The latest articles on DEV Community by Arjun (@arjun_m_10e75b369465a68b7). https://dev.to/arjun_m_10e75b369465a68b7 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3578685%2F188443dc-07bb-4d1e-a4d2-f7f180b86342.png https://dev.to/arjun_m_10e75b369465a68b7 en Arjun Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:58:28 +0000 https://dev.to/arjun_m_10e75b369465a68b7/the-open-source-alternative-to-notions-new-custom-agents-with-native-mcp-support-2og2 https://dev.to/arjun_m_10e75b369465a68b7/the-open-source-alternative-to-notions-new-custom-agents-with-native-mcp-support-2og2 <p>Notion recently announced custom AI agents, but theirs only run inside Notion.</p> <p>We have been building <strong>Rowboat</strong>, an open source platform for self-hosted, cross-tool, collaborative AI agents. Rowboat ships with native <strong>MCP</strong> support as well as 500+ built-in product integrations. </p> <p>👉 GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/rowboatlabs/rowboat" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/rowboatlabs/rowboat</a></p> <p>👉 Demo: <a href="https://youtu.be/KZTP4xZM2DY" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://youtu.be/KZTP4xZM2DY</a><br> <a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fh8r1pb8sx2achczxrszm.gif" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fh8r1pb8sx2achczxrszm.gif" alt="Creating a meeting-prep agent" width="600" height="337"></a></p> <h2> Why this matters </h2> <p>Work rarely lives inside one app. Email, docs, knowledge bases, internal APIs, and research sources all sit in different places. Combining these for complex real-world use cases is precisely why multi-agent orchestration is required.</p> <p>We want agents that can:</p> <p>✅ Run on your own infrastructure.<br> ✅ Talk to any service.<br> ✅ Coordinate multiple agents when needed.<br> ✅ Remain inspectable and debuggable.<br> ✅ Extend through MCP for custom tools.<br> ✅ Avoid vendor lock-in.</p> <h2> What makes Rowboat different </h2> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Feature</th> <th>Notion Custom Agents</th> <th>Rowboat (OSS)</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Self-hosted / local runtime</td> <td>No</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Multi-agent orchestration</td> <td>Limited</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Extensible through MCP</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Native RAG (docs and URLs)</td> <td>Limited</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Support local models</td> <td>No</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Inspectable prompts and flow</td> <td>No</td> <td>Yes</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <h2> Architecture philosophy </h2> <p>We think of agentic systems as a spectrum.</p> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Side of spectrum</th> <th>Useful for</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Deterministic pipelines with a fixed LLM call order</td> <td>Repeatable workflows</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Fully agentic orchestration</td> <td>Assistants that decide how to act</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <p>Splitting responsibilities across multiple agents reduces context pollution, makes each unit testable, and mirrors how real teams work.</p> <p>We ship tested agent patterns such as manager and worker roles, internal task agents, and pipelines. This avoids visual flowchart builders that become unwieldy once the system grows.</p> <h2> Some things you can build today </h2> <ul> <li>Meeting prep assistants that pull from email, docs, and calendar</li> <li>Twitter-based market research agents</li> <li>Triage bots for support before a human takes over</li> </ul> <p>All self-hosted and fully under your control.</p> <h2> Try it </h2> <p>Repo: <a href="https://github.com/rowboatlabs/rowboat" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/rowboatlabs/rowboat</a></p> <p>A star helps other builders discover it 🙌</p> <h2> Feedback </h2> <p>If you self-host today, what is the biggest friction point for you: integrations, reliability (e.g., getting agents to complete complex tasks), debugging, or something else?</p> ai productivity opensource