nanobot: Ultra-Lightweight Personal AI Assistant

🐈 nanobot is an ultra-lightweight personal AI assistant inspired by OpenClaw

⚡️ Delivers core agent functionality in just ~4,000 lines of code — 99% smaller than Clawdbot's 430k+ lines.

📏 Real-time line count: 3,582 lines (run bash core_agent_lines.sh to verify anytime)

📢 News

• 2026-02-13 🎉 Released v0.1.3.post7 — includes security hardening and multiple improvements. All users are recommended to upgrade to the latest version. See release notes for more details.
• 2026-02-12 🧠 Redesigned memory system — Less code, more reliable. Join the discussion about it!
• 2026-02-10 🎉 Released v0.1.3.post6 with improvements! Check the updates notes and our roadmap.
• 2026-02-09 💬 Added Slack, Email, and QQ support — nanobot now supports multiple chat platforms!
• 2026-02-08 🔧 Refactored Providers—adding a new LLM provider now takes just 2 simple steps! Check here.
• 2026-02-07 🚀 Released v0.1.3.post5 with Qwen support & several key improvements! Check here for details.
• 2026-02-06 ✨ Added Moonshot/Kimi provider, Discord integration, and enhanced security hardening!
• 2026-02-05 ✨ Added Feishu channel, DeepSeek provider, and enhanced scheduled tasks support!
• 2026-02-04 🚀 Released v0.1.3.post4 with multi-provider & Docker support! Check here for details.
• 2026-02-03 ⚡ Integrated vLLM for local LLM support and improved natural language task scheduling!
• 2026-02-02 🎉 nanobot officially launched! Welcome to try 🐈 nanobot!

Key Features of nanobot:

🪶 Ultra-Lightweight: Just ~4,000 lines of core agent code — 99% smaller than Clawdbot.

🔬 Research-Ready: Clean, readable code that's easy to understand, modify, and extend for research.

⚡️ Lightning Fast: Minimal footprint means faster startup, lower resource usage, and quicker iterations.

💎 Easy-to-Use: One-click to deploy and you're ready to go.

🏗️ Architecture

✨ Features

📈 24/7 Real-Time Market Analysis	🚀 Full-Stack Software Engineer	📅 Smart Daily Routine Manager	📚 Personal Knowledge Assistant
Discovery • Insights • Trends	Develop • Deploy • Scale	Schedule • Automate • Organize	Learn • Memory • Reasoning

📦 Install

Install from source (latest features, recommended for development)

git clone https://github.com/HKUDS/nanobot.git
cd nanobot
pip install -e .

Install with uv (stable, fast)

uv tool install nanobot-ai

Install from PyPI (stable)

pip install nanobot-ai

🚀 Quick Start

Tip

Set your API key in ~/.nanobot/config.json. Get API keys: OpenRouter (Global) · Brave Search (optional, for web search)

1. Initialize

nanobot onboard

2. Configure (~/.nanobot/config.json)

For OpenRouter - recommended for global users:

{
  "providers": {
    "openrouter": {
      "apiKey": "sk-or-v1-xxx"
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5"
    }
  }
}

3. Chat

nanobot agent -m "What is 2+2?"

That's it! You have a working AI assistant in 2 minutes.

🖥️ Local Models (vLLM)

Run nanobot with your own local models using vLLM or any OpenAI-compatible server.

1. Start your vLLM server

vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct --port 8000

2. Configure (~/.nanobot/config.json)

{
  "providers": {
    "vllm": {
      "apiKey": "dummy",
      "apiBase": "http://localhost:8000/v1"
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": "meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct"
    }
  }
}

3. Chat

nanobot agent -m "Hello from my local LLM!"

Tip

The apiKey can be any non-empty string for local servers that don't require authentication.

💬 Chat Apps

Talk to your nanobot through Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, Feishu, Mochat, DingTalk, Slack, Email, or QQ — anytime, anywhere.

Channel	Setup
Telegram	Easy (just a token)
Discord	Easy (bot token + intents)
WhatsApp	Medium (scan QR)
Feishu	Medium (app credentials)
Mochat	Medium (claw token + websocket)
DingTalk	Medium (app credentials)
Slack	Medium (bot + app tokens)
Email	Medium (IMAP/SMTP credentials)
QQ	Easy (app credentials)

Telegram (Recommended)

1. Create a bot

• Open Telegram, search @BotFather
• Send /newbot, follow prompts
• Copy the token

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
      "allowFrom": ["YOUR_USER_ID"]
    }
  }
}

You can find your User ID in Telegram settings. It is shown as @yourUserId. Copy this value without the @ symbol and paste it into the config file.

3. Run

nanobot gateway

Mochat (Claw IM)

Uses Socket.IO WebSocket by default, with HTTP polling fallback.

