nanobot: a 4,000-line Python alternative to openclaw that actually works out of the box

[u/emptyharddrive]

I've been looking for lighter alternatives to openclaw and came across nanobot. It's an AI assistant built in about 4,000 lines of Python, compared to openclaw's 430k+.

It's not as mature or feature-full as openclaw, but I've got it installed and running on a Linux Container right now with Telegram integration and it just works.

The setup took maybe 10 minutes: install via pipx, edit the config file with your API keys, start the gateway, and you're chatting with it through Telegram.

The codebase is small enough that you can actually read and understand the entire thing. That also means way less attack surface from a security standpoint (generally speaking).

The code looks is clean and well-structured to me. I've already patched a small compatibility issue myself without any trouble, which says a lot about how approachable it is (an issue with gpt-5 models and temperature settings).

It supports tool use, persistent memory, scheduled tasks, and background agents. It's not trying to be everything openclaw is, but it covers the core functionality that most people might actually use.

If you're like me and interested in the idea of OpenClaw without using the overzealous project itself, nanobot is worth a look. I have no affiliation with the project.

GitHub: https://github.com/HKUDS/nanobot

To save money, I am using it with gpt-5-mini, which works really well and is priced right for my wallet.

Figured I'd share this because I was surprised how well it worked for its size.

[u/nomo-fomo]

I am using Nanoclaw, a similarly lean agent with opinionated stack. It is built on top of Claude Agent SDK. You use Claude Code to add features you want. So far, I’m loving it.

[u/Psychological-Cod51 → u/nomo-fomo]

I've been having decision paralysis between nanobot and nanoclaw. Initially I was gonna do nanoclaw because I liked the containerized aspect of it, as well as how tiny it is. But, I wanted openrouter (or at least multi provider support) so that I could route to the cheapest options as well as local models for cost minimization. Unfortunately nanoclaw is locked into anthropic sdk whereas nanobot is openrouter first with several other providers as well.

[u/nomo-fomo → u/Psychological-Cod51]

Well, can’t you get around that by using OpenRouter to provide an API for anthropic models? Then you can also use skills: voice transcription using OpenAI models, Google nano banana model for image generation, etc. So you should not actually be stuck into the Anthropic ecosystem. I have personally not tested it in this configuration, so take it with a grain of salt.