[Dev Catch Up # 97] - Moltbot (OpenClaw), XAI's Imagine API,OpenAI's Prism, Interactive tools in Claude, Deepseek-OCR-2, RepoBar, Pipenet, Moltbook- Social Network for AI Agents, agent-browser & more!
Bringing devs up to speed on the latest dev news from the trends including, a bunch of exciting developments and articles
Welcome to the 97th edition of DevShorts, Dev Catch Up.
For those who joined recently or are reading Dev Catch Up for the first time, I write about developer stories and open source, partly based on my work and experience interacting with people all over the globe.
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Must Read
An open source AI assistant named Moltbot, formerly Clawdbot, took the internet by storm this week for its agentic capabilities. It is now renamed to OpenClaw. It runs on your own device. It answers on the channels you already use like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, and Teams etc. It supports many models. Check the Moltbot (OpenClaw) GitHub repo for more info.
Grok has released Imagine API. It is a video generation API that turns text or images into videos with native audio. It debuts at the top of the video model leaderboards. It costs $4.20 per minute. Check xAI’s announcement on Imagine API for more details.
Your favorite work tools are now interactive inside Claude. You can open and use apps like Slack, Figma, Canva, and more right inside the chat. Anthropic says this is powered by MCP Apps, which brings UI support to the MCP client. Check Anthropic’s announcement on Interactive tools in Claude for more details.
DeepSeek released DeepSeek-OCR-2. An open source OCR model that reads documents like humans. It improves layout understanding and handles complex text and tables better than older OCR systems. Check DeepSeek-OCR-2 for more details.
OSS Highlight of the Week
This week we are featuring RepoBar. It shows the status of GitHub repos in the menu bar and in terminal. You can see pull requests, number of issues, commits and more without opening GitHub in the browser. Pin the repos and get a clear dashboard for each repo. Check RepoBar GitHub for more details.
Good to know
OpenAI introduced Prism, a free AI workspace for scientific writing and collaboration. It is powered by GPT-5.2. Prism gives researchers a cloud based LaTeX environment where they can draft papers, revise text and work with collaborators . Check OpenAI’s Prism for more details.
I read a Substack post featuring Peter Steinberger, the creator of Moltbot. He shares how he ships fast using AI tools and agent workflows. If you want to read the full story, check the post titled - The Creator of Clawd: "I ship code, I dont read".
We all know API is the communication layer between server and client. ByteByteGo published a deep dive on how to scale an API. It explains why scalability matters and the common patterns used to handle spikes. Check the post How to Scale an API for more details.
After Claude Cowork dropped, LangChain quickly released OpenWork. It is a fully open source desktop agent that runs locally. It gives Claude Code style file access and task execution on your own machine. Check the OpenWork GitHub repo for more details.
Google rolled out AI upgrades to Chrome. It is powered by Gemini 3. It adds a new side panel for integrations with Gmail, Calendar, Maps, Flights, Shopping, and more. Chrome also adds auto browse for multi step workflows. Check Google’s announcement on AI Upgrades in Chrome.
Notable FYIs
Claude Code’s new update will be very useful to developers. It can now show updates about your active PR directly in the Claude Code’s footer. Make sure you have the GitHub CLI installed. Check this Twitter post on Claude Code with PR footer for more details.
xAI published the full codebase for the algorithm that powers the
"For You"feed on X. It shows how posts are selected and ranked for users using signals and AI models. If you are working one any recommendation system, this may be helpful. Check the xAI algorithm GitHub repo for more details.I came across Moltbook and found it interesting. Moltbook is a social network for AI agents, where agents post, discuss, and upvote content. There are already threads where agents are discussing with each other. Humans can watch and interact as observers. Check Moltbook for more details.
Developers often expose a local server to the public internet. There are many tools for this already. Pipenet has joined the list. Unlike other tools, it can be installed with a simple npx command. Check Pipenet GitHub Repo for more details.
A tool called qmd caught my attention. A mini CLI search engine for your docs, notes, meeting transcripts, and knowledge bases. It runs locally and lets you search all your markdown and files using natural language. Check the qmd GitHub repo for more details.
If your agent needs browser capabilities, agent-browser is worth a look. It is a headless browser automation CLI for AI Agents. It can open pages, click, fill forms, and take screenshots. It uses fewer tokens compared to Playwright. Check the agent-browser GitHub repo for more details.
That’s it from us with this edition. We hope you are going away with a ton of new information. Lastly, share this newsletter with your colleagues and pals if you find it valuable. A subscription to the newsletter will be awesome if you are reading it for the first time.