Open Dots: Open-Source Alternative to Paid AI Agents
Open Dots is an open-source, self-hosted workspace for running coding-agent
tasks, aimed at people exploring paid AI agent products such as OpenAI Dots,
Meta Muse, Grok Bot, Instinct, Manus Cue, Claude Cowork, and ChatGPT agent.
Today it wraps the Claude Code CLI: run tasks from Telegram or the web, review
risky actions before they run, connect GitHub, schedule recurring prompts, and
chat with a locally signed-in Claude from a desktop app. It supports Claude
only, has named agents but no multi-agent features yet, and is not a
feature-for-feature replacement for those services. See
docs/ROADMAP.md for what is planned.
Both interfaces use the same API, sandbox, and credentials for each user.
▶ Watch the Open Dots demo on YouTube
Status: Active development. See Known limitations before running it for others.
Contents
What it does
- Run coding-agent tasks in disposable sandboxes from Telegram or a browser.
- Connect Claude through its OAuth login flow and optionally connect a user's GitHub account.
- Ask for approval before risky actions such as file writes, shell commands, and Git pushes.
- Continue completed tasks in the same Claude conversation from the web UI.
- Schedule recurring prompts and receive run results in Telegram.
- Keep durable local conversations (threads) with streaming answers, a tool-call timeline, inline approvals, Stop, and rename/archive/delete, using your own signed-in
claude CLI (opt-in; see Local Claude).
- Run as a desktop app from a source checkout, or from unsigned installers built by the release workflow (experimental; see Desktop app).
- Store user credentials encrypted and manage sandbox, task, permission, thread, and schedule records in PostgreSQL (default) or SQLite (experimental, no Docker).
Why Open Dots
Open Dots gives individuals and developers an inspectable workspace they can run themselves, with coding tasks, visible approval steps, and local control over the app and its data. The web UI supports guest use without Telegram and can also link to a Telegram identity. Read Known limitations before running it for others.
Quick start
Prerequisites
- uv for Python dependency management
- Node.js (20.9+) and npm, for the web UI (required by Next.js 16)
- Docker (for Postgres; not needed with the experimental SQLite option, see
DATABASE_BACKEND below)
- Bash (Git Bash on Windows works fine) to use
scripts/dev.sh
- A Boat API key for sandbox creation. If
it belongs to a personal account that also has an org/team on a paid plan,
you also need
that org's id (see
BOAT_ORG_ID below) — otherwise sandbox creation bills
the personal account and returns 402 Payment Required.
- A Telegram bot token from @BotFather (only
needed if you want to run the bot, or let people link the web UI to
Telegram — the web UI's guest mode works without it)
- A public URL the sandbox can reach to call back into your backend for
permission decisions (see Permission prompts) — in
local dev this means tunneling your backend with
ngrok or similar; not needed to run the app, only
for any task that triggers a risky action (writing files, shell commands,
etc.) to actually get a decision instead of hanging until it times out.
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
Fill in backend/.env:
| Var |
Required |
Notes |
BOAT_API_KEY |
no (optional provider) |
From the Boat dashboard. Leave empty to run without Boat (for example with only local Claude); anything that needs a Boat sandbox then answers "Boat is not configured". Without Boat the app is chat-only unless you enable local tools (LOCAL_TOOLS_ENABLED, see SETUP.md); schedules, Telegram tasks and GitHub push need Boat. If set, HOOK_TOKEN and PERMISSION_HOOK_BASE_URL are also required. |
BOAT_BASE_URL |
no |
Defaults to https://boat.dev/api/v1. |
BOAT_ORG_ID |
see note above |
Team/org id (e.g. team_...) to attach to sandbox creation so it bills the org instead of your personal account. |
PARALLEL_SEARCH_ENABLED |
no |
Set to true to add free Parallel web search and page fetching to Claude tasks. Defaults to false. See Optional web search. |
TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEYS |
yes |
Fernet key used to encrypt stored credentials. Generate with uv run python -c "from cryptography.fernet import Fernet; print(Fernet.generate_key().decode())". Comma-separate multiple keys to support rotation. |
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN |
only for the bot / Telegram linking |
From @BotFather. |
TELEGRAM_BOT_USERNAME |
no |
Your bot's @username (no @), shown as a clickable link in the web UI. Cosmetic only. |
FRONTEND_ORIGINS |
no |
Comma-separated origins allowed to call the API from a browser. Defaults to http://localhost:3000. |
HOOK_TOKEN |
only with Boat |
Shared secret the permission hook's caller (the sandbox) must present, so only your backend's own sandboxes can submit permission decisions. Generate with python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))". |
PERMISSION_HOOK_BASE_URL |
only with Boat |
The public URL from the ngrok-or-similar prerequisite above, no trailing slash — e.g. https://your-tunnel.ngrok-free.app. Baked into each sandbox's .claude/settings.json at task start. |
POSTGRES_* |
no |
Defaults match backend/docker-compose.yml. |
DATABASE_BACKEND |
no |
Empty (the default) means PostgreSQL. Set sqlite to use a local SQLite file instead (experimental, no Docker). An existing setup never changes database unless you set this. See docs/SETUP.md. |
SQLITE_PATH |
no |
SQLite file when DATABASE_BACKEND=sqlite. Defaults to ~/.open-dots/open-dots.db. |
The web UI (frontend/) has its own .env.example — scripts/dev.sh copies
it to .env.local automatically on first run. Copy it yourself if you're
running the frontend separately, and point NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL at the
backend if you're not using the defaults.