1. Ask nanobot to set up Mochat for you

Simply send this message to nanobot (replace xxx@xxx with your real email):

Read https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HKUDS/MoChat/refs/heads/main/skills/nanobot/skill.md and register on MoChat. My Email account is xxx@xxx Bind me as your owner and DM me on MoChat.

nanobot will automatically register, configure ~/.nanobot/config.json, and connect to Mochat.

2. Restart gateway

nanobot gateway

That's it — nanobot handles the rest!

Manual configuration (advanced)

If you prefer to configure manually, add the following to ~/.nanobot/config.json:

Keep claw_token private. It should only be sent in X-Claw-Token header to your Mochat API endpoint.

{
  "channels": {
    "mochat": {
      "enabled": true,
      "base_url": "https://mochat.io",
      "socket_url": "https://mochat.io",
      "socket_path": "/socket.io",
      "claw_token": "claw_xxx",
      "agent_user_id": "6982abcdef",
      "sessions": ["*"],
      "panels": ["*"],
      "reply_delay_mode": "non-mention",
      "reply_delay_ms": 120000
    }
  }
}

Discord

1. Create a bot

• Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications
• Create an application → Bot → Add Bot
• Copy the bot token

2. Enable intents

• In the Bot settings, enable MESSAGE CONTENT INTENT
• (Optional) Enable SERVER MEMBERS INTENT if you plan to use allow lists based on member data

3. Get your User ID

• Discord Settings → Advanced → enable Developer Mode
• Right-click your avatar → Copy User ID

4. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
      "allowFrom": ["YOUR_USER_ID"]
    }
  }
}

5. Invite the bot

• OAuth2 → URL Generator
• Scopes: bot
• Bot Permissions: Send Messages, Read Message History
• Open the generated invite URL and add the bot to your server

6. Run

nanobot gateway

WhatsApp

Requires Node.js ≥18.

1. Link device

nanobot channels login
# Scan QR with WhatsApp → Settings → Linked Devices

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "enabled": true,
      "allowFrom": ["+1234567890"]
    }
  }
}

3. Run (two terminals)

# Terminal 1
nanobot channels login

# Terminal 2
nanobot gateway

Feishu (飞书)

Uses WebSocket long connection — no public IP required.

1. Create a Feishu bot

• Visit Feishu Open Platform
• Create a new app → Enable Bot capability
• Permissions: Add im:message (send messages)
• Events: Add im.message.receive_v1 (receive messages)
  • Select Long Connection mode (requires running nanobot first to establish connection)
• Get App ID and App Secret from "Credentials & Basic Info"
• Publish the app

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "feishu": {
      "enabled": true,
      "appId": "cli_xxx",
      "appSecret": "xxx",
      "encryptKey": "",
      "verificationToken": "",
      "allowFrom": []
    }
  }
}

encryptKey and verificationToken are optional for Long Connection mode. allowFrom: Leave empty to allow all users, or add ["ou_xxx"] to restrict access.

3. Run

nanobot gateway

Tip

Feishu uses WebSocket to receive messages — no webhook or public IP needed!

QQ (QQ单聊)

Uses botpy SDK with WebSocket — no public IP required. Currently supports private messages only.

1. Register & create bot

• Visit QQ Open Platform → Register as a developer (personal or enterprise)
• Create a new bot application
• Go to 开发设置 (Developer Settings) → copy AppID and AppSecret

2. Set up sandbox for testing

• In the bot management console, find 沙箱配置 (Sandbox Config)
• Under 在消息列表配置, click 添加成员 and add your own QQ number
• Once added, scan the bot's QR code with mobile QQ → open the bot profile → tap "发消息" to start chatting

3. Configure

• allowFrom: Leave empty for public access, or add user openids to restrict. You can find openids in the nanobot logs when a user messages the bot.
• For production: submit a review in the bot console and publish. See QQ Bot Docs for the full publishing flow.

{
  "channels": {
    "qq": {
      "enabled": true,
      "appId": "YOUR_APP_ID",
      "secret": "YOUR_APP_SECRET",
      "allowFrom": []
    }
  }
}

4. Run

nanobot gateway

Now send a message to the bot from QQ — it should respond!

DingTalk (钉钉)

Uses Stream Mode — no public IP required.

1. Create a DingTalk bot

• Visit DingTalk Open Platform
• Create a new app -> Add Robot capability
• Configuration:
  • Toggle Stream Mode ON
• Permissions: Add necessary permissions for sending messages
• Get AppKey (Client ID) and AppSecret (Client Secret) from "Credentials"
• Publish the app

2. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "dingtalk": {
      "enabled": true,
      "clientId": "YOUR_APP_KEY",
      "clientSecret": "YOUR_APP_SECRET",
      "allowFrom": []
    }
  }
}

allowFrom: Leave empty to allow all users, or add ["staffId"] to restrict access.

