Your repo thisisprabha/MSPclaw has a solid foundation: Python agent runtime, playbook system (printer issues, disk space, onboarding, permissions), LLM reasoning layer, and a Tailscale-based deployment model. It is essentially an AI-native RMM brain with hardcoded architecture.
Below are real quotes and themes from r/msp, vendor forums, and technical communities. Scored by how often they appeared across threads.
"Datto RMM was good a few years ago, but Kaseya has broken it. It takes forever for scripts to run, sometimes upwards of 20 mins in an online device."
"The scripting gives you very little insight in what it's doing, the progress and has a limit of 1gb for files to transfer." — NinjaOne user
Implication: Every MSP has a graveyard of broken scripts. An agentic layer that retries, adapts, and reports on execution in real language would eliminate this pain.
"There are no open source PSAs especially similar to Manage."
"Other than a VNC variant which has major issues, there is no open source RMM."
"If any MSP do use open source, they are placing themselves into high risk position."
Implication: The community is hungry but skeptical. Any open-source tool must prove it is maintained, secure, and has commercial backing. The gap is real and validated.
"I'm now seeking to switch RMM/PSA systems. I'm open to paying for licenses, but I would much prefer to self-host to avoid the annoyance of price hikes."
"Don't get vendor locked in. Avoid vendor specific automation and use the industry standard, which is PowerShell."
"Comet Backup — Self Hosted Fee Coming... These prices will not affect Comet-Hosted."
Implication: MSPs want an abstraction layer between them and their vendors. Something that lets them switch PSA/RMM without rewriting automation.
"The limitations really lie with the API capabilities provided by the vendors themselves." — REWST user
"ConnectWise does not publish explicit rate limit numbers in official docs. HTTP 429 responses may be returned when limits are exceeded."
"It's a complicated software if you don't have API or heavy automation experience." — ConnectWise user
Implication: Every vendor API has different auth, rate limits, and capabilities. A universal connector that normalizes these into a single interface is huge value.
"Rewst is an incredibly powerful platform... but it is substantially more expensive than every other low code platform."
"I dont like the no code interface too much."
"If you have got dev resources, n8n offers great flexibility and control. But Rewst can save a lot of time with MSP-focused templates."
Implication: MSPs want code-first control with MSP-specific templates. n8n is too generic. REWST is too expensive. Gap for code-first, MSP-native automation with a marketplace.
"We got ai agents handling tickets fully and it created more problems than expected. Spent months building out these autonomous agents..."
"Are there any AI native ticketing tools you use? Have you integrated any AI into your ticketing system?"
"The issue is we like having ticket data in Connectwise to tie to agreements, reports, profitability, etc."
Implication: AI agents that fully replace human triage are not trusted. Agents that assist — draft responses, suggest actions, run playbooks on approval — are the right abstraction.
"What are your thoughts on liability for running self-hosted Rustdesk, TacticalRMM, or other tools? Running standard ports and malicious scans..."
"I move from TacticalRMM as I grew up and it was causing issues with getting caught by any AV out there."
Implication: TacticalRMM went source-available, not truly open. AV vendors flag self-hosted agents. Need signed, trusted agent binaries or SaaS option.
A normalization layer that translates vendor-specific APIs into a single Event-Action interface.
Adapter SDK Interface:
class PSAAdapter:
def authenticate(credentials) -> AuthContext
def get_tickets(filter) -> List[Ticket]
def create_ticket(payload) -> Ticket
def update_ticket(id, payload) -> Ticket
def execute_script(device_id, script, params) -> ExecutionResult
def get_devices(filter) -> List[Device]
def on_webhook(payload) -> Event
Community writes adapters. Core team maintains 6-8 flagship ones. AGPL license on core, MIT on adapters.
Not just scripts — stateful workflows triggered by real events.
| Event Source | Trigger | Action | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| ConnectWise | New ticket "Printer not working" | Run diagnostic playbook | Auto-close if resolved, escalate if hardware failure |
| Datto RMM | Disk space < 10% | Trigger cleanup + notify | Ticket updated with cleanup log |
| NinjaOne | Patching failed on 3+ devices | Group into incident ticket | Summarized incident in PSA |
| SuperOps | Onboarding workflow started | Provision accounts across all tools | Progress tracked in SuperOps |
| Any | After-hours critical alert | Page on-call, create bridge ticket | Auto-resolved if device comes back online |
From Reddit: "We got AI agents handling tickets fully and it created more problems than expected."
Instead of full replacement, build an Escalation Prep Agent:
This is what one Reddit user built manually and got praise for. Productize it.
MSPs with multiple tools (ConnectWise + Datto + Ninja for different clients) have no unified dashboard.
ConnectWise won't build this. Datto won't. But an open-source bus can.
From Reddit pain: "Scripts take 20 mins to run — too slow for real-time response."
A lightweight agent on each endpoint that runs diagnostics locally, reports back, and can self-heal common issues without round-trip to cloud:
| Vendor | What They Do | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| REWST | No-code MSP automation platform | Expensive, proprietary, requires full-time dev focus |
| TacticalRMM | Self-hosted open-source RMM | Went source-available, AV flagging, single-vendor, no PSA integration |
| ConnectWise Automate | Scripting + monitoring | Thick client, no webhook reliability, API rate limits undocumented |
| Datto RMM | Monitoring + scripting | Kaseya acquisition broke reliability, 20+ min script execution |
| n8n | Self-hosted workflow automation | Generic, no MSP-specific adapters, no agent runtime |
| SuperOps AI | AI-native MSP platform | Single platform lock-in, no universal connector concept |
| MSPclaw (proposed) | Open-source agent bus + marketplace | Needs to prove reliability and build adapter ecosystem |
Here is the specific definition, because every vendor says "plug and play" and means "spend 3 weeks with a solutions engineer."
| Step | Current State (Manual) | MSPclaw Target |
|---|---|---|
| Connect PSA | Read API docs, build auth flow, handle rate limits, map custom fields | Paste API key → auto-detect version → map common fields → 5 min |
| Connect RMM | Same as above, plus device inventory sync nightmares | Paste API key → sync devices → auto-correlate with PSA contacts |
| First playbook | Write Python script, test in staging, deploy to prod, monitor | Browse marketplace → click Install → map to event source → done |
| Add a client | Clone configs, manually update IDs, pray nothing breaks | Copy tenant config, auto-provision connectors, inherit playbooks |
| Switch PSA | Migration project: 3-6 months, consultant fees | Swap adapter, remap fields, playbooks unchanged: 2 weeks |
License split:
Why this works:
| Phase | Deliverable | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | Connector SDK + 2 adapters (ConnectWise Manage, Datto RMM) + event router | 1-4 |
| Phase 2 | Playbook YAML format + 5 community playbooks + marketplace UI | 5-8 |
| Phase 3 | Agentic triage (escalation prep) + self-healing agent (Windows service) + 2 more adapters | 9-12 |