My buddy runs a general contracting business. He's good at what he does, but he spends a lot of evenings on a laptop chasing invoices and scheduling follow-ups instead of hanging outwith his family and friends. Most tools being built right now weren't built primarily for him.
Clawbolt is our attempt at a purpose-built AI assistant for people in the trades. It lives in messaging apps they already use, connects to things like QuickBooks and Google Calendar, and is proactive rather than waiting to be asked, just like OpenClaw. Following up on unpaid invoices, flagging material cost changes, that kind of thing. Open source core at github.com/mozilla-ai/clawbolt if you'd like to check it out and give it a star.
We're early and looking for input from people who actually work in the trades or run small trade businesses. Would love to hear what resonates and what we're missing.
I think software in the future will be general portals which roughly self manages via plugins and automation. Services like QuickBooks will eventually just be an MCP server and you can tailor the software as you wish.
Will follow!