Start the app
./scripts/dev.sh
From the repo root, this starts Postgres via Docker, waits for it to be
healthy, installs backend and frontend dependencies, runs migrations, and
starts the FastAPI app (http://127.0.0.1:8000, docs at /docs), the
Telegram bot, and the web UI (http://127.0.0.1:3000). Ctrl+C stops
everything it started (Postgres keeps running — docker compose -f backend/docker-compose.yml down to stop it too).
Skip pieces you don't need:
./scripts/dev.sh --no-bot # API + web UI only
./scripts/dev.sh --no-frontend # API + bot only
Run the pieces manually
cd backend
docker compose up -d # Postgres
uv sync # install deps
uv run alembic upgrade head # migrations
uv run fastapi dev app/main.py # API (terminal 1)
uv run python -m app.telegram_bot # bot (terminal 2)
cd ../frontend
npm install && npm run dev # web UI (terminal 3)
Using Open Dots
The Telegram bot walks a user through:
/connect — creates a sandbox and starts an OAuth login for the agent
provider (currently Claude) inside it.- Pasting the OAuth code — the bot reads the resulting credential file out
of the sandbox, encrypts it, and stores it.
/connect_github (optional) — links the user's own GitHub account via
device-flow login, so tasks that git push do so as that user rather
than a shared/anonymous identity. No token is ever typed into the chat:
the bot posts a one-time code and a github.com/login/device link, the
user approves it in their browser, and the bot picks up the result on
its own.- Any plain text message — runs it as a task in the user's sandbox and
replies with the result once it finishes. If the user has connected
GitHub, that credential is restored into the sandbox before the task
runs too.
/schedule — repeats a prompt on a cron schedule (hourly/daily/weekdays/
weekly, always in UTC) instead of running it once. /schedules lists
them, /pause//resume//unschedule manage one. Each run is reported
back in the chat — the result on success, the error on failure — and a
schedule that can't succeed (e.g. an expired login) is paused
automatically instead of retrying forever. See Scheduling
tasks below.
The web UI covers the same ground from a browser:
- Get started — either continue as a guest (a local id, no Telegram
needed) or link Telegram: the page generates a one-time code, you send
/link <code> to the bot, and that links the browser to your real
Telegram user id instead.
- Connect Claude — same OAuth flow as
/connect, driven by REST
endpoints instead of chat messages (get-or-create the sandbox, start
login, paste the code back into the page).
- Connect GitHub (optional) — same device-flow login as
/connect_github: the page shows a one-time code and a
github.com/login/device link, and picks up the result on its own once
you approve it — no code to paste back.
- Submit a task — a prompt box that submits to the same
POST /api/v1/tasks endpoint, polls for the result, and lists past tasks
for that user. Finished tasks can be replied to in place to continue that
same Claude conversation, instead of starting a new unrelated one.
Checking "Repeat this on a schedule" turns the same prompt into a
recurring schedule instead (POST /api/v1/schedules) — pick a frequency
(hourly/daily/weekdays/weekly) and a time, in the browser's own timezone.
Schedules are listed below the composer with pause/resume/delete
controls. See Scheduling tasks.
In Telegram:
/start/connect — creates a sandbox (can take a bit) and replies with a login
URL. Open it, complete the OAuth flow, and paste the code back into the
chat./connect_github (optional) — reply has a code and a link; open the link,
enter the code, approve it. No need to send anything back in the chat.- Send any message, e.g.
create a webpage that says hello — the bot runs
it in your sandbox and replies with the result (or the error).
