# build-your-own-openclaw

# build-your-own-openclaw

**Author:** czl9707
**Repo:** https://github.com/czl9707/build-your-own-openclaw
**Language:** Python (94.7%)
**License:** MIT
**Stars:** 917
**Fetched:** 2026-04-09

## Description

"A step-by-step tutorial to build your own AI agent, from a simple chat loop to a lightweight version of OpenClaw."

OpenClaw is a pun on Claude Code. The tutorial walks through building a Claude Code-style coding agent from scratch in 18 progressive steps grouped into 4 phases. Each step has documentation plus executable code. A reference implementation called `pickle-bot` ships alongside the tutorial.

## Phase breakdown

**Phase 1 — Single agent capability (steps 0-6)**
Chat loop, tool integration, skill extension via documentation, conversation persistence, user commands, history compression/compaction, web access. The minimum viable coding agent.

**Phase 2 — Event architecture (steps 7-10)**
Event system, configuration hot-reloading, multi-channel support, WebSocket integration. Moves from a single-session CLI process to an always-on service that can be reached from multiple frontends.

**Phase 3 — Autonomous & collaborative (steps 11-15)**
Intelligent agent routing, scheduled tasks via cron, multi-layer prompting, bidirectional messaging, agent-to-agent dispatch. The agent gains the ability to run on its own schedule and coordinate with other agents.

**Phase 4 — Production readiness (steps 16-17)**
Concurrency management, persistent memory systems.

## Tech

- Uses LiteLLM for multi-provider LLM abstraction — write once, run against any supported backend
- Python, MIT-licensed
- Configuration via example config file that users populate with provider credentials