Viral AI assistant Clawdbot seemed to have been named as a nod to Anthropic’s Claude, but it appears that Anthropic was less than impressed with the moniker.
The open-source personal AI assistant project announced today that it is changing its name to Moltbot following a trademark request from Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models. The assistant itself will now be called “Molty” instead of “Clawd,” though the project’s creator is framing the change as a natural evolution rather than a setback.
A Crustacean-Themed Pivot
“Same lobster soul, new shell,” the project announced on social media, leaning into the lobster mascot that has characterized the brand from the beginning. The new name “Molt” references the biological process by which lobsters shed their shells to grow—a metaphor the team says fits perfectly with the transition.
“Anthropic asked us to change our name (trademark stuff), and honestly? ‘Molt’ fits perfectly – it’s what lobsters do to grow,” the announcement stated, maintaining an upbeat tone about what could have been an unwelcome disruption for the rapidly growing project.
Created by Peter Steinberger, the project has gone viral in recent weeks as a self-hosted AI assistant that can manage email, calendars, task lists, and other workflows across messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Slack. The phonetic similarity between “Clawd” and “Claude” had made the connection to Anthropic’s flagship AI model unmistakable from the start.
The Trademark Question
While the announcement characterized the issue as “trademark stuff,” the situation highlights common tensions that arise when open-source projects build tools that leverage—or appear closely associated with—proprietary AI platforms. Anthropic has invested heavily in building Claude as a distinct brand identity in an increasingly crowded AI market, and the company evidently saw potential confusion between its official products and the similarly-named third-party assistant.
The irony is particularly sharp given that many Moltbot users specifically configure their instances to use Claude as the underlying AI model. The project exists in part because of the capabilities that Claude provides for complex reasoning and multi-step tasks, and the community has been enthusiastic about Claude’s performance in powering their personal assistants.
Same Mission, New Name
The rebrand comes as Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) has been experiencing rapid adoption among power users, indie hackers, and early-adopter teams. The project offers a self-hosted alternative to managed AI assistants, allowing users to run their own AI employee on personal hardware while maintaining control over their data and integrations.
“Same mission: AI that actually does things,” the announcement emphasized, signaling that the core vision remains unchanged. Users can still expect the same proactive, tool-using assistant that can handle email triage, calendar management, web automation, and developer workflows—just under a new name.
For the community, the transition will require updating references across GitHub repositories, documentation, and installed instances. The new social media handle is @moltbot, and the team appears to be moving quickly to rebrand across all platforms.
Growing Pains
The naming dispute represents a type of friction that’s becoming more common as the AI ecosystem matures. Open-source projects that build on top of or alongside commercial AI platforms must navigate not just technical integration challenges but also branding and trademark considerations.
For Anthropic, protecting the Claude trademark is likely a straightforward business decision aimed at preventing consumer confusion and maintaining control over its brand identity. For the Moltbot team, the forced rebrand could have been disruptive but instead has been reframed as an opportunity—a molt, in keeping with the lobster theme, that allows the project to grow into something new.
Whether “Molty” will achieve the same viral recognition as “Clawd” remains to be seen, but the project’s underlying appeal—a powerful, self-hosted AI assistant that users control entirely—hasn’t changed. The lobster may have a new shell, but it’s still the same crustacean underneath.