# Carapace vs OpenClaw

> Side-by-side comparison of two projects in the OpenClaw ecosystem.

Canonical HTML: https://shelldex.com/compare/carapace-vs-openclaw/
JSON: https://shelldex.com/api/compare/carapace-vs-openclaw.json

| Field | Carapace | OpenClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tagline | Hardened Rust shell for autonomous agents | The OG self-hosted AI super-agent |
| Language | rust | typescript |
| Status | experimental | active |
| Stars | 45 | 372k |
| Forks | 6 | 77049 |
| Open issues | 23 | 7041 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Last commit | 2026-05-15T16:48:37Z | 2026-05-15T16:50:31Z |
| 7d growth | 2 | 3106 |
| MCP support | no | yes |
| Requires LLM | yes | yes |
| Platforms | server | server |
| Categories | security, privacy | reference, self-hosted |
| Health score | 60/100 | 95/100 |
| Leaderboard rank | #50 | #1 |

## Key differences

- OpenClaw has 8270x more stars (372k vs 45), indicating significantly broader adoption.
- OpenClaw is growing faster with +3.1k stars this week vs +2 for Carapace.
- Carapace is written in Rust while OpenClaw uses TypeScript, which may influence your choice depending on your stack.
- Carapace uses the Apache-2.0 license while OpenClaw uses MIT.
- OpenClaw has MCP (Model Context Protocol) support while Carapace does not.
- Carapace focuses on security, privacy while OpenClaw targets reference, self-hosted.

## Descriptions

### Carapace

Security-first Rust alternative to OpenClaw/Clawdbot with signed WASM plugins and strict local-first defaults.

### OpenClaw

The original. Self-hosted AI super-agent platform. Formerly Clawdbot, then Moltbot. The project that started it all.