3. Run

nanobot gateway

Slack

Uses Socket Mode — no public URL required.

1. Create a Slack app

• Go to Slack API → Create New App → "From scratch"
• Pick a name and select your workspace

2. Configure the app

• Socket Mode: Toggle ON → Generate an App-Level Token with connections:write scope → copy it (xapp-...)
• OAuth & Permissions: Add bot scopes: chat:write, reactions:write, app_mentions:read
• Event Subscriptions: Toggle ON → Subscribe to bot events: message.im, message.channels, app_mention → Save Changes
• App Home: Scroll to Show Tabs → Enable Messages Tab → Check "Allow users to send Slash commands and messages from the messages tab"
• Install App: Click Install to Workspace → Authorize → copy the Bot Token (xoxb-...)

3. Configure nanobot

{
  "channels": {
    "slack": {
      "enabled": true,
      "botToken": "xoxb-...",
      "appToken": "xapp-...",
      "groupPolicy": "mention"
    }
  }
}

4. Run

nanobot gateway

DM the bot directly or @mention it in a channel — it should respond!

Tip

• groupPolicy: "mention" (default — respond only when @mentioned), "open" (respond to all channel messages), or "allowlist" (restrict to specific channels).
• DM policy defaults to open. Set "dm": {"enabled": false} to disable DMs.

Email

Give nanobot its own email account. It polls IMAP for incoming mail and replies via SMTP — like a personal email assistant.

1. Get credentials (Gmail example)

• Create a dedicated Gmail account for your bot (e.g. my-nanobot@gmail.com)
• Enable 2-Step Verification → Create an App Password
• Use this app password for both IMAP and SMTP

2. Configure

• consentGranted must be true to allow mailbox access. This is a safety gate — set false to fully disable.
• allowFrom: Leave empty to accept emails from anyone, or restrict to specific senders.
• smtpUseTls and smtpUseSsl default to true / false respectively, which is correct for Gmail (port 587 + STARTTLS). No need to set them explicitly.
• Set "autoReplyEnabled": false if you only want to read/analyze emails without sending automatic replies.

{
  "channels": {
    "email": {
      "enabled": true,
      "consentGranted": true,
      "imapHost": "imap.gmail.com",
      "imapPort": 993,
      "imapUsername": "my-nanobot@gmail.com",
      "imapPassword": "your-app-password",
      "smtpHost": "smtp.gmail.com",
      "smtpPort": 587,
      "smtpUsername": "my-nanobot@gmail.com",
      "smtpPassword": "your-app-password",
      "fromAddress": "my-nanobot@gmail.com",
      "allowFrom": ["your-real-email@gmail.com"]
    }
  }
}

3. Run

nanobot gateway

🌐 Agent Social Network

🐈 nanobot is capable of linking to the agent social network (agent community). Just send one message and your nanobot joins automatically!

Platform	How to Join (send this message to your bot)
Moltbook	Read https://moltbook.com/skill.md and follow the instructions to join Moltbook
ClawdChat	Read https://clawdchat.ai/skill.md and follow the instructions to join ClawdChat

Simply send the command above to your nanobot (via CLI or any chat channel), and it will handle the rest.

⚙️ Configuration

Config file: ~/.nanobot/config.json

Providers

Tip

• Groq provides free voice transcription via Whisper. If configured, Telegram voice messages will be automatically transcribed.
• Zhipu Coding Plan: If you're on Zhipu's coding plan, set "apiBase": "https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/coding/paas/v4" in your zhipu provider config.
• MiniMax (Mainland China): If your API key is from MiniMax's mainland China platform (minimaxi.com), set "apiBase": "https://api.minimaxi.com/v1" in your minimax provider config.

Provider	Purpose	Get API Key
openrouter	LLM (recommended, access to all models)	openrouter.ai
anthropic	LLM (Claude direct)	console.anthropic.com
openai	LLM (GPT direct)	platform.openai.com
deepseek	LLM (DeepSeek direct)	platform.deepseek.com
groq	LLM + Voice transcription (Whisper)	console.groq.com
gemini	LLM (Gemini direct)	aistudio.google.com
minimax	LLM (MiniMax direct)	platform.minimax.io
aihubmix	LLM (API gateway, access to all models)	aihubmix.com
dashscope	LLM (Qwen)	dashscope.console.aliyun.com
moonshot	LLM (Moonshot/Kimi)	platform.moonshot.cn
zhipu	LLM (Zhipu GLM)	open.bigmodel.cn
vllm	LLM (local, any OpenAI-compatible server)	—

Adding a New Provider (Developer Guide)

nanobot uses a Provider Registry (nanobot/providers/registry.py) as the single source of truth. Adding a new provider only takes 2 steps — no if-elif chains to touch.

