Comment by simonw
19 hours ago
I don't have a Claw running right now and I wish I did. I want to start archiving the livestream from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfGL7A2YgUY - YouTube only provide access to the last 12 hours. If I had a Claw on a 24/7 machine somewhere I could message it and say "permanent archive this stream" and it would figure it out and do it.
Not a great use case for Claw really. I'm sure ChatGPT can one shot a Python script to do this with yt-dlp and give you instructions on how to set it up as a service
Yeah it’s all the stuff beyond the one-shotting of the script that make it useful though.
You just get the final result. The video you requested saved.
No copy pasting, no iterating back and forth due to python version issues, no messing around with systemd or whatever else, etc.
Basically the difference between a howto doc providing you instructions and all the tools you need to download and install vs just having your junior sysadmin handle it and hand it off after testing.
These are miles apart in my mind. The script is the easy part.
ChatGPT can do it w/o draining your bank account etc. I’d agree…
But for speed only, I think it’s “your idea but worse” when the steps include something AND instructions on how to do something else. The Signal/Telegram bot will handle it E2E (maybe using a ton more tokens than a webchat but fast). If I’m not mistaken.
You've gotta run it somewhere though - that's the harder part.
Not to mention, the whole point is to not end up with a bunch of one-off Python scripts for every little thing that occurs to you, right?
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Why do you beed ChatGPT for this, this is like two or three lines of code. That you then add to cron.
This is one minute of human work.
I mean that’s sort of where I think this all will land. Use something like happy cli to connect to CC in a workspace directory where it can generate scripts, markdown files, and systemd unit files. I don’t see why you’d need more than that.
That cuts 500k LoC from the stack and leverages a frontier tool like CC
We think alike!
https://github.com/kzahel/claw-starter
Systemd basic script + markdown + (bring whatever agent CLI)
That's I think basically what you describe. I've been using it for the past two days it's very very basic but it's a I think it gives you everything you actually need sort of the minimal open claw without a custom harness and 5k loc or 50k or w/e. The cool thing is that it can just grow naturally and you can audit as it grows
Yeah that’s a good point. I use a fork of https://github.com/tiann/hapi with Tailscale for this very reason and it works well
I made a basic "claw starter" that you could try. You can progressively go deeper. It starts with just a little "private data" folder that you scaffold and ask the agent to setup the SOUL and stuff, and then you can optionally add in the few builtin skills, or have your assistant start the scheduler/gateway thing if you want to talk to it over telegram.
If you've been shy with using openclaw, give this a try!
https://github.com/kzahel/claw-starter
[I also created https://yepanywhere.com/ - kind of the same philosophy - no custom harnesses, re-use claude/codex session history]
Yeah that fits the “do the dishes for me” thing, but do you still think the implementation behind it is the proper and best way to go about it?
I don't, which is why I'm not running OpenClaw on the live internet right now. See also Andrej's original tweet.
This sounds like it would be better suited for a shell script.
what's a shell script? sounds like an implementation detail that I don't care about, I just want something to do a thing for me.
I let out a big sigh reading this and would like to move to a different planet now.
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Enjoy losing your money, getting your personal information leaked, and possibly getting arrested when and if it does something illegal on your command.
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If you know the method already, why is cron insufficient? Why use a meat bag to message over cron? Is that the setup phase for a new stream?
This reminded me of a video I saw recently where someone mentioned that piracy is most often a service problem not a price problem. That back in the days people used torrents to get movies because they worked well and were better than searching for stuff at blockbuster, then, came Netflix, and they flocked to it and paid the premium for convenience without even thinking twice and piracy decreased.
I think the analogy here holds, people are lazy, we have a service and UX problem with these tools right now, so convenience beats quality and control for the average Joe.
Lazy is a bit pejorative.
Other than the people that hang out here, most people don't want to write software, they want to make problems go away and things happen and make their lives easier and more fun.
we can magically have the ai do things for us now... for most people that's perfect. it opens programming up to others but do they care how it happens? does your ceo care what programming language or library you use (if they do do you want to work there)?
I'd have to setup a new VPS, which is fiddly to do from a phone. If I had a Claw that piece would be solved already.
Cron is also the perfect example of the kind of system I've been using for 20+ years where is still prefer to have an LLM configure it for me! Quick, off the top of your head what's the cron syntax for "run this at 8am and 4pm every day pacific time"?
I took the "running 24/7” to imply less AI writes code once and more to imply AI is available all the time for ad hoc requests. I tried to adjust back to the median with my third question.
I find the idea of programming from my phone unappealing, do you ever put work down? Or do you have to be always on now, being a thought leader / influencer?
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Could as well have an FFmpeg to the same effect.
But damn, that requires figuring that out yourself, what a disgusting atavism of cave-dwelling neanderthals!