# Moltbot Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/moltbot/ 13 people recommended Moltbot in Hacker News comments, 11 had mixed feelings and 34 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 12 months, in 11 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it. Free open-source AI assistant that people find useful and easy to set up; critics agree its broad data access creates serious security risks. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. ## What people warn about - Security risks from broad access (9 comments in the sample): "The security nightmare happening here might end up being more persistant then we realize." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46860901)) "We just saw last week people are setting up moltbots with virtually no knowledge of what it has and doesn't have access." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46975612)) "Moltbot is a security nightmare, especially it's premise (tap into all your data sources" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849470)) - Unsafe install and default settings (4 comments in the sample): "Still not saying it's entirely wise to deploy a moltbot like this. After all, it starts with a curl | sh." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47010747)) "safe enough if you harden it and unsafe if you treat it like a normal app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46834143)) "the official install is now installing a squatted package they don't control" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46785438)) - Rough quality, not plug-and-play (2 comments in the sample): "Overall, it's a good idea but incredibly rough due to what I assume is heavy vibe coding." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46866476)) "The experience of running Moltbot(Clawdbot) today is far from plug-and-play" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784740)) - Hype and high token use (2 comments in the sample): "it burns tokens like a mofo so I turned it off" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46786628)) "seems like a psyop by these companies to get token consumption back to levels that justify the investments they need" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46865582)) ## Why people recommend it - Useful for real tasks (4 comments in the sample): "It came back though and stayed in the conversation. Definitely imperfect, for sure. But it did the thing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46989769)) "It crawls the web with a sandboxed subagent to find me interesting stuff to read in French and Japanese." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849919)) "It's still surprisingly useful even though it doesn't have access to anything that I value." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46850017)) - Open-source, can self-host (2 comments in the sample): "Opensource AI will win at the end - just look at moltbot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46844658)) "Hosting Moltbot on your own hardware reigns supreme." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46816240)) ## Other AI agents people recommend - [OpenClaw](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openclaw/): 379 recommend, 248 mixed, 856 criticize - [Muse by Meta](https://hackerapproved.com/p/muse/): 88 recommend, 46 mixed, 212 criticize - [NanoClaw](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nanoclaw/): 31 recommend, 12 mixed, 31 criticize - [Clawdbot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clawdbot/): 30 recommend, 33 mixed, 87 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Moltbot", https://hackerapproved.com/p/moltbot/ (13 recommend, 11 mixed, 34 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.