Use the OpenWorker Desktop App to research, write, review code, and carry out tasks across the tools you already use. Or build your own agentic desktop and web apps with the OpenWorker Harness SDK.
Bring your choice of cloud or local models. Set permissions for your agents and decide which actions need your approval.
This README mainly covers the OpenWorker Desktop App. For SDK setup, examples and architecture, see the OpenWorker Harness SDK README.
Use the OpenWorker Desktop App
An AI coworker for your everyday work. Go from a request to a prepared brief, an organized folder, or a reviewed pull request.
It runs on your machine. Bring your own model key or run locally with Ollama, and choose which integrations it can access. Commands can run inside an NVIDIA OpenShell sandbox. See Governed by design for its approval and safety controls.
⬇ macOS (Apple Silicon)
macOS 12+ · signed & notarized · auto-updates
⬇ Windows 10/11 (x64)
builds are not yet code-signed, so SmartScreen will warn; signing is in progress
Open the app, add a model key (or point it at Ollama), and ask for something real.
The OpenWorker Desktop App is in open beta and supports automatic updates. Issues welcome as we polish rough edges.
Build agentic apps using OpenWorker Harness SDK
Bring agentic capabilities to your own desktop app, web app or local utility. Build the product experience while OpenWorker handles the agent loop, tool calls, approvals, streaming and durable sessions.
Use the TypeScript SDK from npm, or embed the Rust engine in your application. Start with one agent. Add sub-agents, teams, OpenShell sandboxing and observability as your application grows.
npm install @openworkerai/harness-sdk
Explore the Harness SDK → ·
Desktop guide ·
Web guide ·
Build with Codex or Claude Code
The rest of this README focuses on the OpenWorker Desktop App. For SDK documentation, continue with the Harness SDK README.
What you can do with the Desktop App
| Your work | How OpenWorker helps |
|---|
| Research and create | Turn notes, files and research into briefs, documents, spreadsheets and reports. |
| Review security risks | Scan code and dependencies, review cloud configuration, and investigate incidents. Proposed code fixes are re-scanned and reviewed before approval. |
| Work across your tools | Bring together GitHub, Slack, email, calendars and other connected apps. Add tools through MCP. |
| Delegate from Slack | Mention @OpenWorker; the task runs on your desktop and the reply returns to the thread. |
| Automate recurring work | Schedule morning briefs, weekly reports and other repeatable tasks, with transcripts to review. |
| Choose your model | Connect a cloud provider or use a local model through Ollama and other compatible servers. |
| Control agent actions | Review approvals, inspect recorded actions, and isolate supported commands with OpenShell or platform sandboxing. |
Specialist coworkers come with tools and instructions for a particular job. Security coworkers ship first.
Try your first task
Start with a folder of meeting notes. No connected apps are needed for this example.
- Choose a model. Open Settings → Models & Keys and connect a provider or local model.
- Choose your working folder. Give the session access to a folder containing a few text or Markdown notes.
- Ask for a brief. Paste the request below, follow the tool activity, and review any approval requests before continuing.
Read the meeting notes in this folder. Create a one-page brief with the key decisions, open questions and next steps. Save it as brief.md. Leave the original notes unchanged and ask before writing the brief.
Open brief.md in the working folder and review it. Continue in the same session: “Make the next steps more specific, and flag anything without an owner.”
Governed by design
The Desktop App combines approvals, recorded tool activity and optional sandboxing. You can review proposed actions and decide how much autonomy to allow.
Governance is the architecture, not a plugin - the agent can't grant itself new permissions, and no prompt can talk it past a gate. Four tiers, all in this repo:
- Hard floors. A set of dangerous and irreversible operations is human-only, always. No mode - including full auto-approve - lowers these floors; they always escalate to you.
- A ladder of earned autonomy. Actions are approval-gated by default. One-off approvals can graduate into standing rules, then into config allowlists - each step explicit, visible, and revocable. In auto-approve mode a reviewer model lets routine actions through and escalates anything it isn't sure about to you; repeated denials trip a circuit breaker that pauses the reviewer and hands control back. Reviewer verdicts are judgments, not guarantees - the floors and the audit trail are what backstop them.
- An audit trail that answers "who did this, and why?" Every tool call is recorded with its approval provenance - auto-approved, user-approved, or denied, with the reviewer's reasoning attached - and persisted with the conversation.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
