Kortix vs OpenWork: which open-source agent platform should your team own?

If you are choosing between a local desktop agent and a governed company platform, OpenWork is the strongest free desktop app for running AI agents on your own files, and Kortix is the open-source system your company owns end to end. The two overlap on the obvious parts: both publish their source, both run on OpenCode, and both let you bring any model with your own keys. The difference is where an agent runs and how its work reaches your codebase, and that decides which one your team should own.

What OpenWork gets right

OpenWork is a free desktop app, and these are the parts of it we would keep.

• A desktop app with no account. OpenWork runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and you do not need an OpenWork account to use it locally (OpenWork on GitHub).
• Your files stay on your machine. In desktop mode your files remain local and prompts go straight to the model provider you chose. Hosted cloud workers are optional (openworklabs.com).
• Any model, your keys. OpenWork works with 50+ providers, your own API keys, local models through Ollama, or a ChatGPT sign-in (OpenWork on GitHub).
• Skills that travel. Teams share skills and MCP servers, and the OpenWork MCP exposes the same capabilities to Codex, Claude Code, Cursor and other agents (OpenWork on GitHub).
• A control plane for larger orgs. OpenWork Den provisions inference and controls which members and teams can use each model provider, with desktop policies and marketplaces for skills and plugins (OpenWork on GitHub).

Where it stops short for a team

The limits show up once work has to run in parallel and reach production without your laptop open.

• Execution shares your machine. In desktop mode an agent runs against your local files and your local resources.
• No per-session branch and no review gate. There is no default flow where each agent works on its own branch and lands through a change request a human approves.
• The team control plane is licensed separately. OpenWork's desktop app and core are MIT, while OpenWork Den under the ee/ directory is under the OpenWork EE License and requires a subscription for production use beyond its free carve-outs (OpenWork on GitHub).
• Cloud is an addition. Hosted cloud workers run on sandboxed infrastructure, but the product's center of gravity is the local app (openworklabs.com).

None of this is a flaw in the product OpenWork set out to build. It is a free, local-first desktop agent, and it is good at being that.

A company that lives in one git repo

Kortix is the open-source AI Management System: your agents, the skills they share, your company memory and every connector live in one git repository you own (Kortix on GitHub). Agents and skills are markdown, memory is plain files, and connectors and triggers are declared in kortix.yaml. The whole company is text you can grep, diff and roll back.

Kortix is open source under the Elastic License 2.0: self-host, read and modify the code (Kortix licence). You can run it on your own infrastructure, a laptop, VPS, VPC or on-prem network, or use managed Kortix Cloud.

Every session gets its own machine and a human gate

Kortix puts each agent on its own isolated Linux machine. A session runs on a sandbox with a branch named after the session, and the work reaches main only through a change request you read as a diff and merge (Kortix docs). Merge is deny-by-default for an agent, permissions are per resource for people and agents, and there is a full audit trail.

The connectors are governed the same way. Kortix wires into 3,000+ apps plus MCP, OpenAPI, GraphQL and raw HTTP, and connector credentials are brokered server-side so the raw key never enters the sandbox (Kortix on GitHub). Secrets are encrypted at rest and injected into the sandbox at runtime. The harness underneath is powered by OpenCode, and you set allow, ask or block for each tool, down to a single command.

You can start agents from the web, Slack, Teams, email, mobile, CLI or API, or have a cron schedule or webhook start them with nobody asking.

Where OpenWork wins

OpenWork is the better pick for one reader: an individual or a small team that wants a free agent working on local files, with no server to run and no review process to maintain. The desktop app is free and MIT-licensed, keeps files on your machine, and OpenWork Cloud starts with the first 5 seats free and then $10 per seat per month (OpenWork pricing). If you bring your own model keys and never need per-session isolation, that is a lighter setup than anything we would ask you to run.

Side by side

When to pick which

Pick Kortix when you want the company itself in one repo you own: agents, skills, memory and connectors as diffable files, each session on its own isolated machine, and every change landing through a human-reviewed change request. Kortix is free to self-host, and managed Kortix Cloud is $40 per seat per month with 2,500 credits per seat (Kortix pricing). Bring any model with your own keys, or the ChatGPT subscription you already pay for.

Pick OpenWork if you are one person, or a team of up to 5, who wants a free desktop agent on local files and does not need a server-side sandbox or a review gate. OpenWork is built for exactly that reader, and its MIT core plus a $10 seat is a fair deal for it.

Next reads: open-source Claude Cowork alternatives, Kortix vs Open WebUI, and what Kortix is.

Start with one job and grow from there. Get started with Kortix on managed cloud, or self-host it for free on your own machine.