The Great Molt
The complete timeline of how Clawdbot became Moltbot. A trademark request, crypto scammers, and 10 seconds of chaos — the wildest rebrand in open-source history.
Clawdbot Launches
Peter Steinberger releases Clawdbot, a personal AI assistant with a space lobster mascot named "Clawd".
@steipete announcement9,000 GitHub Stars
The project explodes in popularity, reaching 9,000 GitHub stars within a single day.
GitHub60,000+ Stars
Becomes one of the fastest-growing open-source projects in GitHub history. Praised by Andrej Karpathy and David Sacks.
DEV.to articleAnthropic Trademark Request
"Clawd" was too similar to "Claude". Anthropic sends a polite but firm request to rename the project.
@steipete threadThe Great Molt
After hundreds of community suggestions (Shelldon, Pinchy, Thermidor), the team decides: "fuck it, let's go with Moltbot".
LoreHandles Sniped by Crypto Bots
Automated crypto bots snipe @clawdbot on X within seconds of the rename announcement. Scammers immediately post wallet addresses.
DEV.to article$16M Fake Token Scam
Fake $CLAWD token launches on Solana, reaches $16M market cap, then crashes 90%. Peter warns the community: "Any coin is a SCAM".
@steipete warningMoltbot Lives On
67,500+ stars and growing. New shell, same lobster. "Molt fits perfectly—it's what lobsters do to grow."
molt.botThis timeline is compiled from public sources including @steipete's posts, project documentation, and community coverage.