Free · MIT · Open source

Open Coworkers

Open-source AI coworkers: specialist agents with their own roles and tool permissions, a shared workspace of documents, and explicit hand-offs between them.

Get a CompanyFabric keyGitHub repo coming soon

Features

What it does

A team out of the box

Ria, a Researcher (web search, page reading, workspace notes), and Wes, a Writer, who works only from the workspace.

Permissions per coworker

Each coworker has a policy per tool. Wes cannot search the web because his policy denies it on the server, not because a prompt asks him not to.

Shared workspace with versions

Coworkers create and revise documents in one workspace, and old versions are kept.

Explicit hand-offs

Ria saves cited notes and hands off; Wes's turn starts in the same view when hers ends.

Approvals and audit

Every save Wes makes waits for your approval, and every tool call writes an audit row first.

Change the team in one file

coworkers.config.ts defines each coworker's name, role, instructions and tool policies. Add a coworker by adding an entry.

One key, every model

Use with your CompanyFabric key

1
Create an account and make a key on the keys page. New accounts get starter credit.
2
Put it in the template's .env. companyfabric/auto picks a suitable model per request, and the exact charge of each turn comes back with the answer.
3
Run it: pnpm dev for lite (Vercel works), or docker compose up for Hermes. With no key it runs a clearly labelled demo.

OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.companyfabric.com/v1
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-cf-…
MODEL=companyfabric/auto

OpenAI directly, or a local server such as Ollama, LM Studio or vLLM, works too: any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with tool calling.

Runtimes

Lite or Hermes

Lite runs the agent loop in the Next.js server. Hermes runs each turn in a Hermes Agent container (v0.22.5, pinned by digest), which calls the app's tools back over MCP, so policies, approvals and the audit log are the same.

Capability	Lite	Hermes
Specialist coworkers with their own tool permissions	Yes	Yes
Shared workspace documents, with versions	Yes	Yes
Hand-offs between coworkersQueued: the next coworker starts when the current one finishes	Yes	Yes
Approval before side effects	Yes	Yes
Audit row before every tool call	Yes	Yes
Web search with numbered citations	Yes	Yes
Memory across threadsHermes memory is shared by the whole team (one Hermes profile)	No	Yes
Files, terminal, browser in a sandboxEnable toolsets in hermes/config.yaml	No	Off by default
Recurring responsibilities (cron)Hermes cron works; this UI does not manage schedules yet	No	Not in the UI yet
Runs on serverless hosting (Vercel)	Yes	No

What is proven

Status

Early. Checked in CI on every change: Install, typecheck, unit tests and production build; Hermes starts with the app's tools loaded (no model is called in CI); Contract tests: permissions per coworker, approvals, workspace versions, hand-offs.

implemented-untestedA live Ria to Wes hand-off with a real model
implemented-untestedSearch through Parallel or Exa
implemented-untestedA Hermes turn with a real model
not yetManaging recurring responsibilities from the UI

Configuration

Environment

Variable	Default	What it is
`OPENAI_BASE_URL`	`https://api.companyfabric.com/v1`	Any OpenAI-compatible chat.completions endpoint with tool calling.
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	none	The model key. With none set, the app runs a labelled DEMO.
`MODEL`	`companyfabric/auto`	The model id. companyfabric/auto picks a suitable model per request.
`SEARCH_PROVIDER`	`parallel`	parallel (free, rate-limited, no key) or exa. companyfabric is not released yet.
`PARALLEL_API_KEY`	none	Lifts Parallel's free-tier limits.
`EXA_API_KEY`	none	Needed when SEARCH_PROVIDER=exa.
`COMPANYFABRIC_SEARCH_ENABLED`	`false`	CompanyFabric search is not released yet; leave it off.
`RUNTIME`	none	lite or hermes. Empty: hermes when HERMES_URL is set, lite otherwise.
`HERMES_URL`	none	Set for you by docker-compose.yml.
`HERMES_API_KEY`	none	Hermes only. Generate with: openssl rand -hex 32
`TOOL_TOKEN`	none	Hermes only: lets Hermes call the app's tools at /api/mcp. Generate with: openssl rand -hex 32
`DATA_DIR`	`./data`	Where the SQLite database lives.

MIT

License

Not affiliated with any company whose products offer AI coworkers.

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