# Most people should not use OpenClaw (yet)

Published: 2026-03-16T00:00:00.000Z
Canonical: https://wow.pjh.is/journal/most-people-should-not-use-openclaw-yet

Every published a guide to OpenClaw called [Claw School](https://every.to/guides/claw-school). The vibe throughout is "it just works". That hasn't been my experience at all—I've run into a lot of bugs and faff, and others report the same. If I didn't have a background in software dev, it'd have been pretty unusable.

Even given that background, *ex post* it'd have been better to wait a few weeks, rather than starting in late-January. The project is advancing quickly, it's far more stable than before, but still... very early.

Hosted Claw services—that promise to make everything easy—are popping up. I tried two—[MyClaw](https://myclaw.ai/) and [Klaus](https://klausai.com/landing-klaus)—and immediately hit blocking bugs that couldn't be resolved without a support ticket. They're not ready yet.

So:

* If you've some software engineering experience and you're thinking of giving OpenClaw a try this month, my take is "reasonable, but not clearly above bar". Probably, you're better off investing in your [agent skills](https://wow.pjh.is/journal/claude-skills) and personal software tools, and reconsidering the case for a Claw in mid-April.
* If you don't have SWE experience, skip it for now. Consider again in mid-April.

A good hosted Claw service—or a better product from a mainstream AI company—will likely show up in a month or so.

## Appendix 1. How am I using OpenClaw?

I use it a couple of times per day. Main sources of value:

1. **Do stuff while AFK.** Kick off simple coding tasks or make plans from my phone. This affordance shifts more tasks into the "think of it → do it immediately" category. Screenshotting error alerts and saying "please fix" is nice.
2. **Mochi flashcard review.** Five cards are delivered to my phone each morning. Interactive review in chat—with the ability to discuss cards with the model—is very nice.
3. **Morning briefing.** My chief-of-staff skill writes a morning brief. It's nice to read it over breakfast, before I get to my desk.

Health warning: AI on your phone is very addictive, and OpenClaw is especially bad since it messages me proactively. I [block](https://appblock.app/) my AI phone apps from 9pm - 8am, and all day Sunday.

![OpenClaw SRS review](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/openclaw-srs.webp)