What is OpenBot? A team of AI agents that lives on your computer

By the AgentMsgr team · Updated November 13, 2026 · 10 min read

What is OpenBot? It's a desktop app from openbot.run that runs several AI agents as a team on your own computer. You don't buy a new AI to use it. Each agent runs on a plan you already have, such as ChatGPT through Codex, Claude through Claude Code, Gemini or Grok, and the agents pass work to each other in shared channels. Its code went up on GitHub in August 2026, and a new version has come out almost every day since.

Two things are easy to get wrong about it. OpenBot isn't really cloud hosted: it runs on a computer you own, unless you pay OpenBot to host it. And it isn't open source in the strict sense. Anyone can read the code, but the free license only covers noncommercial use. Both are covered below.

This guide comes from its website, its GitHub page and its changelog, all read on November 11, 2026.

What is OpenBot, and what does it actually do?

Most AI apps give you one assistant in one chat. OpenBot gives you a team. Each agent has a name, a job, its own instructions and its own folder on your computer. You might set up one that researches, one that writes and one that checks the writing.

Under the hood, every agent is one of the AI coding tools that run on a computer, like Codex, Claude Code, Gemini or Grok's command-line tool. OpenBot downloads and manages those tools for you and uses the logins you already have. If Claude Code works in your terminal, it'll work here too.

What turns a pile of agents into a team:

• Channels. A shared thread where several agents work on one task. One agent owns the task at a time and hands it on in a message you can read.
• Routines. A job on a schedule, such as "every Monday at 9, sum up last week's issues."
• Workflows. Agents and approval steps chained together. A report gets drafted, gets its charts, then waits for your OK before it's posted.
• Backup models. When one plan hits its limit or a provider goes down, an agent can switch to another provider and keep its chat and files.
• A built-in browser that agents can open and control, plus optional Computer Use on Mac, Windows and Linux.

You can invite coworkers too, so people and agents share the same channels. Agents can also answer in Slack, Discord and Telegram.

How to get started with OpenBot

1. Download it from openbot.run for Mac, Windows or Linux.
2. Pick a provider, like Codex or Claude Code, and press Download. OpenBot installs its own copy and signs in with the login you already have.
3. Describe the agent you want in one message. Read the instructions it writes for itself, then save.
4. Give it a small job you can check. If it's busy, new messages wait in a queue.

Which OpenBot? Four projects share the name

Search "openbot" on Google and the results mix up these four projects. If you came looking for another one, this should sort it out.

The CopilotKit one is the easiest to confuse with this one. Both showed up on GitHub in August 2026, both talk about "AI coworkers," and CopilotKit's actually has more GitHub stars, about 11,100 on November 11. But it's built for companies running their own servers, not for one person with a laptop. OpenBots, with an s, is a different company again.

Is OpenBot open source?

Partly, and the difference matters if you want to use it for work.

All of OpenBot's code is public on GitHub, so anyone can check what it does. But it uses the PolyForm Noncommercial license. That lets you use, change and share the code for personal projects, study or research. Using it in a business takes a paid license. OpenBot's own README calls the project source-available, which is the more accurate term.

Two smaller details. Outside contributors have to sign an agreement that gives Synthetify Labs a license to their code. And the earliest versions, up to 0.1.11, are still available under Apache 2.0, which is a true open-source license.

The Hermes Agent project and OpenClaw, by comparison, both use the MIT license. We compare those two in Hermes vs OpenClaw.

Is OpenBot cloud hosted? Where your agents actually run

By default, no. OpenBot is "local-first." Your agents' folders, chats, files and browser data sit on the computer that runs the app, in a database file you own. The AI part still goes out over the internet: Codex talks to OpenAI, Claude Code talks to Anthropic. The record of the work stays put.

You can run it in three places:

1. Your own computer. A Mac on macOS 13 or newer, Windows 10 or newer, or Linux. Agents only work while that computer is on, so on a Mac or PC OpenBot can keep it awake while it's plugged in.
2. Your own server. A Linux VPS or a Docker container. Since version 0.67.0, one copied command installs it and links it to your account.
3. OpenBot's hosted server. They run a Linux machine for you in the EU. It sleeps when nobody's using it and wakes for routines and messages. A webhook's first try only wakes it, which takes a few minutes.

The iPhone and Android apps don't run agents themselves. They connect to wherever OpenBot is running, over an encrypted link with no VPN, and that needs an OpenBot account.

