Kilo Unleashes KiloClaw: The Future of AI Agents Arrives—No Terminal Required

In a groundbreaking leap for artificial intelligence, the once-daunting barrier between a developer’s vision and a fully functional AI agent has been obliterated. Kilo, the AI infrastructure powerhouse backed by GitLab co-founder Sid Sijbrandij, has officially launched KiloClaw, a fully managed service that deploys a production-ready OpenClaw agent in under 60 seconds. Say goodbye to SSH tunnels, Docker headaches, and YAML nightmares—KiloClaw is here to redefine the “vibe coding” era.

The Game-Changer: Reimagining Agentic Infrastructure

OpenClaw has taken the tech world by storm, amassing over 161,000 GitHub stars for its unparalleled ability to perform real-world tasks—from controlling browsers to managing files and integrating with over 50 chat platforms like WhatsApp and Signal. But as Kilo co-founder and CEO Scott Breitenother candidly admitted, “OpenClaw itself isn’t the hard part… getting it running is.”

Enter KiloClaw, a revolutionary architecture that ditches the “Mac Mini on a desk” model for a multi-tenant Virtual Machine (VM) setup powered by Fly.io, a developer-focused cloud platform. This isn’t just a convenience—it’s a security and scalability revolution. KiloClaw ensures enterprise-grade isolation and protection, shielding users from the pitfalls of exposed API keys and accidental internet exposure.

“It’s going to be better than [a local setup] in every single way,” Breitenother declared. “If you were to set it up yourself, you’d probably miss a setting and end up with it accidentally on the internet or exposing an API key.”

The “Mech Suit” for Your Mind: Persistent, Always-On Intelligence

One of the most frustrating aspects of locally hosted AI agents is the dreaded “3 am crash”—when Node.js processes silently die overnight, leaving your automation dreams in shambles. KiloClaw solves this with built-in process monitoring and a cloud-native “always on” state.

Unlike standard Kilo Code workflows that spin up only when needed, KiloClaw is persistent. “It’s just running and listening,” Breitenother explained. “It’s always on, waiting for your WhatsApp message or your Slack message. It has to be always on. That’s a different paradigm—always-on infrastructure to engage with.”

This persistence unlocks a suite of “agentic affordances” that Kilo calls an “exoskeleton for the mind”:

• Scheduled automations: Set cron jobs for the agent to perform research, monitor repositories, or generate reports while you’re offline.
• Persistent memory: Utilizing a “Memory Bank” system, the agent stores context in structured Markdown files, ensuring it retains project state even if the underlying model is swapped.
• Cross-platform command: Trigger the agent from Slack, Telegram, or a terminal, maintaining a unified execution state across all entry points.

“We’ve actually moved our engineers to be product owners,” Breitenother revealed. “The time they freed up from writing code, they’re actually doing much more thinking. They’re setting the strategy for the product.”

The Gateway Advantage: 500+ Models, Zero Lock-In

A standout feature of KiloClaw is its native integration with the Kilo Gateway, which allows users to toggle between over 500 models from providers like OpenAI, Google, and MiniMax, as well as open-weight models like Qwen or GLM. This flexibility is a game-changer in an industry where the “best” model can change overnight.

“Your preferred model today may not be the same—and honestly shouldn’t be the same—a month and a half from now,” Breitenother emphasized. “You may want different models for different tasks. Maybe you use Opus for something complex, or you switch to a tighter-budget open-weight model for routine work.”

Kilo’s transparent pricing model further sweetens the deal. The company offers “zero markup” on AI tokens, charging users the exact API rates provided by model vendors. For power users, Kilo Pass provides bonus credits (e.g., $199/month for $278.60 in credits) to subsidize high-volume agentic work.

How to Get Started with KiloClaw Right Now

Ready to dive in? Here’s how to unleash the power of KiloClaw:

1. Sign in or register: Navigate to the Kilo Code application at app.kilo.ai and sign in using GitHub or Google OAuth.
2. Create your instance: Select the “Claw” tab and click “Create Instance” to begin provisioning your agent.
3. Choose your model: Pick a default AI model from a wide array of options, including free models like MiniMax.
4. Configure messaging channels (optional): Connect your agent to Discord, Telegram, or Slack for direct communication.
5. Provision and start: Click “Create and Provision” to set up your virtual machine, then “Start” to boot the agent.
6. Verify and access: Generate a one-time verification token to validate your device for the first time.
7. Begin vibe coding: Interact with your agent directly in the chat interface. The agent will remain running 24/7, listening for commands across all connected platforms.

For those unsure which model to select, Brendan O’Leary, Developer Relations at Kilo Code, recommends consulting PinchBench, an open-source benchmarking tool designed to evaluate models on 23 real-world agentic tasks.

Benchmarking the Agentic Era: Introducing PinchBench

To help developers navigate the choice between 500+ models, Kilo has released PinchBench, an open-source benchmark specifically for agentic workloads. Unlike traditional benchmarks that test chat prompts in isolation, PinchBench evaluates agents on 23 real-world, multi-step tasks such as calendar management and multi-source research.

The project was spearheaded by O’Leary, who designed a system where a high-end “judge model”—specifically Claude 3.5 Opus—grades the output of other models. “We actually have… not the model under test, but always Opus… [judge] the output of each of the models,” O’Leary stated.

PinchBench allows users to view a scatter plot comparing “Cost to Intelligence,” identifying which models offer the highest proficiency for the lowest price. For those who prefer to host their own infrastructure, O’Leary has made the process entirely transparent, providing a “skill file that people can download” so they can “benchmark their own OpenClaw instance” independently.

“We’re doing this work anyway to know which defaults we should recommend,” Breitenother added. “We decided to open source it because the individual developer shouldn’t have to think about which model is best for the job. We want to give people more and more information.”

Industry Context: Standing Out in a Crowded Market

KiloClaw enters a market increasingly crowded with OpenClaw variants. Projects like Nanoclaw have gained traction for being lightweight, while companies like Runlayer have targeted the enterprise “Virtual Private Server” niche. However, Kilo distinguishes itself by refusing to “fork” the code.

“It’s not a fork, and that’s what’s important,” Breitenother stated. “OpenClaw moves so quickly that we are hosting the actual OpenClaw [version]. It is literally OpenClaw on a really well-tuned, well-set-up managed virtual machine.”

This “open core” philosophy extends to the licensing. While KiloClaw is a paid hosted service, the underlying Kilo CLI and core extensions remain MIT-licensed, allowing for community auditing—a critical feature for security-conscious enterprises.

Conclusion: Toward an Agentic Future

The launch of KiloClaw marks a strategic move by Kilo to expand its user base beyond “wonky” developers to enterprise managers and non-technical professionals. By offering a “one-click” path to a production agent, the company is attempting to democratize the “magical moments” of AI.

In the first two weeks, more than 3,500 developers joined the waitlist, using KiloClaw to automate everything from Discord management to repository maintenance. “Our mission is to build the best all-in-one AI work platform,” Breitenother concluded. “Whether you are a developer, a product manager, or a data engineer, we want all of these personas to experience the magic of the exoskeleton for the mind.”

KiloClaw is available now, offering 7 days of free compute for all new users. With thousands of developers already having cleared the waitlist, the era of the managed AI agent appears to have arrived—no Mac Mini required.

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