini`	LLM (Gemini direct)	aistudio.google.com

Full config example

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5"
    }
  },
  "providers": {
    "openrouter": {
      "apiKey": "sk-or-v1-xxx"
    },
    "groq": {
      "apiKey": "gsk_xxx"
    }
  },
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "123456:ABC...",
      "allowFrom": ["123456789"]
    },
    "whatsapp": {
      "enabled": false
    },
    "feishu": {
      "enabled": false,
      "appId": "cli_xxx",
      "appSecret": "xxx",
      "encryptKey": "",
      "verificationToken": "",
      "allowFrom": []
    }
  },
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "search": {
        "apiKey": "BSA..."
      }
    }
  }
}

CLI Reference

Command	Description
`nanobot onboard`	Initialize config & workspace
`nanobot agent -m "..."`	Chat with the agent
`nanobot agent`	Interactive chat mode
`nanobot gateway`	Start the gateway
`nanobot status`	Show status
`nanobot channels login`	Link WhatsApp (scan QR)
`nanobot channels status`	Show channel status

Scheduled Tasks (Cron)

# Add a job
nanobot cron add --name "daily" --message "Good morning!" --cron "0 9 * * *"
nanobot cron add --name "hourly" --message "Check status" --every 3600

# List jobs
nanobot cron list

# Remove a job
nanobot cron remove <job_id>

🐳 Docker

Tip

The -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot flag mounts your local config directory into the container, so your config and workspace persist across container restarts.

Build and run nanobot in a container:

# Build the image
docker build -t nanobot .

# Initialize config (first time only)
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot --rm nanobot onboard

# Edit config on host to add API keys
vim ~/.nanobot/config.json

# Run gateway (connects to Telegram/WhatsApp)
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot -p 18790:18790 nanobot gateway

# Or run a single command
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot --rm nanobot agent -m "Hello!"
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot --rm nanobot status

📁 Project Structure

nanobot/
├── agent/          # 🧠 Core agent logic
│   ├── loop.py     #    Agent loop (LLM ↔ tool execution)
│   ├── context.py  #    Prompt builder
│   ├── memory.py   #    Persistent memory
│   ├── skills.py   #    Skills loader
│   ├── subagent.py #    Background task execution
│   └── tools/      #    Built-in tools (incl. spawn)
├── skills/         # 🎯 Bundled skills (github, weather, tmux...)
├── channels/       # 📱 WhatsApp integration
├── bus/            # 🚌 Message routing
├── cron/           # ⏰ Scheduled tasks
├── heartbeat/      # 💓 Proactive wake-up
├── providers/      # 🤖 LLM providers (OpenRouter, etc.)
├── session/        # 💬 Conversation sessions
├── config/         # ⚙️ Configuration
└── cli/            # 🖥️ Commands

🤝 Contribute & Roadmap

PRs welcome! The codebase is intentionally small and readable. 🤗

Roadmap — Pick an item and open a PR!

Voice Transcription — Support for Groq Whisper (Issue #13)
Multi-modal — See and hear (images, voice, video)
Long-term memory — Never forget important context
Better reasoning — Multi-step planning and reflection
More integrations — Discord, Slack, email, calendar
Self-improvement — Learn from feedback and mistakes

Contributors

⭐ Star History

Thanks for visiting ✨ nanobot!

_{nanobot is for educational, research, and technical exchange purposes only}