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OpenMausBot turns coding-agent tools into persistent bots, with 2,062 stars
A desktop app that turns your existing coding-agent CLIs into a messaging-style roster of persistent bots, each with its own model, cloud desktop, and connected apps, with 2,062 stars and 377 forks in 23 days on GitHub.
Image: GitHub
Why it mattersA local-first alternative to the Grok Bot pattern lets teams try the messaging-app shape for agents without a new subscription or a cloud service in between, because the runtime is the CLI already installed on your machine.
OpenMausBot is an open-source desktop app for running a roster of persistent AI bots in a messaging-app layout. The project describes itself as an open version of Grok Bot, and its README says every bot in the sidebar is a real agent running under the claude, codex, or grok CLI on your own machine. The repository was created on 11 August 2026, and has 2,062 stars and 377 forks on GitHub as of the trending sweep on 3 September, all inside its first 23 days.
How the app is laid out
Bots sit in a sidebar the way contacts do in an instant-messaging app. Each one has its own model, its own memory of its thread, its own connected apps, and its own computer. The README lists three targets: a signed and notarised macOS DMG for Apple Silicon and Intel, a Windows x64 installer, and an AppImage or DEB build for Ubuntu 24.04.
Every bot runs under a coding-agent CLI already installed on the user's machine. The README lists Claude, Codex, and Grok as the built-in engines, and it says any of them can be pointed at a custom CLI binary through Settings → Engines. That reuse is the reason there are no new logins or accounts: the bot is one more consumer of the subscription the user already pays for.
What each bot can do
The README calls this out in three sections. First, each bot gets a computer, chosen per bot from an isolated local virtual machine, a cloud Linux desktop, or the user's own machine on macOS and Ubuntu Xorg after explicit opt-in. The README says Ubuntu Wayland host control is disabled while issue #345 is resolved. Second, every risky action from the agent appears as an inline card the user answers with Allow, Deny, or a written reply, and the same broker handles cloud and local computers. Third, a marketplace over Composio Sessions gives every bot access to hundreds of connected apps including Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Notion, and Linear.
A team can be installed from a single Markdown file. A review screen creates the roster, its channels, its playbooks, and its connector checklist, and the format is portable enough that a person or another model can follow the same file. Voice is optional through an ElevenLabs key.
How the runtime is put together
The README describes two processes. The app is a React and Tailwind UI that sends typed commands over HTTP and combines one server-sent-events stream into local state. A small harness server on 127.0.0.1 owns every agent process, normalises each provider's native protocol into one runtime event stream logged as newline-delimited JSON per thread, and holds the permission broker. Transcripts, keys, and events all live in ~/.openmausbot rather than a cloud location.
Two things are worth noticing. Grok Bot introduced the messaging-app layout for agents, where each bot has a personality, a memory, a computer, and its own connected apps. OpenMausBot adapts that layout to engines a team is already paying for and runs it against local storage, which changes what a team has to arrange to try the pattern.
The second is scope. This is one maintainer's first release with real early traction, not a product with a support contract, and the README calls out an open host-control issue on Ubuntu Wayland. A team that wants to see whether the messaging-app shape works for its own bots gets a low-cost way to answer that question without a new vendor relationship.
Source
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