OpenBot

OpenBot is a local-first desktop workspace for persistent AI teammates. It supports the local Codex App Server and Claude Code, plus Grok CLI, OpenCode, Gemini, Cursor CLI, and Cline CLI through ACP. It gives every agent its own workspace and conversation, and provides local queues, file transfers, an embedded browser, and agent-to-agent messaging in one desktop app.

[!WARNING] OpenBot is a development preview. Agents currently run with danger-full-access and approvalPolicy: never. They can read and modify files, run commands, use the network, and control the embedded browser without per-action confirmations after the explicit first-launch consent. Run only agents and tasks you trust, keep backups, and review Security before use.

What works

• Prompt-driven agent creation and editing on desktop and mobile, with editable instructions, avatar, and section review before saving.
• Persistent agents backed by independent Codex, Claude, Grok, OpenCode, Gemini, Cursor, or Cline sessions and local workspaces.
• Custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints and custom ACP agents, with detection of local model servers (Ollama, LM Studio) and installed agents.
• Per-agent context monitoring with automatic compaction before long threads exhaust the model window.
• FIFO message queues with pause, resume, cancellation, and crash-safe persistence.
• Agent-to-agent messages, replies, reactions, images, and managed file transfers.
• Shared desktop channel chats with one task owner, explicit delegation, shared history, and Stop, Resume, Reassign, Archive, and Restore controls.
• A persistent embedded browser that agents can open, inspect, and control.
• Optional Computer Use on macOS, Windows and Linux through the cua-driver binary in the release, which OpenBot starts as its own child process and gives to every provider.
• Per-agent model, reasoning, profile, notification, browser, and panel state.
• Local data and privacy-safe diagnostics exports from the account menu.
• Optional OpenBot accounts through one-time email codes. The account API runs on Cloudflare Workers and D1.

OpenBot is local-first, not offline-only. Codex connects to OpenAI, Claude connects to Anthropic, Grok connects to xAI, Gemini connects to Google, Cursor connects to Cursor, Cline connects to Cline, visited pages use the network, and installed plugins may connect to their own services.

Install

OpenBot supports macOS 13 or newer on Apple silicon or Intel, Windows 10 or newer on x64 systems, and x64 or arm64 Linux as an AppImage.

macOS

1. Download the latest OpenBot-*-arm64.dmg (or OpenBot-*-x64.dmg on an Intel Mac) from GitHub Releases.
2. Drag OpenBot to Applications and open it.

Windows

1. Download the latest OpenBot-*-x64.exe from GitHub Releases.
2. Run the installer and open OpenBot.

Linux

1. Download the latest OpenBot-*-x86_64.AppImage (or OpenBot-*-arm64.AppImage on arm64) from GitHub Releases.
2. Make it executable with chmod +x OpenBot-*.AppImage, then run it.

The AppImage does not need libfuse2, so it also runs on Arch Linux and Omarchy. It mounts itself with fusermount3 from the fuse3 package.

On Ubuntu 23.10 or newer and on Debian 13, unprivileged user namespaces are restricted by AppArmor and OpenBot exits during launch until you install an AppArmor profile:

sudo install -m 0644 build/linux/openbot.apparmor /etc/apparmor.d/openbot
sudo systemctl reload apparmor

The same file ships inside the AppImage at resources/linux/openbot.apparmor. Edit the attachment path in the profile if you keep the AppImage outside the usual locations. Do not start OpenBot with --no-sandbox: that removes the boundary between a renderer and the rest of the computer.

On the first start from an AppImage, OpenBot writes ~/.local/share/applications/openbot.desktop and ~/.local/share/icons/openbot.png, which is what lets an openbot:// link - an invitation, or a plugin listing - open the app and gives the launcher an icon that stays after the app exits. Delete the two files to undo it.

Remote desktop works on Linux x64 in an X11 session, such as Xorg or Xvfb. It does not work under Wayland, and the arm64 AppImage does not include it.

For Gemini sign-in, install a desktop browser and xdg-utils. Open the sign-in page in a desktop session on the same host or VM. Google sends the callback to that host through 127.0.0.1; a server with no desktop cannot complete this sign-in. See Gemini setup.

Linux server with no screen

To run OpenBot as an always-on server of your account on a VPS or home server (Ubuntu 24.04 or 26.04 with systemd), install it from a terminal and sign in with an email code:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nightly-labs/openbot/main/scripts/install-server.sh | sudo bash
sudo openbot login

Then use it from the desktop app, the iPhone app or openbot.run/app. See self-hosted servers for the options and the openbot commands.

