Open Cowork is a free, open-source AI agent desktop application for Windows and macOS. It wraps Claude Code, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, and other AI models into a user-friendly GUI with one-click installation — no coding required. Key capabilities include VM-level sandbox isolation (WSL2 on Windows, Lima on macOS), a built-in Skills system for generating PPTX, DOCX, XLSX, and PDF documents, MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration for connecting to browsers, Notion, and other desktop apps, GUI automation via computer use, and remote control through Feishu (Lark) and Slack. Open Cowork is the open-source implementation of Claude Cowork, designed to make AI-powered desktop automation accessible to everyone.
📖 Introduction
Open Cowork is an open-source implementation of Claude Cowork, with one-click installers for Windows and macOS—no coding required.
It provides a sandboxed workspace where AI can manage files, generate professional outputs (PPTX, DOCX, XLSX, etc.) through our built-in Skills system, and connect to desktop apps via MCP (browser, Notion, etc.) for better collaboration.
[!WARNING]
Disclaimer: Open Cowork is an AI collaboration tool. Please exercise caution with its operations, especially when authorizing file modifications or deletions. We support VM-based sandbox isolation, but some operations may still carry risks.
✨ Key Features
| MCP & Skills | Remote Control | GUI Operation |
|---|
| Claude Cowork | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| OpenClaw | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| OpenCowork | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
- One-Click Install, Ready to Use: Pre-built installers for Windows and macOS, no environment setup needed—just download and start using.
- Flexible Model Support: Supports Claude, OpenAI-compatible APIs, and Chinese models like GLM, MiniMax, Kimi. Use your OpenRouter, Anthropic, or other API keys with flexible configuration. More models coming soon!
- Remote Control: Connect to collaboration platforms like Feishu (Lark) and other remote services to automate workflows and cross-platform operations.
- GUI Operation: Control and interact with various desktop GUI applications on your computer. Recommended model: Gemini-3-Pro for optimal GUI understanding and control.
- Smart File Management: Read, write, and organize files within your workspace.
- Skills System: Built-in workflows for PPTX, DOCX, PDF, XLSX generation and processing. Supports custom skill creation and deletion.
- MCP External Service Support: Integrate browser, Notion, custom apps and more through MCP Connectors to extend AI capabilities.
- Multimodal Input: Drag & drop files and images directly into the chat input for seamless multimodal interaction.
- Real-time Trace: Watch AI reasoning and tool execution in the Trace Panel.
- Secure Workspace: All operations confined to your chosen workspace folder.
- VM-Level Isolation: WSL2 (Windows) and Lima (macOS) VM isolation—all commands execute in an isolated VM to protect your host system.
- UI Enhancements: Beautiful and flexible UI design, system language switching, comprehensive MCP/Skills/Tools call display.
🎬 Demo
See Open Cowork in action:
1. Folder Organization & Cleanup 📂
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/dbeb0337-2d19-4b5d-a438-5220f2a87ca7
2. Generate PPT from Files 📊
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/30299ded-0260-468f-b11d-d282bb9c97f2
3. Generate XLSX Spreadsheets 📉
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f57b9106-4b2c-4747-aecd-a07f78af5dfc
4. GUI Operation🖥
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/75542c76-210f-414d-8182-1da988c148f2
5. Remote control with Feishu(Lark) 🤖
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/05a703de-c0f5-407b-9a43-18b6a172fd74
📦 Installation
Option 1: Homebrew (macOS, Recommended)
brew tap OpenCoworkAI/tap
brew install --cask --no-quarantine open-cowork
The --no-quarantine flag bypasses macOS Gatekeeper, so you won't see the "Apple cannot verify this app" warning.
Option 2: Download Installer
Get the latest version from our Releases Page.
| Platform | File Type |
|---|
| Windows | .exe |
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | .dmg |
Option 3: Build from Source
For developers who want to contribute or modify the codebase:
git clone https://github.com/OpenCoworkAI/open-cowork.git
cd open-cowork
npm install
npm run rebuild
npm run dev
To build the installer locally: npm run build
Security Configuration: 🔒 Sandbox Support
Open Cowork provides multi-level sandbox protection to keep your system safe:
| Level | Platform | Technology | Description |
|---|
| Basic | All | Path Guard | File operations restricted to workspace folder |
| Enhanced | Windows | WSL2 | Commands execute in isolated Linux VM |
| Enhanced | macOS | Lima | Commands execute in isolated Linux VM |
- Windows (WSL2): When WSL2 is detected, all Bash commands are automatically routed to a Linux VM. The workspace is synced bidirectionally.
- macOS (Lima): When Lima is installed (
brew install lima), commands run in an Ubuntu VM with /Users mounted.
- Fallback: If no VM is available, commands run natively with path-based restrictions.
Setup (Optional, Recommended)
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
