March 2026 · Li Kaer / Culver

Recently, the whole internet has been “raising lobsters.”
This “little lobster” from GitHub, OpenClaw, gained more than 170,000 stars in ten days. There were even stories of programmers setting up stalls downstairs from major tech companies in China to help people deploy it for free.
Today, let us understand what OpenClaw is, what makes it different, and how we might “raise the lobster.”

1. What is OpenClaw? How does it work?

Simply put, OpenClaw is an open-source, highly extensible AI Agent framework.

If traditional AI, such as ChatGPT, is like a learned “wise person” without an office, then OpenClaw builds a complete digital office, or Workspace, for that wise person. It mainly consists of the following core components:

Gateway: the control center. It runs on a server or computer, connects to communication tools such as Feishu (飞书) and DingTalk (钉钉), and directs the AI’s work.
Agent: the brain responsible for thinking, decision-making, and multi-step task planning.
Skills: tool plugins the AI can call, such as operating Excel, searching the web, sending emails, or even controlling a computer camera.
Workspace: the place where AI stores long-term memory, files, and history.

Workflow: When you send an instruction in Feishu, the gateway receives it and passes it to the AI brain. The AI combines your long-term memory and configuration rules, calls the relevant skills, executes the task, and sends the result back to Feishu. It can repeat multi-step work until the goal is reached.

2. What makes it different?

1. Difference from common chatbots

From one-off conversation to continuous process: Chatbots such as DeepSeek (深度求索) are like delivery workers: they finish one delivery and leave, with no memory of what you needed last week. OpenClaw is more like a colleague. It has long-running workflows, knows what project you are working on, can actively manage task progress, and knows where files are.
From passive response to active execution: Web-based AI requires you to ask first. OpenClaw has a heartbeat mechanism. Even if you say nothing, it can check tasks at preset times, such as 8 a.m. every day, and report to you.

2. Difference from other AI agents

Environmental integration: Many agents are only a decision-making brain. OpenClaw provides a full-stack infrastructure and natively supports Chinese ecosystems such as Feishu and WeChat, addressing the mismatch of many overseas frameworks.
Cloud-device collaboration: It can run in the cloud and can also use Node plugins to call phone or local computer hardware, such as location and screen interaction. This gives AI the ability to “see” the physical world and provide location services, which is rare in pure cloud agents.

3. What can it help teachers do?

In a school setting, we can use its “initiative” and multiple skills for deep customization:

1. Daily subject teaching

Personalized resource generation: Combined with Vibe Coding, OpenClaw could monitor your teaching materials folder. Whenever a new slide deck is added, it automatically generates a corresponding practice webpage or game and publishes it to your personal teaching site.
Assignment feedback system: When students submit assignments, AI automatically parses them, extracts knowledge mastery patterns, and sends a class analysis report directly to the teacher.

2. School administration

All-purpose morning briefing: Before you arrive at school, AI has summarized your schedule, unread emails, and education news you follow, then sends it to your phone in text-and-image format.
Automated meeting assistant: It reads meeting invitations in email, checks calendar conflicts, and helps reserve a meeting room.

3. Teaching research and professional development

Literature and policy monitoring: Set keywords such as “new curriculum standards” (新课标) or “AI education applications” (AI 教育应用). AI monitors academic websites and government announcements 24 hours a day and sends summaries when important updates appear.
Multi-agent research team: You can create a “teaching research group” made of a “resource collector,” “draft writer,” and “format proofreader” agent to collaborate on tedious grant or research application preparation.

4. How should I raise the lobster?

1. Cloud server deployment

Steps: Choose the OpenClaw setup on Tencent Cloud (腾讯云) or Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) and follow the tutorial. Deployment can take 2-3 minutes.
Configuration: A 2-core, 4GB memory plan is recommended for smooth multi-task operation.
Advantages: online 24/7, better environment isolation, and relatively low cost, roughly 100-200 RMB per year.

2. Domestic hosted platforms

Option: Use platforms such as MaxClaw or KimiClaw.
Advantage: as simple as registering an account, without buying your own server.

3. Local computer deployment

Option: install it on a Mac Mini or an older Linux computer.
Risk: if the computer shuts down, the service stops. With very high permissions, if it is not isolated from your main computer, it may accidentally operate on local data.

5. What are the risks of letting it control my computer?

Because OpenClaw is granted high-level permissions to operate a computer and files, we must take permission loss of control and data privacy seriously while enjoying convenience.

Risk: Using OpenClaw is like handing your house keys, or system permissions, to this AI teaching assistant. If it runs on your personal main computer and misunderstands an instruction, it might delete important lesson plans or send private photos as attachments to parents.
Responses:
- Physical isolation: prioritize cloud server deployment rather than local deployment, separating the AI’s “office” from your personal life.
- Habit building: since raising this “lobster” requires your own configuration, you can write hard red lines into the AI core personality file, SOUL.md: “Before deleting files, modifying files, or sending sensitive information externally, you must get my explicit confirmation.”
- More options: when data and privacy requirements are higher, consider advanced methods such as a loopback-first model and encrypted networking.

6. One more thing I want to say

From the one-question-one-answer chat box to OpenClaw, which can “type on its own,” AI is evolving from a simple tool into an intelligent partner. But if you ask me what you should do first, I would say: wait. Wait a little longer.

Looking back to the 1990s, choosing motherboards, graphics cards, memory, installing systems and software all became part of the trend. Some people stayed up late “surfing” a limited web; some spent extraordinary patience downloading a single “clear” image. But soon, complete machines became common, operating systems were preinstalled, and now many users no longer care about configuration details. They just click once to buy.

OpenClaw today feels like returning to that era. We compare cloud servers, APIs, and core files. We calculate how to spend fewer tokens. The excitement is familiar. We see people setting up free installation stalls downstairs from tech companies, and even paid door-to-door installation. Everyone wants to be the first to “eat the lobster.” But I once saw a comment: if you cannot even install it, how will you really use it?

Today’s AI brings more and more anxiety. Under media narratives and organizational pressure, everyone seems to feel that AI can do everything, everyone should use it, and once they do, everything will change dramatically. But when asked what task is actually worth handing to AI, many people fall silent.

A tool does not create value simply because it has been installed. So when colleagues ask me how to “raise the lobster,” I always ask: do you really need it? Is it really suitable for you? Raising one lobster does not mean you have entered the AI age. The real dividing line is still human: whether you can decompose tasks, design workflows, and maintain judgment.

So before you truly decide to “raise the lobster,” please wait.

Formal statement:

This guide is an objective sharing based on current technological trends and community materials. It does not represent a specific recommendation for or criticism of OpenClaw or related platforms. AI deployment and use have an experimental nature, and outcomes vary by person. Teachers should operate cautiously according to their own capacity and school policies, and are responsible for personal data security and usage consequences.