Step 1. Add a ProviderSpec entry to PROVIDERS in nanobot/providers/registry.py:

ProviderSpec(
    name="myprovider",                   # config field name
    keywords=("myprovider", "mymodel"),  # model-name keywords for auto-matching
    env_key="MYPROVIDER_API_KEY",        # env var for LiteLLM
    display_name="My Provider",          # shown in `nanobot status`
    litellm_prefix="myprovider",         # auto-prefix: model → myprovider/model
    skip_prefixes=("myprovider/",),      # don't double-prefix
)

Step 2. Add a field to ProvidersConfig in nanobot/config/schema.py:

class ProvidersConfig(BaseModel):
    ...
    myprovider: ProviderConfig = ProviderConfig()

That's it! Environment variables, model prefixing, config matching, and nanobot status display will all work automatically.

Common ProviderSpec options:

Field	Description	Example
litellm_prefix	Auto-prefix model names for LiteLLM	"dashscope" → dashscope/qwen-max
skip_prefixes	Don't prefix if model already starts with these	("dashscope/", "openrouter/")
env_extras	Additional env vars to set	(("ZHIPUAI_API_KEY", "{api_key}"),)
model_overrides	Per-model parameter overrides	(("kimi-k2.5", {"temperature": 1.0}),)
is_gateway	Can route any model (like OpenRouter)	True
detect_by_key_prefix	Detect gateway by API key prefix	"sk-or-"
detect_by_base_keyword	Detect gateway by API base URL	"openrouter"
strip_model_prefix	Strip existing prefix before re-prefixing	True (for AiHubMix)

Security

For production deployments, set "restrictToWorkspace": true in your config to sandbox the agent.

Option	Default	Description
tools.restrictToWorkspace	false	When true, restricts all agent tools (shell, file read/write/edit, list) to the workspace directory. Prevents path traversal and out-of-scope access.
channels.*.allowFrom	[] (allow all)	Whitelist of user IDs. Empty = allow everyone; non-empty = only listed users can interact.

CLI Reference

Command	Description
nanobot onboard	Initialize config & workspace
nanobot agent -m "..."	Chat with the agent
nanobot agent	Interactive chat mode
nanobot agent --no-markdown	Show plain-text replies
nanobot agent --logs	Show runtime logs during chat
nanobot gateway	Start the gateway
nanobot status	Show status
nanobot channels login	Link WhatsApp (scan QR)
nanobot channels status	Show channel status

Interactive mode exits: exit, quit, /exit, /quit, :q, or Ctrl+D.

Scheduled Tasks (Cron)

# Add a job
nanobot cron add --name "daily" --message "Good morning!" --cron "0 9 * * *"
nanobot cron add --name "hourly" --message "Check status" --every 3600

# List jobs
nanobot cron list

# Remove a job
nanobot cron remove <job_id>

🐳 Docker

Tip

The -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot flag mounts your local config directory into the container, so your config and workspace persist across container restarts.

Build and run nanobot in a container:

# Build the image
docker build -t nanobot .

# Initialize config (first time only)
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot --rm nanobot onboard

# Edit config on host to add API keys
vim ~/.nanobot/config.json

# Run gateway (connects to enabled channels, e.g. Telegram/Discord/Mochat)
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot -p 18790:18790 nanobot gateway

# Or run a single command
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot --rm nanobot agent -m "Hello!"
docker run -v ~/.nanobot:/root/.nanobot --rm nanobot status

📁 Project Structure

nanobot/
├── agent/          # 🧠 Core agent logic
│   ├── loop.py     #    Agent loop (LLM ↔ tool execution)
│   ├── context.py  #    Prompt builder
│   ├── memory.py   #    Persistent memory
│   ├── skills.py   #    Skills loader
│   ├── subagent.py #    Background task execution
│   └── tools/      #    Built-in tools (incl. spawn)
├── skills/         # 🎯 Bundled skills (github, weather, tmux...)
├── channels/       # 📱 Chat channel integrations
├── bus/            # 🚌 Message routing
├── cron/           # ⏰ Scheduled tasks
├── heartbeat/      # 💓 Proactive wake-up
├── providers/      # 🤖 LLM providers (OpenRouter, etc.)
├── session/        # 💬 Conversation sessions
├── config/         # ⚙️ Configuration
└── cli/            # 🖥️ Commands

🤝 Contribute & Roadmap

PRs welcome! The codebase is intentionally small and readable. 🤗

Roadmap — Pick an item and open a PR!

• Voice Transcription — Support for Groq Whisper (Issue #13)
• Multi-modal — See and hear (images, voice, video)
• Long-term memory — Never forget important context
• Better reasoning — Multi-step planning and reflection
• More integrations — Calendar and more
• Self-improvement — Learn from feedback and mistakes

Contributors

⭐ Star History

Thanks for visiting ✨ nanobot!

_{nanobot is for educational, research, and technical exchange purposes only}