OpenFolk

OpenFolk is an open-source, MIT-licensed messenger-style web app from Flowdesk GmbH for running several AI coding agents on your own computers. Each bot has a name, role, tone and one working folder, and keeps working when the app is closed. Version 0.3.0 is the current release, with desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux.

What It Is

OpenFolk is a chat list in which every row is a bot, typically one per repository. You talk to a bot from your phone or desktop, and it reports when it is done or needs a decision. It is not an IDE and is not built on one; it carries the same agents onward when you are away from your machine and can hand a chat back to VS Code or a terminal.

Bots run on Claude Code (Claude Agent SDK) by default. A bot or a single conversation can instead use OpenAI Codex, or Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity and OpenCode through the Agent Client Protocol. You sign in with your own subscriptions or API keys.

Approvals and team workflow

Per bot you choose an approval level. Risky (default) asks before deleting, pushing, deploying, SSH or touching things outside its folder; write asks before every file change; never does not ask. Requests appear as chat cards with allow, always allow and deny, and unanswered ones are denied after 30 minutes.

Bots can be placed in group chats, hand jobs to one another, run scheduled routines that can wake a machine, and keep a memory of facts and searchable history. Push notifications tell you when an answer or decision is waiting.

Architecture and privacy model

Sessions, history, files and approvals stay on the machine running the backend. A relay only forwards frames, stores no messages and holds no model credentials. The backend connects outbound, and end-to-end encryption is on from first start. The relay can run inside the app or as a Docker container on your own server for phone access from anywhere.

Setup path

The desktop app bundles backend and relay: choose Start on this computer, sign in to Claude Code, and create a first bot. Alternatively run from source with Node 22.18 or newer using npm start. The phone uses the web app as a PWA, while native iOS and Android apps are built from the repository and are not in the stores yet. The Windows installer is unsigned, and the backend is developed and tested mainly on Windows 11.