I've been quiet lately because I've been in "kid in a candy shop" mode setting up an entirely new workflow using openclaw. Looking forward to sharing a bunch more about that soon. But I wanted to share an observation and an anecdote. The most delightful thing so far is the way that working with a real, local, persistent AI agent suddenly means that APIs and open source matter a lot more. The former is more obvious, the latter less so. I've lost count of the number of APIs I've signed up for in the past week. Most work like a charm. No plugins, no skills, the agent just figures it out all by itself. I've been dumping apps that don't have APIs, or have broken APIs, in favor of those that do. Gave up on midjourney (no API), switched to the FLUX model on Replicate, which has a great API and works super well. We (my agent and I) decided to move away from Gmail (API is a huge pain to set up) and Google Docs (API is broken) in favor of Migadu and Outline. Migadu, a total dark horse, has a great API and is super agent friendly: we're using it for email and calendars. Outline also has a great API, and we've been using it for collaborative document editing. We're using Tailscale and Cryptomator for access and secure file sharing among all of my devices. I didn't ask it to ditch Google. This wasn't an ideological decision, it wasn't about privacy. It was totally pragmatic: for some reason, Google has severely underinvested in APIs (ecosystem lockin?), and we're simply using the tools that are most fit for purpose. I've been in Google's clutches for around 20 years, and it feels wonderful to finally escape - but, again, this wasn't even intentional. The most delightful thing of all is that there's a missing feature in the Outline API (useful for collaborative document editing). It's open source, and we're running it locally. My agent found the issue, patched the code, updated the running instance, fixed the local database, and even opened an upstream PR, all in about five minutes. Some people say AI is going to kill open source. I think the opposite is true. Open APIs and open source are now, suddenly, a real superpower. I think we're heading into a golden era of software openness. Another fun fact: until this week I had never heard of Replicate, Migadu, Outline, Tailscale, or Cryptomator. My agent found, tested, and recommended all of them. The way we discover and use software is changing incredibly rapidly - and IMHO for the better.