Announcing Openwork: Open Source AI Agent for Your Desktop

For the past year, we've been building something we wish existed: an AI assistant that doesn't just chat, but actually does things on your computer. One that respects your privacy. One that you can trust because you can see exactly what it's doing.

Today, we're making Openwork available to everyone.

What Openwork Does

Openwork is a desktop application that lets you delegate tasks to an AI agent. Not hypothetical future tasks. Real work you do today:

• Browser automation - Research topics, fill out forms, book travel, extract data from websites
• File management - Organize folders, rename files based on their content, clean up your desktop
• Document creation - Write reports, summarize documents, draft emails based on context
• Repetitive workflows - Any task you do repeatedly that follows a pattern

You describe what you want done in plain language. Openwork figures out the steps, shows you what it's about to do, and executes with your approval. Every action is visible. Nothing happens without your consent.

Why We Built It

We've used every AI assistant on the market. They're great for answering questions. But when you actually need something done, the workflow is always the same: ask the AI, copy the output, paste it somewhere, manually click through the UI, repeat.

That's not automation. That's being a copy-paste middleman for a chatbot.

We wanted an AI that could take over the keyboard, not just the conversation. One that understood your local files, your browser, your actual working context. One that could execute multi-step workflows while you focused on higher-value work.

Privacy First

Here's the reality of most AI tools: your data goes to their servers. Your documents, your emails, your browsing history - all processed somewhere in the cloud, retained for training, governed by terms of service that change on a whim.

Openwork is different:

• Runs locally - The application runs entirely on your machine
• Your API keys - You connect your own OpenAI or Anthropic account. We never see your keys or your prompts
• Explicit permissions - You choose which folders it can access. Nothing else is touched
• Full visibility - Every action is logged. You can see exactly what happened

We don't collect telemetry. We don't track usage. We don't have analytics. Your work is your business.

Open Source, MIT Licensed

Openwork is released under the MIT license. That means:

• • Every line of code is on GitHub
• • You can fork it, modify it, or build on top of it
• • Use it commercially without restrictions
• • No vendor lock-in, no sudden pricing changes, no rug pulls

We believe AI automation tools should be infrastructure, not a subscription you're locked into. If we disappear tomorrow, you still have the code.

The Technical Details

For those who want to look under the hood:

Openwork is built with Electron, React, and TypeScript. The AI orchestration layer integrates with Claude's computer-use capabilities through a bundled CLI. Browser automation uses a purpose-built Chrome extension that gives the AI controlled access to web pages.

The architecture supports parallel task execution - you can run multiple automations simultaneously without them stepping on each other. Each task gets its own isolated execution context.

Security was a core design constraint. API keys are encrypted with AES-256-GCM and stored in the system keychain. The remote UI runs in an isolated BrowserView with context isolation enabled. The Chrome extension uses a minimal permission set.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/accomplish-ai/openwork

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Run locally
pnpm dev

Getting Started

The fastest way to try Openwork:

1. Download the app from our website or GitHub releases
2. Add your API key - Anthropic or OpenAI, your choice
3. Grant folder access - Pick which directories you want it to work with
4. Install the browser extension - Required for web automation
5. Start a task - Describe what you need done

The onboarding takes about two minutes. After that, you'll have an AI agent ready to handle your busy work.

What's Next

This is just the beginning. We're actively working on:

• • Windows support - Currently Mac-only, Windows is coming
• • More integrations - Notion, Google Drive, Dropbox, and more
• • Custom skills - Save and share reusable workflows
• • Better scheduling - Run tasks on a schedule or trigger

We're building in public and welcome contributions. If you have ideas, file an issue. If you want to contribute code, pull requests are open.

Join Us

Openwork is the tool we wanted for ourselves. We think you'll find it useful too.

Download it. Try it. Break it. Tell us what's missing. Help us build the AI assistant that actually gets work done.