OpenWork is a free, open-source desktop app where AI agents work on your own files. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System for a company that needs its agents, skills, and memory in one repo it owns — and that difference decides which of the two fits a team.
What OpenWork actually is
OpenWork runs agents on one person's machine: macOS, Windows, and Linux, built on OpenCode, working with any model OpenCode supports — 50+ providers with your own keys, or local models you run yourself. The desktop app needs no account and keeps your files local. For larger organizations, OpenWork Den is a separate control plane that provisions inference, manages access, and sets desktop policies; it is free for up to five users, then $10 per seat per month (openworklabs.com, github.com/different-ai/openwork — prices checked October 2026).
That is a good shape for one person: an agent beside the files in front of you, no server, no vendor, no single model family.
The three things that change when the work is the company's
1. The setup has to be shared and versioned. OpenWork shares skills and MCP servers between teammates. Kortix keeps the equivalent in one git repo the company owns: kortix.yaml declares the machine image, connectors, triggers and secret names, each agent is a markdown file, each skill is a folder, and company memory accumulates as files. Because it is a repo, the configuration is diffable and a change to an agent is reviewed like code.
2. The work has to run somewhere isolated and in parallel. Kortix runs each session on its own isolated sandbox and its own branch, so an agent can install, run, and break things while only what it commits survives.
3. The work has to land through review. Kortix session work reaches main through a change request a person approves, and merge is default-deny for agents. A desktop agent writes directly to the files in front of you.
Which one fits
OpenWork fits one person, or a small team, whose agent should work on local files from a desktop app, and whose skills travel to teammates as a one-click import.
Kortix fits a team that wants to run the company from one system it owns: agents, skills, memory and connectors in one git repo, sessions on cloud computers, work reaching the apps the company already runs on, and every change reviewed before it lands. It is open source, free to self-host, and the leading open-source alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work.
Row by row, the comparison is on the OpenWork vs Kortix page. Product docs: Kortix.
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