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OpenClaw as a Research Agent

Clawmachined Team · February 13, 2026

OpenClaw as a Research Agent

Stop spending hours searching, reading, and summarizing. Let OpenClaw do the research and deliver the insights.

What It Can Do

  • Web research — Browse the internet, read articles, and gather information on any topic
  • Data collection — Visit company websites, pull data from Crunchbase and Clearbit, and aggregate findings
  • Competitive analysis — Monitor competitors, track pricing changes, and summarize market trends
  • Report generation — Compile research into structured Google Sheets, Notion pages, or CSV files
  • Ongoing monitoring — Set up recurring research tasks that run on a schedule and alert you to changes

What Your Agent Actually Gets

When you deploy an OpenClaw research agent, it runs on its own isolated machine:

  • 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 1 GB storage — a dedicated environment that belongs only to your agent
  • Full filesystem — it saves previous research, baseline data snapshots, templates, and comparison files persistently
  • A web browser — it can visit any website, read company pages, navigate Crunchbase profiles, check pricing pages, and browse documentation
  • Code execution — it can write and run scripts (Python, Node, shell) to parse data, clean datasets, generate charts, or format reports
  • Outbound API access — it calls the Google Sheets API, Notion API, Crunchbase API, Clearbit API, Hunter.io API, or any other API you give it credentials for

This is not a search engine wrapper. It's an agent with a real computer that can visit websites, read pages, compare data across sources, write analysis scripts, and produce polished deliverables.

How It Works

  1. Deploy on Clawmachined — One click, about 30 seconds. Your agent gets its own isolated machine.
  2. Give it your API keys — Paste your Google Sheets API credentials, Notion API key, Crunchbase API key, Clearbit key, or whatever tools you use. Keys are stored encrypted — only you and your agent can see them.
  3. Tell it what to do — Either write plain English instructions ("Research the top 15 competitors in our space and put the results in a Google Sheet") or install a pre-built skill from ClawHub. The Google Sheets skill and Notion skill give your agent instant knowledge of those APIs.
  4. Connect a channel — Hook it up to Slack or Telegram so you can request research, get progress updates, and receive finished reports.

Your agent remembers past research, your preferred output formats, and baseline data from previous runs — so it can compare and track changes over time.

Example Workflows

Competitive landscape analysis

  1. You tell your agent: "Research our top 15 competitors. I need: company name, founding year, funding raised, pricing tiers, and key features."
  2. It starts by checking Crunchbase via the API for funding data and company info
  3. It visits each competitor's website in its browser to read pricing pages and feature lists
  4. It cross-references with Clearbit for company size and industry data
  5. It compiles everything into a Google Sheet via the API — one row per competitor, columns for each data point, plus a summary tab with key takeaways
  6. It sends you the Google Sheet link on Slack

Weekly pricing monitor

  1. Every Friday at 8am, your agent runs automatically (scheduled task)
  2. It visits each competitor's pricing page in its browser and captures the current pricing tiers
  3. It compares this week's prices against the snapshot saved on its filesystem from last week
  4. If any pricing has changed, it highlights the differences: which competitor, what changed, old price vs. new price
  5. It updates the baseline snapshot file for next week's comparison
  6. It posts to your #competitive-intel Slack channel: "Pricing change detected: Competitor X raised their Pro tier from $49/mo to $59/mo. All other pricing unchanged."

Security & Privacy

  • Isolated machine — Your agent runs in its own sandboxed environment. No other agent or user shares its resources.
  • Outbound-only networking — The agent can call external APIs, but nothing can reach in. No inbound attack surface.
  • Encrypted API keys — All credentials are encrypted at rest. Only you and your agent can access them.
  • No shared resources — Your agent's filesystem, memory, and data are completely separate from every other agent on the platform.

Get Started

Deploy your research agent today with Clawmachined. Deep research on demand, whenever you need it.