MimiClaw: Pocket AI Assistant on a $5 Chip

The world's first AI assistant on a $5 chip. No Linux. No Node.js. Just pure C

MimiClaw turns a tiny ESP32-S3 board into a personal AI assistant. Plug it into USB power, connect to WiFi, and talk to it through Telegram — it handles any task you throw at it and evolves over time with local memory — all on a chip the size of a thumb.

Meet MimiClaw

• Tiny — No Linux, no Node.js, no bloat — just pure C
• Handy — Message it from Telegram, it handles the rest
• Loyal — Learns from memory, remembers across reboots
• Energetic — USB power, 0.5 W, runs 24/7
• Lovable — One ESP32-S3 board, $5, nothing else

How It Works

                         ┌─────────────── Agent Loop ───────────────┐
                         │                                          │
 ┌───────────┐     ┌─────▼─────┐     ┌─────────┐     ┌─────────┐  │
 │ Channels  │     │  Message   │     │  Claude  │     │  Tools  │  │
 │           │────▶│  Queue     │────▶│  (LLM)   │────▶│         │──┘
 │ Telegram  │     └───────────┘     └────┬─────┘     └────┬────┘
 │ WebSocket │◀──────────────────────────-│                │
 └───────────┘        Response            │                │
                                    ┌─────▼────────────────▼────┐
                                    │        Context            │
                                    │  ┌──────────┐ ┌────────┐  │
                                    │  │  Memory   │ │ Skills │  │
                                    │  │ SOUL.md   │ │  OTA   │  │
                                    │  │ USER.md   │ │  CLI   │  │
                                    │  │ MEMORY.md │ │  ...   │  │
                                    │  └──────────┘ └────────┘  │
                                    └───────────────────────────┘
                                          ESP32-S3 Flash

You send a message on Telegram. The ESP32-S3 picks it up over WiFi, feeds it into an agent loop — Claude thinks, calls tools, reads memory — and sends the reply back. Everything runs on a single $5 chip with all your data stored locally on flash.

Quick Start

What You Need

• An ESP32-S3 dev board with 16 MB flash and 8 MB PSRAM (e.g. Xiaozhi AI board, ~$10)
• A USB Type-C cable
• A Telegram bot token — talk to @BotFather on Telegram to create one
• An Anthropic API key — from console.anthropic.com

Install

# You need ESP-IDF installed first:
# https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/stable/esp32s3/get-started/

git clone https://github.com/memovai/mimiclaw.git
cd mimiclaw

idf.py set-target esp32s3
idf.py build
idf.py -p /dev/ttyACM0 flash monitor

Set Up

After flashing, a serial console appears. Type these commands:

mimi> wifi_set YourWiFiName YourWiFiPassword
mimi> set_tg_token 123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11
mimi> set_api_key sk-ant-api03-xxxxx
mimi> restart

That's it. After restart, find your bot on Telegram and start chatting.

More Commands

mimi> wifi_status          # am I connected?
mimi> set_model claude-sonnet-4-5-20241022   # use a different model
mimi> memory_read          # see what the bot remembers
mimi> heap_info            # how much RAM is free?
mimi> session_list         # list all chat sessions
mimi> session_clear 12345  # wipe a conversation
mimi> restart              # reboot

Memory

MimiClaw stores everything as plain text files you can read and edit:

File	What it is
SOUL.md	The bot's personality — edit this to change how it behaves
USER.md	Info about you — name, preferences, language
MEMORY.md	Long-term memory — things the bot should always remember
2026-02-05.md	Daily notes — what happened today
tg_12345.jsonl	Chat history — your conversation with the bot

Also Included

• WebSocket gateway on port 18789 — connect from your LAN with any WebSocket client
• OTA updates — flash new firmware over WiFi, no USB needed
• Dual-core — network I/O and AI processing run on separate CPU cores

For Developers

Technical details live in the docs/ folder:

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — system design, module map, task layout, memory budget, protocols, flash partitions
• docs/TODO.md — feature gap tracker and roadmap

License

MIT

Acknowledgments

Inspired by OpenClaw. MimiClaw reimplements the core AI agent architecture for embedded hardware — no Linux, no server, just a $5 chip.