Run it locally

The whole system runs on one Mac or Linux machine. Postgres and the computer run in Docker, and the web app and the worker run from source.

Requirements

• Node 24 and pnpm 10 (the repository pins pnpm@10.24.0).
• Docker, with about 4 GB of memory for the computer.
• The Codex CLI, signed in to ChatGPT with codex login. In development, the computer borrows this login (see Models and usage).

Start everything

git clone https://github.com/VishnuVVR-369/open-bot.git
cd open-bot
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env    # set OWNER_EMAIL to your email
pnpm infra:up           # Postgres and the computer (the first build takes a few minutes)
pnpm db:migrate
pnpm dev                # the web app and the worker

Open http://localhost:3000. The first visit goes to /setup, where you create the one owner account with the email you put in OWNER_EMAIL. Any other email is refused, and so is a second account.

What is running

Both Docker services publish their ports on 127.0.0.1 only. In the cloud, Postgres and the computer have no public address at all (see Deployment).

pnpm dev runs Turborepo with --parallel for the two apps. The worker runs through tsx watch, and the web app through next dev, so both reload when you edit them. Both read the root .env.

Your first teammate

1. Open New teammate and pick a template, or write a job yourself.
2. Send it a message, like "Find the opening hours of the nearest library".
3. Watch the reply stream in. When it uses the browser, its screen appears next to the chat.
4. Press Take over on the screen to use it yourself, then Hand back.

Teammates that use the desktop start a screen the first time they need one, which takes a few seconds.

The desktop app

pnpm --filter @open-bot/desktop dev

It opens http://localhost:3000 by default. Set OPEN_BOT_URL to point it at a deployed web app. Sign in inside its window, and its egress agent starts carrying the computer's browser traffic through your machine.

Rebuilding the computer

The computer image contains botd. After changing anything in apps/botd, packages/egress or images/computer, rebuild and restart it:

pnpm computer:build
docker compose up -d --wait computer

The /home volume keeps workspaces, browser profiles and the Codex login across rebuilds.

Troubleshooting

• "The worker isn't running." The web app couldn't reach WORKER_URL. Check the worker's output from pnpm dev.
• "Codex is not signed in to ChatGPT." Run codex login on your machine, or switch Settings → ChatGPT to sign in on the computer itself.
• Runs stay queued. The worker only claims runs once it is connected to botd and Codex is signed in. Settings shows both.
• A screen won't start locally. The Compose file runs the computer with seccomp=unconfined and 2 GB of shared memory, which Chromium's sandbox and several browsers need. Keep those settings.