ThePepeBot
A free, open-source autonomous AI agent by Stephen G. Pope designed as an OpenClaw alternative. Runs 24/7 on any computer using free local LLMs via Ollama. No API fees, no Mac Mini required. All changes tracked via git with optional human approval.
- GitHub: https://github.com/stephengpope/thepopebot
- License: Open-source
- Community: AI Architects on Skool
Architecture
Three Docker Containers
- Event Handler — the core bot; starts jobs, receives notifications, processes messages
- Reverse Proxy — handles SSL certificates for remote deployment (Ngrok for local, auto-generated for Digital Ocean)
- Runner — executes jobs via GitHub Actions workflows; scalable to hundreds of parallel agents
GitHub as Orchestration Layer
All jobs run as GitHub Actions workflows. Benefits:
- Change approval: Every agent modification creates a PR — review and approve, or set to auto-merge
- Full transparency: Every action, thought process, and code change tracked in git
- Scalability: Run locally (faster) or on GitHub’s infrastructure (2,000 free hours)
- Configuration via files: Heartbeat, cron jobs, secrets, and settings all version-controlled
Key Features
- Heartbeat: Scheduled tasks on configurable intervals (like loop but self-hosted)
- Swarm: Dashboard showing all running jobs with status, history, and pagination
- Web chat interface: Streaming chat UI similar to ChatGPT/Claude
- API access: REST API for external integrations (Postman, webhooks)
- Auto-upgrade: One-click system updates that rebuild under you
- Telegram integration: Optional messaging gateway
- Brave Search: Free web search capability
- Attachments: PDF and image analysis in chat
LLM Configuration
Designed for free local models via Ollama, but supports any OpenAI-compatible API. The internal Docker URL for Ollama is provided for containerized setups.
Compared to OpenClaw
| OpenClaw | ThePepeBot | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | API fees + Mac Mini recommended | Free (Ollama + your hardware) |
| LLM | Cloud APIs required | Local models via Ollama (or any API) |
| Change tracking | Limited | Full git history with PR approval |
| Job execution | Internal | GitHub Actions (scalable, free tier) |
| Security | Known vulnerabilities | Changes sandboxed in Docker, approved via git |
| Multi-platform messaging | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal | Web chat + Telegram (more planned) |
| Self-improvement | No | Agent can review its own logs and improve (via heartbeat) |
Scalability Design
The three Docker containers can run together (simple) or on separate servers (scalable). Multiple cloud servers as runners enable hundreds of parallel agents. Configuration controls auto-merge scope — e.g., auto-merge log-only changes, require review for code changes.
Roadmap
- More chat platforms (Slack, Discord)
- Skill self-creation examples
- More powerful local GPU setups for running frontier-class models
- Community sharing of agent configurations
See Also
- OpenClaw — the framework ThePepeBot is designed to replace
- loop — Anthropic’s native proactivity (cloud-dependent vs ThePepeBot’s self-hosted)
- OpenBrain — complementary memory layer (ThePepeBot handles proactivity/tools, OpenBrain handles memory)
- Paperclip — multi-agent orchestration at company level
- Stephen G. Pope — creator
- Source: I Built a FREE OpenClaw