# Shelldex

> The OpenClaw ecosystem, cataloged — clones, forks, derivatives, and alternatives. Shelldex is a community-maintained registry of personal AI agent frameworks that trace their lineage to Peter Steinberger's original self-hosted assistant, OpenClaw. Every entry tracks GitHub stars, forks, issues, commit activity, language, and project health.

Shelldex is built for both humans and agents. All data is available as JSON, Markdown, and structured pages. The site is static, openly licensed, and safe to scrape.

## Key entry points for agents

- [AGENTS.md](https://shelldex.com/AGENTS.md): Human-readable index of every machine-readable resource on this site
- [llms-full.txt](https://shelldex.com/llms-full.txt): Entire registry flattened to plain text in one file
- [OpenAPI spec](https://shelldex.com/openapi.json): OpenAPI 3.1 description of the JSON API
- [API catalog](https://shelldex.com/.well-known/api-catalog): RFC 9727 catalog listing every JSON endpoint
- [MCP manifest](https://shelldex.com/.well-known/mcp.json): MCP server pointers and schema URLs
- [Plugin manifest](https://shelldex.com/.well-known/ai-plugin.json): Legacy ChatGPT plugin manifest

## JSON API

- [/api/projects.json](https://shelldex.com/api/projects.json): Full project registry with stars, language, categories, health metrics
- [/api/projects/{slug}.json](https://shelldex.com/api/projects/hermes.json): Individual project detail (example: hermes)
- [/api/leaderboard.json](https://shelldex.com/api/leaderboard.json): Ranked leaderboard with health scores
- [/api/compare/{pair}.json](https://shelldex.com/api/compare/hermes-vs-openclaw.json): Side-by-side comparison data

## Markdown mirrors (HTML pages in markdown form)

- [Homepage as markdown](https://shelldex.com/md/index.md): The directory page in markdown
- [Project pages as markdown](https://shelldex.com/md/projects/hermes.md): Individual project (example: hermes)
- [Comparison pages as markdown](https://shelldex.com/md/compare/hermes-vs-openclaw.md): Pairwise comparisons

## Primary pages

- [Homepage / Directory](https://shelldex.com/): Full registry of tracked projects
- [Leaderboard](https://shelldex.com/leaderboard/): Ranked by GitHub stars with health scores
- [Compare index](https://shelldex.com/compare/): All pairwise comparisons
- [Analysis](https://shelldex.com/analysis/): Ecosystem trends, distributions, and narrative
- [Best alternatives](https://shelldex.com/best-alternatives/): Curated picks with pros and cons
- [FAQ](https://shelldex.com/faq/): Common questions about the ecosystem
- [About](https://shelldex.com/about/): Background, scope, and licensing
- [Submit a project](https://shelldex.com/submit/): How to add a project to the registry

## What Shelldex tracks

- OpenClaw clones, forks, reimplementations, and inspired projects
- GitHub stars, forks, open issues, license, and topics
- Commit activity, last release, and 7-day star growth
- Programming language (TypeScript, Rust, Python, Go, C, Bash, Zig, others)
- Project status (active, experimental, archived) and ecosystem role (fork, reimplementation, derivative, alternative, reference, infrastructure)
- Platform targets (server, browser, embedded, serverless, messaging, desktop)
- MCP support, LLM requirements, performance profiles

## What Shelldex does NOT track

- Workflow galleries or use case recipes
- Tutorials or guides
- Security scanners for OpenClaw skills
- Commercial-only products

## Attribution and licensing

- Created by Dave Onkels (https://onk.io)
- Inspired by OpenClaw by Peter Steinberger
- Formerly known as Clawdex (theclawdex.com)
- Built with Astro and Tailwind CSS
- Registry content is openly licensed; source: https://github.com/daveonkels/clawdex