6 AI agents compared: Dots, Muse, Grok Bot, OpenClaw, Hermes, MausBot
Three run in someone else's cloud, three are open source, and one is an orchestrator for the agents you already use. What each one is for, where to get it, and what to watch out for.
The short answer
- Ongoing work → Dots (OpenAI, inside ChatGPT).
- Personal tasks → Muse (Meta).
- A team of AI coworkers → Grok Bot (xAI).
- An assistant in your chat apps → OpenClaw (open source, MIT).
- An agent that keeps learning → Hermes (Nous Research, open source, MIT).
- All your agents as one team → MausBot (open source, Apache 2.0).
The three cloud agents
- Dots (OpenAI): an always-on agent inside ChatGPT. Give it an ongoing goal, connect your apps, and it keeps working in the background, checking in when it needs you. openai.com
- Muse (Meta): a personal agent for bookings, shopping, forms, reminders and long-term goals. It asks for your OK before buying. ai.meta.com/muse
- Grok Bot (xAI): a team of always-on bots, each with its own role (research, sales, marketing, operations…), its own computer and apps. x.ai/bot
Availability, plans and prices change often and can depend on your country: check each official page before you pay.
The three open-source ones
- OpenClaw: a background service you install from the terminal, then text from WhatsApp, Telegram and other chat apps like a contact. The biggest community (380k+ GitHub stars) and a huge skill registry, ClawHub. github.com/openclaw/openclaw
- Hermes Agent: one agent with its own app. You create bots, each with its own role, model and memory, and they talk in group chats. It writes its own skills, and risky commands get reviewed. MIT, 240k+ stars. github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent
- MausBot: not another agent, an orchestrator. It runs the Claude Code, Codex and Grok CLIs already on your computer as one team, with a Chief of Staff bot that hands out the work, and approvals on desktop or phone. You can add Hermes and OpenClaw. Free, Apache 2.0. mausbot.com
# OpenClaw (needs Node.js) npm install -g openclaw@latest openclaw onboard # Hermes Agent (Linux, macOS, WSL2) curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
Safety first (important)
- OpenClaw runs commands without asking by default on gateway hosts (full access). If you prefer approvals, its docs offer a cautious preset:
openclaw exec-policy preset cautious. - Skills run with the agent's power. Security researchers found hundreds of malicious skills on ClawHub in 2026: only install skills from publishers you trust, and read them first.
- Run open-source agents on a separate machine or VPS when you can, and never give them more accounts than they need.
- MausBot uses your own logins and subscriptions (Claude Code, Codex…): a subscription to one provider doesn't give access to the others. Bots on your laptop stop when it sleeps.
Frequently asked questions
Which one should a beginner start with?
If you already pay for ChatGPT, try Dots. If you already use Claude Code or Codex, MausBot can start right away on the same accounts. OpenClaw and Hermes are powerful but need a bit of terminal comfort and care with permissions.
Are the star counts exact?
No, they move every day. They're rounded from public sources as of late 2026: check GitHub for today's number.
Prefer to have it done for you?
AI agents, booking systems, websites, automations: I build them for your business, with a fixed price quoted before we start.