I built a free open-source alternative to Claude Cowork because I didn’t want to pay $20/month for something that should run locally

Coden — Fri, 29 May 2026 16:42:14 +0000

I use Claude a lot, but when Claude Cowork came out my first thought was:

Why am I paying $20/month for an AI that automates my own computer?

If an AI is clicking buttons, reading files, running shell commands, and controlling apps on my machine… why does that need to live in the cloud?

So I built EverFern.

It’s basically a free, open-source alternative to Claude Cowork — an AI agent that lives on your desktop, sees your screen, controls apps, automates browser tasks, and runs workflows.

Except:

Runs locally (supports Ollama / LM Studio)
No subscription
MIT licensed
Your files stay on your machine
What it actually does
You can even connect to any cloud provider if you want(We support even free providers like Nvidia NIM, etc)
🖥️ Computer use
Takes screenshots, finds buttons, clicks, types, navigates apps — basically uses your computer like a human would. You just describe the task in plain English.

🧠 Skills system
Reusable community-made workflows. Think plugins, except they're simple shareable markdown files you can make yourself.

🌐 Browser agent
Navigate websites, scrape data, fill forms, automate repetitive browser stuff without writing automation scripts.

🐧 Linux VM sandbox
Shell commands run in an isolated environment so the agent can’t accidentally nuke your system.

🤖 Multi-agent debate
For harder tasks, multiple agents argue over the best approach before execution. Sounds gimmicky, but it catches surprisingly dumb plans.

⚡ Workflow builder
Chain actions together, save them, schedule them.

Stack (if you care)

Electron + Next.js frontend, LangGraph for orchestration, MCP integrations.

Works with local models (Ollama / LM Studio) or cloud providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter).

Current state

Windows installer is live.

macOS installer isn’t ready yet, but you can run it with:

npm install && npm run dev

Still early and rough around the edges, but the core computer-use + browser automation actually works surprisingly well.

I mostly built this because I didn’t want to keep paying for something that felt like it should run locally anyway.

GitHub: Here's the Repo, Hope all like it

Would genuinely love feedback — especially on the skills system because that’s the part I’m still figuring out.

DEV Community: Coden

I built a free open-source alternative to Claude Cowork because I didn’t want to pay $20/month for something that should run locally