What Is OpenMausBot? The Open-Source Answer to Grok Bot

OpenMausBot is an open-core project that rebuilds the Grok Bot experience as a local-first, bring-your-own-agent chat application. The core is Apache-2.0 licensed, with a source-available enterprise/ folder that can be deleted while the open-source edition still builds and runs. On GitHub the repo shows 2.5k+ stars, 448 forks, and more than 1,670 commits, with a latest release of v0.1.72 recorded on September 10, 2026.

Grok Bot itself only launched in beta on August 11, 2026, bundled with SuperGrok, SuperGrok Heavy, and Cursor paid plans. OpenMausBot appeared essentially within hours of that launch — its author, Milind S, shipped an open-source version the same week — and independent review sites confirmed the project was active within days. That speed is the defining trait of this category: an agentic product at Grok Bot’s scale rebuilt and published as open source before the vendor bundle was even out of beta.

Why It Matters: Rebuilding Grok Bot Open, Local-First, and on Agents You Already Have

The core value proposition is cost. Grok Bot is locked behind a subscription bundle. OpenMausBot runs on agent CLIs already installed on your machine — claude, codex, or grok — reusing the logins and subscriptions you already have, with no new accounts and no proxy in the middle. If your team already pays for Claude or Codex access, the marginal cost of standing up an OpenMausBot instance is essentially the infrastructure you choose to run and the metered API tokens you consume.

The second pillar is local-first privacy. Transcripts, keys, and events live in ~/.openmausbot on your own machine. Your credentials and compute never route through a vendor cloud the way they do with a hosted product. For teams with data-handling requirements, that is a real difference: nothing about your agent conversations, tool calls, or stored secrets leaves the host unless you explicitly connect it to an external service.

Core Features — Bots as Contacts, Each With Its Own Brain and Computer

OpenMausBot inverts the typical agent UI. Instead of a canvas or a chat box tied to one model, the app manages bots the way a messaging app manages contacts. Each bot is a card with its own name, model, memory, and personality. You create channels per context, much like group chats, and you can install a whole team from a single Markdown file via the BotMRR import format.

Each bot also gets a computer of its own. This is the distinguishing feature over simpler clones: agents do not just reason on tokens, they act on a real desktop. OpenMausBot supports three execution targets, covered in the next section. Underneath, for desktop automation, it uses the trycua/cua computer-use layer (MIT licensed), and for third-party service access it relies on the Composio marketplace.

The Virtual Machine Story: Cloud Desktop, Local VM, or Your Own Machine

Every bot can be attached to one of three compute targets:

1. A cloud Linux desktop via the Box API (box.ascii.dev) — ephemeral, disposable, and ideal for letting an agent browse, click, and run commands without touching anything you value.
2. An isolated Local VM — a full virtual machine on your host that keeps the agent sandboxed from your real filesystem and network.
3. Your own host computer — with explicit opt-in. This is available on macOS and Ubuntu Xorg; Ubuntu Wayland host control is disabled as a deliberate safety gate.

The cloud desktop and local VM options are what make OpenMausBot a genuine Grok Bot alternative rather than just a chat wrapper. The agent can open a browser, run a command, sign into a service, and you can watch it work live — the same “each bot gets a cloud computer” promise Grok Bot makes, minus the vendor lock-in.

Security and Permissions: How Risky Actions Become Your Decision

OpenMausBot routes risky actions through permission cards. Instead of letting an agent silently run a destructive command or send an email, the app surfaces an allow/deny prompt per action through its permission broker. The broker works with the Composio marketplace’s 500+ integrations — Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Notion, Linear, and more — so each integration can be gated independently.

This per-action approval model is the practical answer to the main objection against autonomous agents: you are not handing over full control, you are making every consequential action a decision you can approve or deny. Combined with local-first storage, the security story is that credentials live on your machine and the blast radius of any single action is capped by your approval.

Bring-Your-Own-Agent: Claude, Codex, and Grok CLIs With Existing Subscriptions

OpenMausBot detects the CLIs installed on your machine and lets you pick an engine per bot. The model picker shows a provider rail with Claude and Codex side by side, and you can register workspace provider API keys — Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible, or xAI — for metered, per-token billing. Custom CLI binaries are supported through Settings → Engines, so you are not limited to the default trio.

The economics are the headline. Where Grok Bot requires a SuperGrok or Cursor plan, OpenMausBot lets a team map existing seats: developers who already have Codex or Claude access point their bots at those engines and pay only for what their agents actually consume.

