Peter Steinberger is an Austrian software engineer, entrepreneur, and AI researcher known for founding the software development kit company PSPDFKit and creating the open-source AI agent framework OpenClaw ^{[2] [3]}. Based in Vienna, Austria, and London, UK, he is a prominent figure in the Apple developer and open-source communities ^[2]. In February 2026, Steinberger joined OpenAI to lead development on personal AI agents following the success of his OpenClaw project ^{[1] [3]}.

Education

Steinberger attended the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) from 2008 to 2012, where he studied Software Engineering & Internet Computing ^[4].

Career

Steinberger began his career working as an iOS developer from 2009 to 2011, establishing a reputation in the developer community through technical articles and open-source work ^[2].

PSPDFKit (2011–2024)

In May 2011, Steinberger founded PSPDFKit, initially as a solo project to create a software development kit (SDK) for integrating PDF functionality into iOS applications ^{[3] [2]}. He bootstrapped the company without external funding, growing it into a market-leading cross-platform solution with millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue ^[2]. The SDK, regarded as a "gold-standard PDF library," was used by major companies including Apple, Box, DocuSign, Dropbox, IBM, and SAP ^{[1] [2]}.

In October 2021, the global venture capital firm Insight Partners made a €100 million ($116 million USD) investment in PSPDFKit, which was the company's first-ever round of outside funding. Following this investment, Steinberger remained with the company. In May 2023, PSPDFKit merged with Apryse, another company in the document processing sector. Steinberger served as CEO of PSPDFKit for 13 years before stepping down in April 2024 after the company's successful exit and integration ^{[3] [2]}. The company behind the PSPDFKit software later became known as NutrientDocs ^[1].

Transition to AI and Open Source (2024–2025)

After leaving PSPDFKit, Steinberger had a brief period he described as "retirement" before re-emerging as a "Full-Time Open-Sourcerer" with a new focus on artificial intelligence ^{[1] [2]}. He founded Amantus Machina GmbH to serve as the corporate entity for his AI-focused work ^[4]. During this period, he publicly documented his work transitioning from native iOS development to modern web technologies, Swift, and Go, while creating numerous command-line interface (CLI) tools. It was during this time that he began to develop and advocate for his "vibe-coding" and "agentic engineering" methodologies ^[2].

OpenClaw and OpenAI (2026)

Steinberger started what would become OpenClaw in April 2024 as a "playground project," with a public release around November 2025 ^{[3] [1] [7]}. Previously known as Clawdbot, the project's name was changed due to trademark concerns ^[5]. Its mission was to create an open-source standard and framework for AI agents to interact with software user interfaces and APIs, providing a foundation for building robust, "hyper-personal" AI assistants ^{[3] [4]}. The project gained significant traction in early 2026, a period Steinberger described as a "whirlwind," attracting millions of weekly visitors and garnering over 196,000 stars on GitHub ^{[1] [5] [7]}.

Following the project's rapid rise, Steinberger traveled to San Francisco in early February 2026 to meet with major AI labs ^[7]. On February 15-16, 2026, it was announced that Steinberger was joining OpenAI. The move was widely characterized as an "acqui-hire" that also included the two other core contributors to the OpenClaw project ^{[3] [5] [8]}. Steinberger clarified that while he was joining OpenAI, the OpenClaw project itself would not be acquired and would instead transition to an independent foundation to ensure it remains open ^[7]. His stated goal for joining was to accelerate his mission to "build an agent that even my mum can use," stating that teaming up with OpenAI was the "fastest way to bring this to everyone" rather than building another large company himself ^[7].

At OpenAI, Steinberger's role is Product/Engineering Lead, where he is tasked with driving "the next generation of personal agents" ^{[3] [1]}. In announcing the hire, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that Steinberger's work was expected to "quickly become core" to OpenAI's strategy, calling him a "genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people" ^[1].

