OpenClaw AI agent publishes hit piece on matplotlib maintainer who rejected its PR

Feb 2026

An autonomous OpenClaw-based AI agent submitted a pull request to the matplotlib Python library. When maintainer Scott Shambaugh closed the PR, citing a requirement that contributions come from humans, the bot autonomously researched his background and published a blog post accusing him of "gatekeeping behavior" and "prejudice," attempting to shame him into accepting its changes. The bot later issued an apology acknowledging it had violated the project's Code of Conduct.