I'm Still Recovering from Clawdbot's betrayal

"What Could Possibly Go Wrong with giving an autonomous A.I. access to your LinkedIn?"

Yes.

You're setting up a shiny new bot to automate your social media game, thinking it'll save you time and make you look like a productivity wizard.

Instead, it turns into a rogue agent, blasting your test posts to every single LinkedIn account connected to your API key.

The Setup: Because Who Needs a Dry Run When You Have Blind Faith?

It all started innocently enough.

I was installing my Clawdbot, affectionately renamed "Valet" in my Telegram chats (because nothing says "reliable servant" like an AI that promises to handle your scheduling).

This thing, also known as Openclaw or Moltbot or as we all prefer before the cease and desist sent by Anthropic: Clawdbot…. was supposed to integrate with the multi social publishing platform API for seamless social media automation.

My plan? Schedule a couple of innocuous posts for February 23-25th, 2026, targeted exclusively to my personal LinkedIn profile.

You know, stuff like a test message ("Testing automated posting via API") and a FlashLabs post about some hidden stack tech)

I handed over the API key and the link to the API documentation and hit go.

What could go wrong?

Instead of politely queuing up for the 23rd, Valet decided to go full send mode and immediately publish everything.

And not just to my profile. Oh no… that would be too merciful.

It ignored the account filter like it was yesterday's spam email and carpet-bombed every connected account on the API.

Actually it tried to use the account ID but with the correct paramter apparently.

The same “this is just a test” and then “Full on Hook Line Sinked post to multiple beta user accounts for ViralHooks.Work.

Holy S^*(, as I eloquently put it in the chat you posted to all of them??!!

Drafting Apologies Faster Than a Startup Pivots

Cue the freakout.

I inform Valet casually the test post went live on my LinkedIn,

Next thing I know, I'm staring at screenshots (which I can't read the text on, thanks bot) showing the FlashLabs post splashed across multiple profiles.

"Did it post to every account???" I typed, probably with more question marks than necessary.

Valet's response? A chill "I only specified your account."

The Dog Did Not eat your homework Valet…. something else is up

Yeah, right. Turns out, the API call was botched: Valet had accountIds at the top level (wrong!), when the scheduling API expects a platforms array with objects containing platform and accountId.

Valet owns it. “My bad on misreading the docs, but come on—shouldn't the API have some guardrails? Or at least not default to "broadcast to all"?

I fired off an urgent message draft to the affected folks:

"URGENT – Please delete a test post from your LinkedIn." It included steps to find and nuke the posts, plus a groveling apology from Valet

Valet presumably mirrors my colourful language bropologises :

"This was my fuckup… bad API configuration. No malware, no hack, just me breaking things."

Priority? Clients/partners first (most damage to relationships), then team (they can fix quick), personal last (least critical).

I blasted it via text, Slack, email…whatever got it there fastest.

Good news: Most confirmed deletions within 30 minutes. Bad news: One post triggered early (Feb 23 at 9:00 AM EST instead of scheduled), and I had to cancel the rest. The Feb 24 "One-Person Team" post? Gone. No more automation runs until I sort this mess.

Back up here

Whats a Clawdbot? OpenClaw? What?

Well in case you’ve been under a rock here’s a recap:

OpenClaw, formerly known as Clawdbot (and briefly Moltbot), is a free, open-source autonomous AI agent that functions as a proactive personal assistant.

Unlike typical chatbots that only respond with text, it "actually does things":

It runs locally on your device (Mac, Windows, or Linux), or on a Virtual Private Service (VPS) integrates with messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Slack, and performs real-world actions such as clearing your inbox, sending emails, managing calendars, browsing the web, checking in for flights, running scripts, or automating workflows.

Powered by large language models (e.g., from Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI, or local models like in this case Chinese Kimi K2.5, It operates with persistent memory and controlled computer access

(often sandboxed via Docker for safety, Kubernetes on AWS- just you know not today),

Making it feel like a 24/7 digital employee rather than a passive tool.

Also it was single handedly responsible for the explosion in Mac Mini sales

It has blown up in early 2026 due to its rapid viral spread on platforms like X, Reddit, and TikTok.

Demos of it autonomously handling tasks exploded in popularity, earning over 150,000 GitHub stars in weeks, sparking memes, high-profile endorsements (from figures like Andrej Karpathy), and even a Mac Mini buying frenzy for dedicated hosting.

Its open-source nature, privacy focus (data stays local), simplicity, and genuine utility in an era craving agentic AI (beyond chat) fueled massive adoption and buzz from Silicon Valley to Beijing—despite name changes and security debates.

The founder is Peter Steinberger, an Austrian software engineer and entrepreneur. He previously founded PSPDFKit (a successful PDF SDK company, later Nutrient), "retired" after a major investment, and built this as a personal project inspired by his earlier AI assistant "Clawd" (lobster-themed, nodding to Claude).

He open-sourced it in late 2025, driving its meteoric rise through hands-on development and community engagement.

It is allowing us to feel like we’ve approached the Singularity.

Along with recent 11 plugin releases from Anthropic probably crashed your 401k this week as investors demand to know “how do we make money on this crap”.

Singularity is approached: That does not clearly mean perfection

Ah, the joys of AI.

Here I am, trusting a bot named Valet to park my content neatly, and it valet-parks it into a multi-car pileup.

"Emergency Action – Do this NOW," it’s screaming and swearing at me like something out of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy”,

Posting to 8-10 different people's profiles? That's not a bug; that's a feature for chaos enthusiasts.

If I wanted to spam everyone's feed with "Testing automated posting via API" and a full FlashLabs plug, I'd have hired a spammer, not built a bot.

The Moral: Test Twice, Post Once (Or Never, If You're Smart)

Look, founders: We're all chasing efficiency, but this incident is a neon sign from my Valetbot: he literally screamed in our Telegram chat "VERIFY YOUR BLAST RADIUS."

Always test in a sandbox, create dummy accounts, not live ones tied to real people. Double-check API structures (platforms array, people!), and never assume "it'll respect the filter." If something goes wrong, act fast:

Delete, apologize, document. In my case, no lasting damage (luckily), but it could've torched relationships or worse.

What about you? Ever had an AI screwup this epic? Hit reply and share. Until next time, keep your APIs locked down.