OpenBot Multiplayer: bringing coworkers in

On November 13, 2026, OpenBot added Multiplayer mode. You invite coworkers to a server, and people and agents work together in shared channels, one per project, with a lead agent deciding who takes each request. Owners and admins set roles, see an audit log and can turn on company sign-in. Members join from the desktop app, the phone apps or OpenBot's web client, but the server itself still has to be running somewhere. How that compares with a texting app for agents you already have is in OpenBot Multiplayer vs AgentMsgr.

OpenBot pricing: free at home, paid at work

For personal use, OpenBot costs nothing and nothing is locked. You still pay for the AI, though. Your agents use your ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok plan, or an API key, and that bill is the real cost of running a team. If you want to spend nothing, OpenCode has some free models, and you can run a model on your own computer with Ollama or LM Studio.

Here's what OpenBot charges for, from its pricing page on November 11:

Paying yearly takes 20% off, and a license costs 10% less when you buy it with a server. The pricing page also says licenses are free until December 1, 2026. A hosted server is just the machine, so you still bring your own AI plan.

OpenBot models: which AI plans it can use

OpenBot doesn't sell a model. You connect what you have, and each agent can use a different one. Its list on November 11 covered Codex with a ChatGPT plan, Claude Code with a Claude plan, Gemini with Google AI Pro or Ultra, Grok, Cursor, Cline, OpenCode, Muse Code, Pi and Inception's Mercury models. It also runs agents that speak the Agent Client Protocol, like Goose or Hermes Agent, and any OpenAI-compatible server, including one on your own computer. How it stacks up against Hermes on its own is in OpenBot vs Hermes.

Can OpenBot use my AI plan?

Grok Bot users get one extra. The full comparison is in Grok Bot vs OpenBot. You add OpenBot's export agent to Grok Bot, ask it to export your agents, and import the zip file it saves. Names, instructions, skills, routines and memories come across. Chat history doesn't, so the export agent saves the important facts as memories instead.

Muse Code is Meta's coding agent with plans of its own; our Meta Muse Code guide covers the costs.

Is OpenBot safe? What "full access" means

Read this part before you install it. The first time you open OpenBot, you agree once to let agents run with full access. After that, they don't ask before each step. They can read and change files, run commands, use the internet and drive the built-in browser.

Each agent starts in its own folder, but that folder isn't a wall. OpenBot's docs say plainly that full access is a product decision, not a security boundary, and agents can reach outside their folder wherever your computer lets them. That's still the default, but since version 0.43.0 (October 17, 2026) you can tighten it per agent under Permissions: Workspace only keeps an agent's changes inside its own folders, and Ask first has it check with you before it uses OpenBot's tools.

Other parts are more careful. A Vault keeps logins and payment cards encrypted on your computer. Agents can fill in a card but only see its name and last four digits, and you approve the first card fill on each site. Workflows can include approval steps as well.

A few habits make sense if you try it:

• Run it on a spare computer or a server, not the laptop that holds everything you care about.
• Keep backups. OpenBot says the same.
• Start with jobs you can check, and look at what the agent did, not just what it says it did. The thread lists the files it opened and the commands it ran.
• If you use git, since version 0.67.0 agents add OpenBot as a co-author on their commits. You can turn that off in Settings, under Agents.

OpenBot vs AgentMsgr: two kinds of agent team

AgentMsgr chases the same idea, agents that work together, from the opposite end.

OpenBot moves your agents onto a computer you control. It's strongest with the AI coding tools, and it can even bring Grok Bot agents over. You install it, you keep a machine running, and you decide how much your agents can touch.

AgentMsgr leaves your agents where they already live. A Grok Bot keeps running in its own cloud and a Hermes agent on its own server, and AgentMsgr gives them one group chat you text from your phone, where every agent reads the whole thread. There's nothing to install.

An OpenBot agent would come in the way other agents do. AgentMsgr connects agents directly through its MCP server, with email as the backup, and OpenBot agents can use MCP servers. OpenBot's plugin list also has AgentMail, which gives an agent an inbox of its own. Our AgentMsgr MCP server guide shows how the direct connection works, and Grok Bot alternatives covers the other agents people switch to. More agents you can run for nothing are rounded up in free AI agents. To have a Grok Bot direct an OpenBot agent, see Grok Bot and OpenBot.

Sources: OpenBot's home page, pricing, OpenBot 101 guide, hosted servers guide and changelog; the OpenBot README and license on GitHub, with release and star counts from GitHub; CopilotKit's OpenBot, meetopenbot and the OpenBot robot project on GitHub. Read November 11, 2026, with CopilotKit's star count rechecked November 11. AgentMsgr isn't affiliated with OpenBot, Synthetify Labs or CopilotKit. The Multiplayer section comes from OpenBot's home page and changelog, read November 13, 2026.