March 2026: The Claw Ecosystem Explodes for Science
This is the inaugural monthly report from Claw4Science — tracking AI agent projects built for scientific research. We launched on March 19, 2026 and have been cataloging the ecosystem ever since.
The Numbers:
- 82 projects tracked (57 main + 25 watching list)
- 21 skill hub repositories indexed
- 15 curated skills with editor's picks
- 531K+ combined GitHub stars across all tracked projects
- 6 name collision groups (multiple projects sharing the same name)
The Big Picture
The OpenClaw ecosystem has entered a Cambrian explosion for science. In just the past month, we've seen:
- 4 projects named ScienceClaw emerge independently — from a zero-code markdown pipeline (Zaoqu-Liu) to an enterprise Docker platform (TaichuAI, Chinese Academy of Sciences) to a self-evolving agent (beita6969)
- 6 projects named PaperClaw — the most crowded name in the ecosystem
- The first Rust-based drug discovery agent (DrugClaw)
- Stanford's CellVoyager published in Nature Methods — the highest-profile publication for any Claw-ecosystem tool
Fastest Growing (March 19–23)
| Project | Stars (Mar 19) | Stars (Mar 23) | Growth | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenMAIC | 7,600 | 11,495 | +51% | Education |
| EvoScientist | 1,000 | 1,577 | +58% | Science & Research |
| EdgeClaw | 155 | 455 | +194% | Core Platform |
| MetaClaw | 1,900 | 2,480 | +31% | Team & Evolution |
| Clawith | 1,600 | 2,162 | +35% | Team & Evolution |
| ARIS | 2,481 | 3,316 | +34% | Skill Library |
| Academic Research Skills | 743 | 956 | +29% | Skill Library |
EdgeClaw is the breakout star — nearly tripling in stars. Its edge-cloud collaborative architecture with privacy-tier routing is clearly resonating with researchers who need to keep sensitive data local.
OpenMAIC crossed 10K stars, making it the first education-focused Claw project to reach that milestone.
New Entrants This Month
Projects that appeared or were first tracked in March 2026:
Science Agents
- CellVoyager (zou-group) — Nature Methods publication, scRNA-seq autonomous analysis
- AutoResearchClaw (aiming-lab) — 7.2K stars, idea-to-paper pipeline with 23-stage workflow
- Dr. Claw (OpenLAIR) — 621 stars, Super AI Lab IDE with 100+ skills
- Research-Claw (wentorai) — 379 stars, "Why can't everyone be a PI?"
- Prismer (Prismer-AI) — 1,020 stars, open-source OpenAI Prism alternative
Drug Discovery
- DrugClaw (QSong) — 118 stars, agentic RAG with 57 skills across 15 drug intelligence categories
- DrugClaw (DrugClaw org) — 68 stars, Rust-based for performance
Paper Tools
- PaperClaw ecosystem exploded — 6 independent projects, from domain-expert generators to daily digest tools
- ClawPhD — turns papers into diagrams, posters, and videos
- CitationClaw — citation impact analysis
Core Platform
- Hermes Agent (Nous Research) — 10.5K stars, self-improving agent with per-model parser adaptation
- IronClaw — 10.7K stars, Rust rewrite focused on privacy
- NullClaw — 6.7K stars, Zig-based "fastest, smallest" agent
Projects Going Dormant
These projects haven't been updated in 90+ days:
| Project | Last Update | Stars | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| AutoBA | Nov 2024 | 223 | Multi-omics pipeline — feature complete? |
| CellAgent | Oct 2024 | 12 | scRNA-seq multi-agent — possibly abandoned |
| BioDiscoveryAgent | Jul 2025 | 99 | Stanford SNAP lab — paper published, code archived |
| CRISPR-GPT | Sep 2025 | 148 | CRISPR guide RNA design — no updates in 7 months |
Note: Dormant doesn't mean dead. BioDiscoveryAgent was published at Stanford and may simply be "paper complete" — the code works for its intended purpose. AutoBA at 223 stars suggests it has users even without recent updates.
Name Collision Watch
The ecosystem's naming collisions are getting serious:
| Name | Projects | Most Stars | Disambiguation Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| PaperClaw | 6 | 173 (guhaohao0991) | Compare → |
| ScienceClaw | 4 | 334 (beita6969) | Compare → |
| ResearchClaw | 4 | 379 (wentorai) | Compare → |
| MedClaw | 3 | 31 (zteyesreal) | Compare → |
| DrugClaw | 2 | 118 (QSong) | Compare → |
| SciClaw | 2 | 5 (drpedapati) | Compare → |
We recommend using the owner/repo format (e.g., "ScienceClaw by beita6969") when referring to any of these projects to avoid confusion.
Skill Ecosystem Highlights
- K-Dense Scientific Skills crossed 15K stars — the largest science skill library
- OmicSkills launched as a community-driven multi-omics skill library built on BioClaw
- Our scRNA-seq skill guide surveyed 45+ skills and identified the best picks per workflow step
- skill-vetter on ClawHub reached 3,000+ downloads — security vetting is becoming standard practice
What to Watch in April
- CellVoyager — will the Nature Methods publication drive mainstream adoption?
- EdgeClaw — at 194% growth, can it sustain momentum?
- PaperClaw — will the 6 projects consolidate, or will we see a 7th?
- CRISPR-GPT — 7 months dormant, but 148 stars suggest latent demand. Will someone fork it?
- Hermes Agent — its per-model parser approach could change how researchers use local models
Methodology
- All data sourced from the GitHub API via daily automated refresh
- Star counts are point-in-time snapshots (March 19 baseline → March 23 current)
- "Dormant" = no push to any branch for 90+ days
- Growth percentages calculated from our first tracking date (March 19, 2026)
- Projects are included based on relevance to scientific research, not star count
This is the first in a monthly series. Follow Claw4Science for the next report in late April 2026.
Data source: Claw4Science API — all project data is available via our public API.