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

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

• 2026-02-04 🚀 v0.1.3.post4 released with multi-provider & Docker support! Check release notes for details.
• 2026-02-01 🎉 nanobot launched! Welcome to try 🐈 nanobot!

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

🔬 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 depoly and you're ready to go.

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)

1. Initialize

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

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

3. Chat

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

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

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!"

Talk to your nanobot through Telegram, WhatsApp, or Feishu — anytime, anywhere.

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

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

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

# Terminal 1
nanobot channels login

# Terminal 2
nanobot gateway

pip install nanobot-ai[feishu]

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

Config file: ~/.nanobot/config.json

Full config example

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5"
    }
  },
  "providers": {
    "openrouter": {
      "apiKey": "sk-or-v1-xxx"
    },
    "groq": {
      "apiKey": "gsk_xxx"
    }
  },
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "123456:ABC...",
      "allowFrom": ["123456789"]
    },
    "whatsapp": {
      "enabled": false
    },
    "feishu": {
      "enabled": false,
      "appId": "cli_xxx",
      "appSecret": "xxx",
      "encryptKey": "",
      "verificationToken": "",
      "allowFrom": []
    }
  },
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "search": {
        "apiKey": "BSA..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Command	Description
nanobot onboard	Initialize config & workspace
nanobot agent -m "..."	Chat with the agent
nanobot agent	Interactive chat mode
nanobot gateway	Start the gateway
nanobot status	Show status
nanobot channels login	Link WhatsApp (scan QR)
nanobot channels status	Show channel status

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>

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 Telegram/WhatsApp)
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

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/       # 📱 WhatsApp integration
├── 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!

Thanks for visiting ✨ nanobot!

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