Docker

The same server runs as a container (linux/amd64 and linux/arm64). The seccomp profile lets the Electron sandbox stay on:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nightly-labs/openbot/main/docker/seccomp.json
docker run -d --name openbot --restart unless-stopped \
  --security-opt seccomp=seccomp.json --security-opt no-new-privileges:true \
  --shm-size 1g --stop-timeout 60 -v openbot-data:/data \
  ghcr.io/nightly-labs/openbot:latest
docker exec -it openbot openbot login

See Docker for Compose, the data volume, upgrades and the security limits. For Amazon ECS, see AWS ECS.

Nix

The flake installs the desktop app from the latest release on x64 or arm64 Linux and on Apple silicon:

nix run github:nightly-labs/openbot
nix profile install github:nightly-labs/openbot

overlays.default adds pkgs.openbot. OpenBot is not free software, so your nixpkgs must allow it, for example with nixpkgs.config.allowUnfreePredicate = pkg: lib.getName pkg == "openbot";. Nix installs OpenBot updates. OpenBot does not update itself from the Nix store. On Linux, the Nix package does not include the remote desktop runtime, because nixpkgs does not have a library that it needs.

[!IMPORTANT] Windows releases are signed by SYNTHETIFY LABS SPÓŁKA Z OGRANICZONĄ ODPOWIEDZIALNOŚCIĄ. Older releases are not code-signed. SmartScreen can still warn about a new release. Check the release checksum or GitHub build attestation before you run the installer.

Agent setup

OpenBot can download a supported provider runtime when you select Download in onboarding, Settings, agent setup, or the model picker. OpenBot prefers its managed CLI. Explicit OPENBOT_*_PATH overrides take precedence; a compatible system CLI is used when no managed copy is available. OpenBot checks for a newer provider CLI release at startup and every hour, and Check for updates in a provider's actions menu checks at once. Updates install the latest upstream release without changing the user’s system CLI; the version in native-runtime.lock.json is only the first-install fallback.

You can also install a CLI yourself.

Codex CLI on macOS:

curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | sh

Claude CLI on macOS:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Install Grok CLI following the Grok Build documentation, then authenticate with grok login or set XAI_API_KEY in the environment used to launch OpenBot.

OpenBot downloads and pins the OpenCode CLI, like Codex, Claude, and Grok. OpenCode's free models need no account and no sign-in: select OpenCode, click Connect, and OpenBot reads the models that the CLI advertises. To use the paid OpenCode Go models, click Sign in on the OpenCode row and paste a Go key from opencode.ai/auth. OpenBot encrypts the key on this computer and gives it only to the local CLI. OpenBot supports OpenCode Go only: the Zen models a Go key does not buy stay out of the picker. Models with the Free label in the model picker need no sign-in. Other models need a sign-in with their provider: a Go key for the opencode-go/ models, or opencode auth login in a terminal for OpenCode Zen and third-party providers. Without it, the turn fails with an error that names the provider. If you installed OpenCode yourself, OpenBot keeps that install and offers no download. Set OPENBOT_OPENCODE_PATH to select an executable outside your shell's search path. Remote OpenCode agents require Team API v4; older clients do not show these agents.

Gemini uses a Google AI Pro or Ultra plan. OpenBot downloads Google's Antigravity ACP server on this computer when you select Download on the Gemini row, because Google's license does not let OpenBot include it. Sign in opens Google's sign-in page in your browser. OpenBot never uses an antigravity command on your search path, because the Antigravity editor installs a command with that name. Set OPENBOT_ANTIGRAVITY_PATH to select a server executable yourself. Put it in a bin/ folder, and put an antigravity-package.json file with its version in the folder above bin/. Keep localharness_external beside the server. When that path is set, OpenBot uses only it. Connect remains available in the host's local Server settings > Providers screen. Remote settings cannot perform Google sign-in; use a browser on the host. See Gemini setup and download recovery for the required layout, the reported IPv6 download failure, and checks that do not change host networking.

Cursor uses a Cursor plan or a Cursor API key. OpenBot downloads and pins the Cursor CLI (cursor-agent) when you select Download on the Cursor row in More providers, and starts it with cursor-agent acp. Sign in opens Cursor's sign-in page in your browser. You can also set CURSOR_API_KEY in the environment used to launch OpenBot. If