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Building a personal OpenClaw client for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
I’m building a client for OpenClaw on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The project is called Hank.
The question behind it is how much better a personal agent can feel when the interface is built for the devices I use every day. This stream records the work: what I try, what works in daily use, and what still needs figuring out.
Hank is the character for the OpenClaw client I’m building. He’s a small coral octopus with eight short arms, glasses, and a bow tie.
Hank from the front, above, and the side.
The face studies keep the glasses and bow tie fixed, and change the eyes and mouth. A small smile, closed eyes, or an open mouth gives him a different expression without changing the rest of the shape.
From left: calm, happy, curious, and speaking.
I’ve been running Peter Steinberger’s OpenClaw since 2026-01-12, back when it was called Clawdbot. With Muse, Grok Bot, and OpenAI’s dot, personal agents are moving forward, and I quite like the direction.
A useful personal agent needs access to very personal information and the tools I use to do things with it. I wouldn’t feel comfortable handing that much of my life to Apple, let alone Meta. I want to run the agent on my own hardware and be able to change how it works.
I expect most people will be happy with the ready-made assistants. For people who want their own deployment, OpenClaw is the best option I’ve found so far.
The part I’ve struggled with is the interface. I’ve tried the web app and the integrations with WhatsApp and Telegram. Some are impressively good, but I keep wanting to do things the interface makes awkward.
So I’ve started building Hank, a client for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, with OpenClaw underneath. I want to make the best client I can for the devices I use myself.
Whether it becomes a commercial product, we shall see. For now, I’m enjoying building it and using it.