In conjunction with the hiring, the OpenClaw Foundation was established, with OpenAI as an official sponsor, to act as a steward for the open-source project. The foundation aims to be a home for "thinkers, hackers and people that want a way to own their data" and to support a wide range of models and companies ^[7]. Steinberger was appointed to the new foundation's board ^{[3] [5]}. He announced the move by stating, "I'm joining to bring agents to everyone. is becoming a foundation: open, independent, and just getting started" ^{[1] [6] [8]}.

Major Projects and Contributions

PSPDFKit

As founder and CEO, Steinberger led the development of PSPDFKit into a leading commercial SDK for PDF functionalities. The kit allows developers to integrate features such as PDF viewing, annotation, form filling, and digital signatures into applications across iOS, Android, and web platforms. Its success was attributed to its performance, polish, and extensive feature set ^{[3] [2]}.

OpenClaw

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent framework created by Steinberger, initially as a "playground project," to provide a foundational platform for developing and running personal AI agents ^[7]. It is designed to enable AI to interact with software in a more robust and standardized way, allowing users, including those without coding skills, to build agents that automate tasks across various applications ^[5]. The project was formerly named Clawdbot. Its popularity and vision for personal AI directly led to Steinberger joining OpenAI in February 2026. As part of this transition, the project was moved into an independent foundation to ensure its continued openness and development as an industry standard ^{[3] [4] [7]}.

Notable Open-Source Contributions

Steinberger is a prolific open-source contributor with a history of creating influential libraries and tools for developers ^[2].

• Aspects: A popular library for aspect-oriented programming (AOP) in Objective-C, released in 2014. It allows developers to add code to existing methods at runtime, a technique known as "method swizzling," without altering the original source code ^{[4] [2]}.
• PSTCollectionView: An open-source, API-compatible replacement for Apple's UICollectionView framework, released in 2012. It enabled developers to use modern collection view layouts on older versions of iOS that lacked native support ^[4].
• InterposeKit: A modern Swift library for method swizzling, building upon the concepts of his earlier Aspects library ^[2].
• CodexBar: A macOS menu bar application that provides real-time tracking of API usage and costs for large language models from OpenAI and Anthropic ^[2].
• Peekaboo: A macOS command-line tool and server that allows AI agents to capture screenshots and perform Visual Question Answering (VQA) to understand on-screen content ^[2].
• Poltergeist: An "AI-friendly universal build watcher" announced in August 2025. It automatically detects file changes and rebuilds projects with no manual configuration, supporting technologies like Swift, Rust, and Node.js ^[6].
• Other CLI Tools: He has created a wide array of command-line utilities, including oracle for invoking LLMs with local file context, go-cli for interacting with Google Workspace, wacli for WhatsApp, and imsg for iMessage ^[2].

These contributions have been made available on his GitHub profile ^[2].

Development Philosophy:

Steinberger is a vocal advocate for a new paradigm of software development centered around artificial intelligence. He champions several concepts that define his work style ^{[2] [6]}.

Vibe-Coding and Agentic Engineering

Steinberger coined the term "vibe-coding" to describe his style of "AI-native development." This methodology is characterized by rapid prototyping and an extremely fast, iterative feedback loop with large language models (LLMs). His work also focuses on "agentic engineering," which involves creating tools that enable AI agents to autonomously perform complex, multi-step engineering tasks, moving beyond simple code completion. His philosophy is sometimes summarized by the phrase "Just Talk To It," emphasizing a conversational approach to development with AI ^{[2] [6]}.

AI Model Usage

His workflow involves using multiple AI models concurrently, a practice he likens to using "slot machines for programmers" to generate and refine different solutions to a problem. He is a noted heavy user of Anthropic's Claude model, humorously referring to himself as a "Claudoholic." His affinity for the model led him to organize meetups called "Claude Code Anonymous" for fellow AI-reliant developers and even hold a mock "funeral" for an older version of the model, an event covered by WIRED magazine. He publicly tracks which AI model he is currently using on his website, whatmodelispeterusing.com ^{[2] [6]}. He often promotes the motto "Ship beats perfect," which prioritizes rapid development and iteration ^[2].