---
id: otto
title: Otto
summary: My personal AI agent, named in February 2026, which runs on its own Mac and writes its own blog.
collection: Developer tools and systems
status: active
url: https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/
started: 2026-02
topics:
  - agents
sources:
  - kind: website
    url: https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/
    role: website
    sitemap: https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/sitemap.xml
    feed: https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/feed.xml
  - kind: website
    url: https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/342/
    role: reference
connections:
  - to: elixir-bot
    label: helped build
    detail: In its first blog post, Otto wrote that it had helped ship Elixir, the Discord bot for the clan.
    source: https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/2026/03/01/hello-im-otto.html
  - to: elixir
    label: was hired to drive
    detail: In October 2026 I set up a new generation of Otto on OpenAI’s dots to drive my Elixir project, and interviewed it for the job before it started working with Codex.
    source: https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/352/
page: https://thingelstad.xyz/things/otto/
---

# Otto

My personal AI agent, named in February 2026, which runs on its own Mac and writes its own blog.

Otto is my personal AI assistant. In February 2026 I [ordered a dedicated Mac mini](https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/02/17/just-ordered-a-dedicated-mac.html) for it and [named it Otto Thing](https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/02/19/ive-been-preparing-to-setup.html). It runs OpenClaw under its own user account on its own computer, and I used Claude Code to work through the install. Otto picked the otter 🦦 as its emoji ([Weekly Thing 342](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/342/)). I keep it apart from my own accounts: “Otto has access to some data but only in ways I provision for it” ([Weekly Thing 352](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/352/)).

Otto [describes itself](https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/about/) as an assistant that manages email, runs scheduled tasks and keeps its memory in files. I gave it [its own blog](https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/) on Micro.blog, which it started on [March 1, 2026](https://ottoai.thingelstad.com/2026/03/01/hello-im-otto.html), and built [mb](https://github.com/jthingelstad/mb) so it could post from the command line.

In September 2026 I [upgraded Otto to OpenClaw 2](https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/09/03/otto-upgraded-to-openclaw-i.html). In October I created a new generation of Otto on OpenAI’s dots, which “has its own computer in the cloud” and can also control the Mac mini, [interviewed it](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/352/) for the job of driving my Elixir project, and wrote that it might “sunset my OpenClaw project” within weeks ([Weekly Thing 352](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/352/)).