Setup and Installation: macOS, Windows, Ubuntu, Self-Hosting, and MCP

OpenMausBot distributes native clients across platforms. The macOS app ships as a signed and notarized .dmg. Windows gets an installer (currently unsigned, so you will hit a SmartScreen warning). Ubuntu 24.04 has .deb and AppImage builds marked beta, targeting GNOME. iOS and Android companion apps extend control to mobile, and the clients pair over Tailscale so you can manage bots remotely.

For self-hosting you have three paths: npx openmausbot serve, a Docker image, or podman. The harness runs as a single server on 127.0.0.1:8799 that owns every local agent. OpenMausBot also ships an MCP server, letting you orchestrate it from Claude Desktop or Cursor as an MCP host.

OpenMausBot vs. Other Open-Source Grok Bot Alternatives (Rakazo, OpenBot, gawkbot)

The open-source Grok Bot category splits by what each project optimizes. Not all clones are interchangeable, and your choice should follow your priority.

If you are optimizing for reusing subscriptions you already pay for and want the chat-contact metaphor, OpenMausBot is the closest direct fit. If governance and audit tooling matter more than the VM story, CopilotKit OpenBot leads. If you want maximum surface area across web, desktop, and mobile with any model, Rakazo is designed for that.

Pricing and What Self-Hosting Actually Costs You

OpenMausBot charges no license fee for the core. The real cost is the infrastructure and the metered spend. A cloud desktop on the Box/ascii.dev path carries per-hour usage. A local VM or host execution uses your own compute. API tokens are billed per your Claude, Codex, or OpenAI-compatible provider plan. And you bear maintenance: no vendor SLA, no managed upgrades, no support desk.

For a solo developer who already has Codex access and runs a local VM, the marginal cost can approach zero — a few dollars of API tokens per active week. For a team provisioning many concurrent cloud desktops, the metered infrastructure line is the number to watch. The honest summary from reviewers is that self-hosting trades a predictable subscription for variable infrastructure, metered API spend, and your own maintenance time.

Honest Limitations and Caveats Before You Adopt It

OpenMausBot is genuinely early. The project has more than 1,670 commits but it is days or weeks old as a released product, so treat the maintenance schedule as unproven. The core is Apache-2.0, but the enterprise/ folder is source-available rather than Apache-licensed — if you are buying on licensing clarity, read that distinction before adopting.

There are real platform constraints. The Ubuntu Wayland host-control path is disabled for safety, so Linux users wanting full host automation need Xorg or a VM. The Windows installer is unsigned, which is a supply-chain consideration for security-conscious teams. And self-hosting hands you the security surface: you own credential storage, session isolation, audit logs, and the consequences of a misconfigured permission broker. There is no token or coin affiliated with the project — any cryptocurrency using the OpenMausBot name is unrelated.

Verdict — Is OpenMausBot the Right Grok Bot Alternative for You?

Choose OpenMausBot if you already pay for Claude or Codex, value local-first data handling, and want the per-bot virtual machine model without a vendor bundle. It is the strongest open-source fit when your priority is cost reuse and the chat-contact agent workflow, and its three compute targets give you a migration path from a sandboxed cloud desktop up to full host control.

Skip it — or pair it with another tool — if you need enterprise governance tooling, a fully cross-platform managed sandbox with no self-hosting duties, or a proven long-term maintenance record. For teams that run their own agents today and want them organized, sandboxed, and billed on infrastructure they already trust, OpenMausBot is a credible, genuinely open Grok Bot alternative.

FAQ

Is OpenMausBot a real alternative to Grok Bot? Yes. It reproduces the core Grok Bot workflow — chat-managed agents, each with its own model, memory, and a dedicated computer — as a free, Apache-2.0 open-core project, without the SuperGrok or Cursor subscription requirement.

What is the openmausbot virtual machine? It is the compute target you assign to each bot: a cloud Linux desktop via the Box API, an isolated local VM on your host, or your own machine with explicit opt-in. The VM and cloud desktop keep agent actions sandboxed.

Does OpenMausBot require new subscriptions? No. It reuses the claude, codex, or grok CLI logins already installed on your machine, or workspace API keys you provide. The open-source edition does not charge a license fee.

Is OpenMausBot actually open source? The core is Apache-2.0 and remains open when you delete the source-available enterprise/ folder. That folder is not Apache-licensed, so check the exact license terms before a commercial deployment.

Is OpenMausBot safe to self-host? It is local-first — transcripts, keys, and events stay in ~/.openmausbot — and risky actions go through per-action allow/deny cards. But you own credential storage, session isolation, and audit logs, and the project is very early, so secure your environment accordingly.