OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that you talk to through a chat app. Mine runs on a Raspberry Pi 5 at home and I reach it through Telegram. It answers my questions, runs checks on a schedule and messages me when something needs my attention.

The real work happens in skills. The skills are written by AI, not by me. Each one solves a small thing that used to bother me, and they now all run fully on their own.

• > arcade price guide: send a game name, get its guide price and cabinet photo back.
• > arcade scanner: checks the local marketplaces every hour for new machines.
• > storage scanner: spots new storage units to rent for my arcades and pinball machines.
• > cinema watcher: alerts me when new film sessions appear for The Odyssey.
• > stock watcher: pings me when a product is back in stock.
• > fuel prices: the cheapest diesel nearby, on request.
• > travel time: on office days, the travel time with live traffic data and the Filebarometer chart.
• > home reports: a weekly Home Assistant report on the heating and the climate.
• > weekly recipes: suggests 10 recipes, I pick 3 and OpenClaw fills my shopping cart, so ordering for the week takes a minute.

The Pi is locked down, the data is backed up daily with encryption and a copy goes off-site, and a written runbook lets me rebuild the whole thing from scratch.