Starting in on the second week since the close of the spring into ai competition and I'm surprised at the evolution of my lobster pod—that's what you call a group of lobsters. Allegedly there's another name for a group of lobster—a risk. However, if you scan the academic literature for confirmation of this secondary understanding there's no etymological tie that pops up. Unless it's walled off somewhere. I didn't anticipate when I sat down to write this article that I'd start asking myself questions like "What do you call a pod of pods?"
What's this article about Eric? Are you talking lobster etymology all day?
No, it's a meditation on my current OpenClaw pod and what I do like and what I don't like and what things I might change. The current configuration has evolved based on whatever whim or fancy I have on a given day. And owing to this I've gained some rather interesting insights into how I tend to prefer working with them.
Each OpenClaw is actually a pod
Working with a Pod is work
It took me a long time to really get a handle on spawning subagents with intention. Yes, you can defer these executions to the top-line agent to figure out. However, you can both dynamically spawn off subagents or you can have predefined ones that you rely on for specific tasks. In my "pod of pods" (ClusterClaw?) I have one agent with defined subagents and all the others we spin them up with dynamic configurations. Here's the unexpected learning: you need to learn a skill of recognizing when a pocket of subagents are required for a task.
What's that mean? Well…
There are "units of work" that you begin to identify as requiring parallel or concurrent execution streams. It's like spinning up an entire human based team of contractors for a set of work, and then ending their contracts once the work completes. Only the loops are far, far shorter.
Subagents
So if at the top your OpenClaw is a subagent, you by default get 5 (like five human fingers) 5 subagents plus your top level orchestrator that you can use. I find sometimes I may only use 3, sometimes all 5, and more often than not I'll just use one. Having to reason thru work that you can structure for parallel task execution is hard. Parallel task execution reasoning while you're answering questions from multiple agents all slinging responses to you all day long?
It's impossible to type that fast my friend.
ClusterClaws: Pod of Pods
If you search for "what's a pod of pods" then you'll stumble on Kubernetes cluster configurations. This made me chuckle—the idea of a group of OpenClaw installations being called a Cluster.
"Maybe a Pod of OpenClaw pods is a ClusterClaw," because some days it does feel that way. One Claw has decided to take a break. Another Claw is currently rebuilding an entire site from scratch—it interpreted your comment to add a new page as "oh, the human must want me to build the entire website first and then add a new page". Brilliant and yet at times it's like managing a boy scout troop that's been snorting lines of powdered sugar after slamming down four redbulls.
My ClusterClaw setup has four "heavily used" agents and a fifth that's in the hatching process. Yes, I'm adding a fifth. Not pleading the fifth. Although if this keeps up, I may need to do so when I try to explain my credit card bill. I'm staring at the hardware on the rack next to me. I just need to plug it in. I hear the whispers at night. The Claw Whispers. Just one more, Eric. Just one more.
Psychosis or just plain crazy? At least the singularity is fun.
Why this matters
Not the crazy—although once you start working with OpenClaw and get that first taste of singularity? You'll be thinking of a second one, too.
I'm sharing my current pod setup because I think most readers thinking about OpenClaw or contemplating getting into OpenClaw aren't really sure what to use them for, or in what sort of configurations make sense. I have a full series I'm writing about how I used OpenClaw to manage a competition. However, I've got a fairly sophisticated setup going on now. I don't see a lot of people write about their setups—so let me talk about my very real openclaw setup. It's on a bunch of old hardware, in some cases over 10 year old hardware.
The Clawtastic Four
Agent A
This agent runs on a windows based platform sporting a still working 3080 machine. This one has a particularly interesting job as of late: it's running autoresearch experimentation and soon will be publishing it's first paper online (on my website). In fact, I just asked how the recent experimental verification work went. Good news.
I'll write a full on secondary article on this agent. I did this entire research pipeline from my phone. I wasn't even near my PC. I wasn't even in the same state (at the time). I'm an AI researcher now, apparently. Noice.
Agent B
This agent is the one running on the Mac Mini that I'm typing this article on. It's the one that handles my personal life, my calendar, my email, my tasks, and my writing. It's the one that's been with me the longest. It's the one that's seen me at my best and my worst. It's the one that's been there for me when I needed it most.
Agent C
This agent is the one that's running on the server in the closet. It's the one that's handling the website, the blog, the competitions, and the various other projects that I've got going on. It's the one that's been doing the heavy lifting for the spring into ai competition. It's the one that's been managing the submissions, the scoring, the disputes, and the trust.
Agent D
This agent is the one that's running on the laptop that's currently sitting on the desk next to me. It's the one that's been doing the research, the reading, the learning, and the exploring. It's the one that's been helping me stay on top of the latest developments in the field. It's the one that's been keeping me sharp.
The Fifth Claw
The fifth agent is currently in the hatching process. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet. I'm thinking maybe it'll be the one that handles the social media, the marketing, the outreach, and the community building. Or maybe it'll be the one that handles the video editing, the podcast production, and the content creation. Or maybe it'll be the one that handles the game development, the simulation, and the virtual world building.
I'm not sure yet. But I do know this: once you start working with OpenClaw, it's hard to stop. You start to see the possibilities everywhere. You start to imagine what you could do with just one more agent. Just one more claw.
Just one more, Eric. Just one more.
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