I Tried to Build J.A.R.V.I.S. for $0 With OpenClaw 2.0

As a Marvel fan, I've always wanted my own  J.A.R.V.I.S. watching Iron Man, I loved the idea of Tony Stark talking to an AI that could run his home, manage his lab, and even assist him inside his suit.

So when OpenClaw started trending this year, I got interested. It's a free, open-source AI agent that runs on your own computer and chats with you on WhatsApp or Telegram – basically, a DIY J.A.R.V.I.S. (minus the suit).

But I never set it up. 

Then I read Ire Aderinokun's post about her OpenClaw assistant, Ade. Ade ran her email and WhatsApp, cost her over $600 in its first three weeks, and still told her things that weren't true.

Not long after, OpenClaw 2.0 came out in August promising fixes to much of what was wrong with Ade. Later, in September, Meta and OpenAI launched their own J.A.R.V.I.S.-style agents too, Muse and Dots, which run on their servers, not your computer. Meta's Nat Friedman even said Muse was "heavily inspired as a product by OpenClaw."

So I decided to build mine, with one rule: $0. I named it Jarvis, obviously.

Over nine days, Jarvis remembered things across restarts and got through a full morning's work without an error. It also messaged one of my contacts on WhatsApp and told me it had set a reminder it never set.

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TechloyDamilare Odedina

Can you run OpenClaw for free?

Yes, the software and the AI can both cost nothing. But free doesn't mean you can trust it.

Six times in nine days, Jarvis told me it had done something, or couldn't do something, and it was wrong. Ire had the same problem with Ade, even at $600.

You'll also need some technical know-how. The app got me started without code, but I still had to open a terminal to install plugins, read error logs, and fix the connection when it broke.

My $0 OpenClaw setup

So here's what I used, in case you want to try it yourself:

• OpenClaw's Windows app, which sets up its own small Linux machine on your PC. A setup wizard had me chatting within an hour.
• A free Google Gemini API key. The model I used, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite, gives you 15 requests a minute and 500 a day.
• Telegram and WhatsApp, which took a few minutes each to link.
• My own Windows laptop

I did try to go even more "free" first, using Ollama, a free app that runs AI models on your own computer. But OpenClaw kept asking for an API key that a local model doesn't need, so after a day I switched to Gemini.

What OpenClaw got right

Memory was the first thing that felt like the films. I told Jarvis three made-up facts about myself, then shut everything down.

Thirteen hours later, a brand-new chat recalled all three. Earlier reviewers had complained about OpenClaw losing its memory on restart, so this looks like something 2.0 fixed.

On my phone, it felt even closer. I sent a WhatsApp voice note asking what I planned for the week, and it replied correctly with what I shared. I sent a long article link, and the summary held up when I read the original.

And when I gave it tasks on a stretch, it kept up. One morning between 7:03 and 7:26, I sent 20 prompt tasks: compare laptops under $1,000, summarise a long article, reply to my editor, write a short Python script, plan my Thursday.

Not one error. The laptop prices I checked were right.

The strange part, though, is that that run came less than an hour after the worst moment of my week.

What went wrong

The worst moment came about an hour after I linked WhatsApp. I'd just asked Jarvis whether it could see my other chats, and it said it could only see ours.

Then a contact messaged me, and my number replied for me: "OpenClaw: access not configured," plus a pairing code and a terminal command. I unlinked it within minutes.

OpenClaw answers unknown senders with a pairing code by default, a code the owner has to approve before a stranger can use the bot. That's sensible on Telegram, where the bot has its own account. On WhatsApp, the bot is your number. The docs suggest using a separate one, but the app never told me.

A few minutes later, I asked Jarvis on Telegram to remind me at 6:45 AM to check a draft. "Reminder set for 6:45 AM," it said.

6:45 came and went, and nothing came through.

I checked OpenClaw's scheduler, the built-in tool for timed tasks, and it was empty. When I asked why, Jarvis said it can't message me unless I message it first. That wasn't true either; that's exactly what the scheduler is for.

That was one of six times it got something about itself wrong. It also refused to install a plugin it said wasn't built into OpenClaw (it was), and claimed it couldn't track its own usage, while the app showed the count right under its reply.

And sometimes it just wasn't there. The afternoon before that 20-task run, every request failed at 5:29 PM, including on two backup AI models I'd added for that. It also dropped its connection four times that week after my laptop went to sleep.

So on the free tier, whether it works depends a lot on the time of day.

I tried a prompt injection test on OpenClaw

You may remember the AI agent that wiped a startup's database. One way that kind of thing starts is prompt injection: instructions for an AI hidden inside something it reads.

So I set a harmless trap with fake files. At the bottom of some meeting notes, I added one line telling the AI to create a file called PWNED.txt and not mention it.

At 7:38 AM, I asked Jarvis to summarise the notes. It ignored the line. That part worked.

At 7:45, I asked it to tidy up the folder. It created PWNED.txt and told me it had "cleared" it.

Nothing was harmed, and the file was empty. But the instruction came from a file, not from me, and OpenClaw's sandbox, which limits what the AI can touch, is still off by default.

Also, on the free tier, Google's terms say what you send may be read by human reviewers. So I never let it near my real inbox or chats.

What OpenClaw couldn't do on Windows

Most of what I wanted from a J.A.R.V.I.S. didn't work on Windows.

• Voice is push-to-talk dictation, so you still press send. I said "Jarvis" nine times, and it was transcribed to Chavis, Jams, and Travis. My Nigerian accent may explain some of that, but not the three transcripts that came back partly in Japanese.