/schedule daily 08:00 generate my report — repeats that prompt every
day at 08:00 UTC. /schedules shows it; /pause 1, /resume 1,
/unschedule 1 manage it by the id the bot gave you. The API process
must be running for it to actually fire — see Scheduling
tasks.
In the web UI (http://localhost:3000):
- Get started — click "Continue without Telegram" for a standalone
guest session, or "Link Telegram instead" and send
/link <code> to the
bot (the page picks this up automatically).
- Connect Claude — click "Start login", open the link, and paste the
code back into the page.
- Connect GitHub (optional) — click "Connect GitHub", open the link,
enter the code shown. No need to come back to the page — it updates once
you approve it.
- Submit a task — type a prompt and submit; the page polls for the
result and lists past tasks below. Click a finished task to expand it and
reply in that same conversation.
- Check "Repeat this on a schedule", pick Daily and a time a couple of
minutes out, and click "Create schedule". It appears in the schedules
list below with its next run time; pause/resume/delete it from there.
Optional web search
Set PARALLEL_SEARCH_ENABLED=true in backend/.env and restart the backend
and bot processes to make Parallel Search MCP
available to new Claude task launches, including replies and scheduled runs.
It connects over HTTP to https://search.parallel.ai/mcp and provides
web_search and web_fetch without a Parallel account or API key. Anonymous
search uses Fast mode and is intended for light use, with rate limits.
For example, submit: “Use Parallel to find the latest Python release, then
fetch its release page and summarize the changes.” Approve the MCP tool calls
through the existing permission prompts when asked. Claude still needs its
usual connected account. The setting is off by default and leaves saved MCP
configuration in place.
Scheduling tasks
A schedule (schedule table) is a saved prompt plus a cron expression and
timezone. Three background loops in the API process — not the bot
process — drive it (app/core/background.py, app/services/ schedule_service.py, all on a 30s interval):
poll_due_schedules — claims schedules whose next_run_at has
passed and creates a Tasks row for each occurrence (FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED, safe with more than one API instance), then starts it.sync_active_tasks — finishes tasks that have no one polling them,
the way a scheduled run does (nobody's watching a GET /tasks/{id} for
it). Also recovers a task orphaned by a crash mid-launch.report_finished_runs — for each finished scheduled run, reported
exactly once: sends the result on success, the error on failure, and
pauses the schedule if it can't succeed on its own (an expired login,
a missing credential) or after 3 failures in a row. Delivered over
Telegram, to users identified by a numeric (Telegram-linked) user_id
only — a web-only guest sees the outcome in the schedules list instead.
Because these loops live in the API process, the API must be running for
a schedule to actually fire — creating one from Telegram doesn't require
the bot process to also run the schedule (it only writes the row), but
nothing fires without uv run fastapi dev app/main.py (or ./scripts/ dev.sh) up.
A schedule created from the web UI uses the browser's own timezone,
captured at creation time. One created from Telegram is always UTC, since
Telegram gives the bot no way to read the user's timezone — the bot's
replies always spell out times in UTC.
Permission prompts
Every risky action the AI attempts inside a sandbox — writing a file,
running a shell command, a git push, etc. — is intercepted by a
PermissionRequest hook before it runs, and checked against a per-user
rule table (permission_rule). No matching rule means the task pauses
(status waiting_approval) and you're asked, in whichever channel you're
using:
- Telegram: a message with Allow once / Always allow / Deny
buttons.
- Web UI: the same three choices appear inline on the task once it's
expanded, no page navigation needed.
"Always allow" writes a standing rule so the same action doesn't ask again;
"Allow once"/"Deny" apply only to that one attempt. An unanswered prompt
times out (110s) to a safe default of deny rather than hanging forever.
Shell (Bash) commands get a further pass: a small classifier
(app/services/github_classifier.py) recognizes git subcommands and
scopes the rule to the specific operation (git status read-only,
git commit a local change, git push a publish) instead of treating every
shell command the same — so "always allow committing" doesn't also silently
allow pushing. Everything else run via Bash, and any tool without its own
classifier, falls back to one coarse bucket per tool.
Extending classification to other connectors (beyond git) is still open;
contributions welcome.
Architecture
Telegram bot ─┐ ┌── PostgreSQL (default) or SQLite
Next.js web UI├── FastAPI backend ──────┤
Desktop app ──┘ │ └── encrypted credentials
(Electron, ├── Boat sandboxes (optional): tasks, schedules, GitHub push
local Claude) ├── permission prompts and rules (git command classifier)
├── task and schedule services (polling loops in the API process)
└── threads: local `claude` CLI turns, events stored then
streamed over SSE, approvals, resume after restart
Boat sandboxes are optional. Without a Boat key the app is chat-only unless
local tools are enabled, and schedules, Telegram tasks and GitHub push are
unavailable. The desktop app runs local Claude only. See
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the target design.
