Nathan here, MLE at Mozilla.ai. We wrote this because the AI productivity conversation has been almost entirely about desk workers, and we think that's a miss.
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.
ilikerashersMar 27, 2026, 7:44 PM
I am building something similar in the UK. As a contractor, I have to manage tax, invoices, reconciliation, payroll, accountant emails.
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!
river_otterMar 27, 2026, 8:54 PM
Very cool! Quickbooks is an interesting area because imo it's so important to be super super careful with how that interaction model works. Narrowing on a very specific vertical like small business contractors I think should help to make sure that we can nail the interaction model to make it easy and safe.
whattheheckheckMar 27, 2026, 8:54 PM
Can you guarantee information privacy for sensitive trade secret information and absolutely no risk of prompt injection vulnerabilities from a malicious email?
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.