Susan Brooks
Claw Ecosystem Researcher & Writer
I started paying attention to the Claw ecosystem in early 2026, right around the time OpenClaw hit GitHub and the fork explosion began. I was already deep in the AI agent space for a different project — but the pace of development around OpenClaw was unlike anything I'd seen. New bots were appearing week-to-week. GitHub stars were doubling overnight. And almost nobody outside of the developer community knew what any of it meant or which pieces actually mattered.
I started writing about it because the coverage I could find was either too shallow (hot takes and hype) or too technical (deep GitHub diffs and architecture discussions). There wasn't a reliable resource for someone who wanted to understand the ecosystem without becoming a full-time researcher — someone who wanted to know which bots were worth their time, what it would actually cost, and what to watch out for before committing to any of it.
That gap is why the Field Guide exists. Each month I read the release notes, track the GitHub activity, follow the Discord threads, and synthesize what's actually changed and why it matters. The goal is always the same: give you a current, honest picture of the Claw ecosystem in about one hour, so you can make informed decisions without spending 20+ hours doing the research yourself. If you have questions about the guide or the ecosystem, I'm reachable at hello@clawecosystem.co.