OpenWork

OpenWork helps you run your agents, skills, and MCP. It's an open-source alternative to Claude Cowork/Codex (desktop app).

Core Philos

• Local-first, cloud-ready: OpenWork runs on your machine in one click. Send a message instantly.
• Composable: desktop app, WhatsApp/Slack/Telegram connector, or server. Use what fits, no lock-in.
• Ejectable: OpenWork is powered by OpenCode, so everything OpenCode can do works in OpenWork, even without a UI yet.
• Sharing is caring: start solo, then share. One CLI or desktop command spins up an instantly shareable instance.

OpenWork is designed around the idea that you can easily ship your agentic workflows as a repeatable, productized process.

Alternate UIs

• Owpenbot (WhatsApp bot): a lightweight WhatsApp bridge for a running OpenCode server. Install with:
  • curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/different-ai/owpenbot/dev/install.sh | bash
  • run owpenbot setup, then owpenbot whatsapp login, then owpenbot start
  • full setup: https://github.com/different-ai/owpenbot/blob/dev/README.md
• Openwrk (CLI host): run OpenCode + OpenWork server without the desktop UI. Install with npm install -g openwrk.
  • docs: packages/headless/README.md

Quick start

Download the dmg here https://github.com/different-ai/openwork/releases (or install from source below)

Why

Current CLI and GUIs for opencode are anchored around developers. That means a focus on file diffs, tool names, and hard to extend capabilities without relying on exposing some form of cli.

OpenWork is designed to be:

• Extensible: skill and opencode plugins are installable modules.
• Auditable: show what happened, when, and why.
• Permissioned: access to privileged flows.
• Local/Remote: OpenWork works locally as well as can connect to remote servers.

What’s Included

• Host mode: runs opencode locally on your computer
• Client mode: connect to an existing OpenCode server by URL.
• Sessions: create/select sessions and send prompts.
• Live streaming: SSE /event subscription for realtime updates.
• Execution plan: render OpenCode todos as a timeline.
• Permissions: surface permission requests and reply (allow once / always / deny).
• Templates: save and re-run common workflows (stored locally).
• Skills manager:
  • list installed .opencode/skills folders
  • install from OpenPackage (opkg install ...)
  • import a local skill folder into .opencode/skills/<skill-name>

Skill Manager

Works on local computer or servers

Quick Start

Requirements

• Node.js + pnpm
• Rust toolchain (for Tauri): install via curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
• Tauri CLI: cargo install tauri-cli
• OpenCode CLI installed and available on PATH: opencode

Install

pnpm install

OpenWork now lives in packages/app (UI) and packages/desktop (desktop shell).

Run (Desktop)

pnpm dev

Run (Web UI only)

pnpm dev:ui

Arch Users:

yay -s opencode # Releases version

Architecture (high-level)

• In Host mode, OpenWork spawns:

  • opencode serve --hostname 127.0.0.1 --port <free-port>
  • with your selected project folder as the process working directory. In Host mode, OpenWork starts an OpenCode server directly on your own computer in the background. When you select a project folder, OpenWork runs OpenCode locally using that folder and connects the desktop UI to it. This allows you to run agentic workflows, send prompts, and see progress entirely on your machine without relying on a remote server.

• The UI uses @opencode-ai/sdk/v2/client to:

  • connect to the server
  • list/create sessions
  • send prompts
  • subscribe to SSE events(Server-Sent Events are used to stream real-time updates from the server to the UI.)
  • read todos and permission requests

Folder Picker

The folder picker uses the Tauri dialog plugin. Capability permissions are defined in:

• packages/desktop/src-tauri/capabilities/default.json

OpenPackage Notes

If opkg is not installed globally, OpenWork falls back to:

pnpm dlx opkg install <package>

OpenCode Plugins

Plugins are the native way to extend OpenCode. OpenWork now manages them from the Skills tab by reading and writing opencode.json.

• Project scope: <workspace>/opencode.json
• Global scope: ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/opencode/opencode.json)

You can still edit opencode.json manually; OpenWork uses the same format as the OpenCode CLI:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "plugin": ["opencode-wakatime"]
}

Useful Commands

pnpm dev
pnpm dev:ui
pnpm typecheck
pnpm build
pnpm build:ui
pnpm test:e2e

Troubleshooting

Linux / Wayland (Hyprland)

If OpenWork crashes on launch with WebKitGTK errors like Failed to create GBM buffer, disable dmabuf or compositing before launch. Try one of the following environment flags.

WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 openwork

WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 openwork

Security Notes

• OpenWork hides model reasoning and sensitive tool metadata by default.
• Host mode binds to 127.0.0.1 by default.

Contributing

• Review AGENTS.md plus VISION.md, PRINCIPLES.md, PRODUCT.md, and ARCHITECTURE.md to understand the product goals before making changes.
• Ensure Node.js, pnpm, the Rust toolchain, and opencode are installed before working inside the repo.
• Run pnpm install once per checkout, then verify your change with pnpm typecheck plus pnpm test:e2e (or the targeted subset of scripts) before opening a PR.
• Add new PRDs to packages/app/pr/<name>.md following the .opencode/skills/prd-conventions/SKILL.md conventions described in AGENTS.md.

For Teams & Businesses

Interested in using OpenWork in your organization? We'd love to hear from you — reach out at benjamin.shafii@gmail.com to chat about your use case.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.