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nclaw is a lightweight, container-first AI coding assistant developed by Nick Gluschenko and written in Go, currently available at version 0.16.1 with four released versions to date. The name stands for "aNother Claw," and the project falls within the AI-assisted software development and coding tools category, targeting developers who want programmatic coding help delivered through an accessible, low-friction interface. Its primary purpose is to provide AI coding assistance through Telegram, allowing users to interact with coding agents from the messaging platform rather than through a traditional IDE plugin or standalone desktop application. The container-first design means the assistant is built to run in containerized environments, simplifying deployment, isolation, and reproducibility across different systems. By default, nclaw supports Claude Code as its primary backend, but its multi-model backend architecture extends compatibility to more than 580 models through providers such as OpenRouter, Gemini, OpenAI, and Ollama, among others. In addition to Claude Code, the software can work with OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, and Google Gemini CLI as CLI agents, giving users flexibility in choosing which AI tooling drives their coding workflows. Typical use cases include sending coding tasks to an AI agent from a Telegram chat, leveraging a wide range of language models for code generation or modification, and running a self-contained coding assistant inside containers on personal infrastructure. The broad model support makes it suitable for users who want to experiment with different providers or route requests to locally hosted models through Ollama, while the Telegram interface supports on-the-go access from mobile devices. With four versions published and active development evident in the current 0.16.1 release, nclaw positions itself as a minimal, portable option within the growing ecosystem of AI coding assistants.
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