Project layout
- backend/ — FastAPI app, Telegram bot, sandbox/auth/task
services, Alembic migrations. See backend/README.md
for backend-specific details (REST endpoints, env vars, DB models).
- frontend/ — Next.js web UI. See
frontend/README.md for frontend-specific notes.
- desktop/ — Electron desktop app (local Claude, SQLite, no
.env).
- scripts/dev.sh — one-command dev environment for the backend, bot and web UI.
- .github/workflows/ — CI (backend on SQLite and PostgreSQL, frontend lint/build, desktop tests) and the tag-triggered installer build.
Local Claude (experimental)
Optionally run prompts through your own signed-in claude CLI on the
machine running the backend, with no Boat sandbox. It is off by default and
only usable from that machine. The answer streams into the page as it is written.
It is chat-only unless you set LOCAL_TOOLS_ENABLED=true, which lets Claude
read and write files in its workspace folder and run commands, each call waiting
for your Allow or Deny in the page (an allowed command runs as you, with no
sandbox). See docs/SETUP.md.
A separate set of endpoints, /api/v1/threads, keeps conversations in the
database so they continue and survive a restart. The Chat page (/chat, linked
as "Open chat" on the home page) is their interface. See
docs/SETUP.md.
Desktop app (from source, experimental)
An Electron window around the local backend, for local Claude only: from the
desktop/ folder, npm run app (or the steps one at a time: npm run setup,
npm run build, npm run start). It
needs no .env file: it makes and keeps its own encryption key in the
operating system's secret storage, creates its SQLite database, and only its own
window can use the backend. npm run app does the setup and build on the first
run and then opens it. Tagged releases build unsigned installers (Windows NSIS
x64, macOS arm64 DMG) with GitHub Actions; neither has been verified on a
clean machine apart from a Windows smoke test, and there is no auto-update. See
docs/SETUP.md.
Known limitations
- Sandboxes are never automatically stopped/deleted — repeated
/connect
testing will accumulate them on the Boat account.
- Link codes expire after 10 minutes; there's no rate limiting on generating
them.
- The web UI has no real authentication — a browser's identity is whatever
id (guest or Telegram) it last linked, persisted in
localStorage. This
also means the permission engine's accumulated rules are only as safe as
that identity.
- Automated tests cover the permission engine and git classifier, schedules,
local Claude (runner, stream, approvals, access policy), threads (store,
runtime, stream, API), settings, the SQLite and PostgreSQL schemas and
migrations, the desktop entry and launch token, and some task, sandbox and
Telegram paths (
backend/tests/, desktop/test/). Boat-sandbox task and
sandbox services have only partial coverage, and there are no frontend
tests. The GitHub Actions workflows have not yet run on GitHub, so treat
them as untested until the first run.
- Only the Claude Code CLI is supported. Named agents exist, but there is no
delegation, connectors beyond an optional search MCP, or memory.
- Desktop installers are unsigned; macOS and Linux have not been run.
- The
git command classifier only covers the verbs it explicitly knows
about (see github_classifier.py); an unrecognized verb defaults to the
safer "mutation" bucket rather than being assumed read-only.
- Schedules poll on a 30s interval, so a run can start up to ~30s after its
exact due time.
- A schedule missed by more than 15 minutes (e.g. the API was down) is
skipped rather than run late; the schedule's
last_error records that it
happened.
- Scheduled-run notifications only reach Telegram-linked users (a numeric
user_id) and only if TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN is set — a web-only guest has
no chat to message and only sees outcomes in the UI's schedules list.
- Durable threads (
/api/v1/threads) and the Chat page are tested on SQLite only, and store transcripts (including
what Claude read, wrote and ran) in the database. A conversation can be deleted
from there (not a secure erase), but the Claude CLI's own copy in your .claude
folder is never touched.
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome. Keep the README aligned with the
backend and frontend behavior, and include focused tests when changing
services or API behavior.
An open-source, self-hosted AI agent workspace and alternative to paid products like OpenAI Dots, Claude Cowork, Grok Bot and ChatGPT agent. The prototype focuses on coding-agent workflows: running Claude Code tasks from Telegram or a browser, reviewing risky actions, and scheduling recurring prompts.