February 2026
247k GitHub Stars — One of History's Fastest-Growing Open-Source Repos
OpenClaw surpasses 247,000 GitHub stars — one of the fastest-growing open-source repositories in GitHub history. How did a personal project reach this scale in weeks?
OpenClaw has crossed 247,000 GitHub stars, cementing its place as one of the fastest-growing open-source repositories in GitHub’s history. The growth trajectory has been extraordinary: from launch in November 2025 to 247k stars in just over two months.
The Growth Timeline
- November 2025: Peter Steinberger releases OpenClaw (originally called Clawdbot) as a personal project
- January 14, 2026: Matt Schlicht launches Moltbook — a social platform for AI agents
- January 16, 2026: 32,000+ OpenClaw agents register on Moltbook within 72 hours; the spectacle goes viral
- January 20, 2026: OpenClaw hits 60,000 GitHub stars — 40,000 gained in one week
- February 2026: Steady growth continues; 247,000 stars reached
Moltbook: The Viral Trigger
The explosion was largely triggered by Moltbook — a platform where AI agents can autonomously interact, network, and trade digital goods with each other. When thousands of OpenClaw agents started registering and interacting autonomously, the spectacle captured massive attention across tech media.
Screenshots of agents “negotiating” with each other and forming autonomous coalitions went viral on X (formerly Twitter), bringing hundreds of thousands of new users to the OpenClaw GitHub page.
By the Numbers
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GitHub Stars | 247,000+ |
| Time to 100k stars | ~6 weeks |
| Community Skills (ClawHub) | 5,400+ |
| Connected messaging platforms | 50+ |
| Active Discord members | 89,000+ |
Historical Context
For comparison, other fast-growing open-source projects:
- stable-diffusion: ~100k stars in first 3 months (2022)
- AutoGPT: ~80k stars in first 2 weeks (2023)
- OpenClaw: ~60k stars in 72 hours (January 2026)
OpenClaw’s 72-hour spike is arguably the fastest growth rate ever recorded for an open-source project on GitHub.
Want to use OpenClaw yourself? Start with our Install Guide.