Rabbit shipped native OpenClaw support on the r1 as part of a major OTA update on January 29th. A follow-up OTA landed this week with integration fixes. This is the first consumer hardware device to run OpenClaw out of the box.

What Happened

The January 29 update brought two flagship features: DLAM (a desktop controller that turns the r1 into a plug-and-play computer agent) and OpenClaw integration. Plug the r1 in, talk or type your prompt, and your OpenClaw gateway handles the rest.

Rabbit describes it as part of their 2026 momentum push after securing new funding. The r1 — the $199 orange puck that launched to skepticism in 2024 — is pivoting from standalone AI companion to universal AI controller.

The Follow-Up Fix

The initial OpenClaw release shipped rough. Within days, Rabbit pushed a second OTA addressing the integration:

  • Settings reset: New option to reset your OpenClaw connection (Settings > Device > OpenClaw Reset)
  • Audio control: Swipe out of the OpenClaw screen to stop playback
  • Home screen default: Switching to OpenClaw now shows the home screen first
  • Connection handling: Gateway approval no longer causes screen flashing; connection errors stop retrying after a few attempts
  • Message queuing: User messages queue while the agent is responding
  • History access: Swipe up from the OpenClaw home screen to see existing messages
  • Branding cleanup: Remaining "Moltbot" references renamed to "OpenClaw"

That last item is a fun artifact — the r1 integration was apparently built against the pre-rename codebase.

What It Means

Hardware integrations are a different beast from running OpenClaw on your Mac or VPS. Someone at Rabbit had to build a gateway approval flow, handle audio playback, manage connection states — all on a device with a 2.88-inch screen and no keyboard.

The rabbit.tech product page now includes a dedicated OpenClaw user agreement, noting it's "a highly experimental third-party agent" that Rabbit doesn't control or support. The legal distance is clear, but the product bet is real: OpenClaw gets prominent placement alongside DLAM and the upcoming Project Cyberdeck.

For OpenClaw, this is a milestone. The framework went from terminal tool to messaging bot to — now — dedicated hardware button. The r1's 100,000+ shipped units mean OpenClaw just got its first mass-market on-ramp.