# Fungi vs OpenClaw and Moltworker

> Compare Fungi's open-source agents with OpenClaw and Moltworker. Shiitake codes in your terminal on your subscription; Oyster runs Apps and agents on Cloudflare.

**Fungi** is open-source (MIT) AI Agents and the Apps they build and use.
**Shiitake** is a coding agent for your terminal that runs locally on your own
Claude or ChatGPT subscription; you install it with the `fungi` command.
**Oyster** runs Apps and agents on your own Cloudflare account, and **Fungi
Hub** hosts both for a Team. **OpenClaw** (MIT) is a personal AI assistant that
runs on your own devices and talks to you in chat apps such as WhatsApp,
Telegram, Slack and Discord. **Moltworker** is Cloudflare's experimental project
(Apache-2.0) that runs OpenClaw in a Cloudflare Sandbox container.

## Who each one is for

- **Choose Shiitake** if you want a coding agent in your project folder, like
  Claude Code or Codex, that uses the subscription you already pay for and can
  run commands inside a sandbox.
- **Choose Oyster** if you want your own platform of Apps on Cloudflare that
  people open in a browser and agents call over MCP, with a Linux workspace for
  the agent.
- **Choose OpenClaw** if you want one always-on personal assistant that you
  message from your phone and chat apps, with memory and credentials on your own
  hardware.
- **Choose Moltworker** if you want that OpenClaw assistant running on
  Cloudflare instead of your own machine, and accept an unsupported proof of
  concept.

## What each one does

| Job                | Shiitake                                                               | Oyster                                                     | OpenClaw                                          | Moltworker                                                                                  |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Main use           | Coding in a project folder                                             | Apps and agents for one owner                              | Personal assistant in your chats                  | OpenClaw on Cloudflare                                                                      |
| Where it runs      | Your Linux or macOS machine                                            | Your Cloudflare account, or locally for a trial            | Your computer or server; macOS, Linux and Windows | A Cloudflare Sandbox container                                                              |
| How you talk to it | Terminal, or an editor over ACP                                        | Browser desktop, MCP clients, and an optional website chat | 20+ chat channels, native apps, a web Control UI  | OpenClaw's Control UI and channels                                                          |
| Models             | Claude or ChatGPT subscription, a provider key, or Fungi hosted models | Workers AI by default for agent chat                       | Hosted and local model providers as plugins       | Anthropic API key or Cloudflare AI Gateway                                                  |
| Safety controls    | Workspace and Read-only command sandboxes (bubblewrap, Seatbelt)       | Owner-only sign-in; named keys with per-App grants         | Unknown senders must be paired and approved       | Cloudflare Access protects the admin UI                                                     |
| Cost to run        | Free software; you pay your model provider                             | Free software; deploying needs Cloudflare Workers Paid     | Free software; you pay your model provider        | Workers Paid plus container time; its README estimates about $34.50 a month running all day |

## Where OpenClaw or Moltworker is the better choice

- **Chat apps and phones.** OpenClaw meets you in WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage
  and many more, with native mobile apps. Fungi has no messaging-app channels.
- **Windows and local models.** OpenClaw supports Windows and local model
  providers. Shiitake runs on Linux and macOS only.
- **A large community.** OpenClaw has a large user base and plugin ecosystem.
- **One-click Cloudflare deploy.** Moltworker has a Deploy to Cloudflare button.

## Where Fungi is the better choice

- **Coding work.** Shiitake is built for a project folder: it edits files, runs
  commands and keeps its work in resumable Sessions.
- **Your subscription.** Shiitake signs in with your Claude or ChatGPT
  subscription locally, with no API key needed.
- **Sandboxed commands.** Workspace mode lets the agent edit its folder without
  unrestricted access to your machine. See
  [Sandbox a coding agent](/guides/agent-sandbox-and-permissions/).
- **Apps agents can call.** Oyster gives agents typed App methods over one MCP
  endpoint and a Linux workspace, on infrastructure you own.

## Try Shiitake

You need Node 22.13 or newer on Linux or macOS:

```sh
npm i -g @fungi.computer/spore
cd your-project
fungi
```

Setup asks which model to use; choose your Claude or ChatGPT subscription. See
[Install Shiitake](/install/). To try Oyster instead, run
`npx @fungi.computer/oyster try` ([details](/oyster-quickstart/)).

## Sources

Checked on 8 November 2026:

- [OpenClaw README](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw#readme)
- [Moltworker README](https://github.com/cloudflare/moltworker#readme),
  including its requirements and container cost estimate
- [Install Shiitake](/install/),
  [Sandbox a coding agent](/guides/agent-sandbox-and-permissions/) and
  [Is Oyster for you?](/is-oyster-for-you/)