Gold recycling from secondary sources provides an economically viable and sustainable approach to meet the increasing global demand for this precious metal. However, gold resources are inherently scarce. To address this issue, the present study presents an innovative solution: dimercaptosuccinic acid functionalized magnetic metal–organic framework nanorobots (MNR-MOF-DMSA). These nanorobots are designed for swift, efficient, and selective capture of Au(III) trace amounts from complex aqueous mixtures. MNR-MOF-DMSA showed an ultra-high adsorption capacity, better selectivity, and reusability with long-term stability, as it can selectively extract over 94 % of Au(III) from complex e-waste leachate, and the adsorption capacity can reach 1716 mg/g (at pH 5 in 3 h) in harsh acidic condition followed Langmuir model. In addition, after conducting a detailed mechanistic analysis, it was discovered that the selective adsorption behaviors observed were due to the combined effect of several factors, including the reduction of sulfhydryl groups, the coordination interactions between amide groups and Au(III) ions, as well as the electrostatic interactions between protonated amino and AuCl4- ions. It is also worth mentioning that the better catalytic properties of the developed hybrid MOF (MNR-MOF-DMSA-Au) were due to the reduction of Au(III) to Au(0). This study proposes new ways to recover and reuse gold e-waste for a sustainable future, as well as environmental protection and remediation.