Blog
Notes on open-source AI agents, local-first software, and building a chat app full of bots.
· 9 min read
Hark Pro vs MausBot: Adcock’s assistant vs the open team
Hark Pro, from Brett Adcock’s Hark Labs, is one assistant in Hark’s cloud on web, iOS and Android. MausBot is the open source alternative on your own machine.
· 14 min read
Every open source AI agent app, compared (October 2026)
Sixteen open source agents, from OpenClaw and Hermes to the open-dot, OpenBot, OpenMuse and OpenInstinct clones, on licence, models, computer use and approvals.
· 10 min read
Open Dots vs MausBot: three open source dots, one app
Composio’s open-dot, Anil Matcha’s Open Dots and CopilotKit’s OpenDots all claim to be the open source OpenAI dots. What each is, and how MausBot compares.
· 9 min read
OpenBot by CopilotKit vs MausBot: open source Grok Bots
Open Bot, CopilotKit’s MIT template of AI coworkers, is built for companies and needs a CopilotKit account. MausBot is the open source Grok Bot for a person.
· 9 min read
Rakazo vs MausBot: two open source Grok Bots, compared
Rakazo is Inbox Zero’s Apache 2.0 Grok Bot alternative: web, desktop and mobile clients on one self-hosted API with Docker. MausBot installs in a minute.
· 11 min read
OpenMuse vs MausBot: every open source Muse, compared
Fifteen GitHub repos call themselves OpenMuse. CopilotKit’s template and nanoMuse are the two that matter. What each is, and how the open source Muse compares.
· 10 min read
OpenInstinct vs MausBot: the open source Instinct clones
Two serious OpenInstinct projects exist, from Merit Systems and from Maritime’s CEO, both iMessage agents you deploy. How they compare with MausBot, the app.
· 7 min read
Bops vs MausBot: Orgo's business bots vs the open team
Bops (bops.bot) is Orgo's Mac app of business-ops bots on OpenAI, each with a cloud computer, email and phone. MausBot is the open source team on any model.
· 3 min read
Meet MausBot: your own team of AI bots, in a chat app
Meet the free, open-source chat app for your own team of AI bots. Bring a supported provider, try a first task, and explore the project and its contributors.
· 9 min read
MausBot vs Codex: what each is for, and Codex with Claude
Codex is OpenAI's coding agent. MausBot is a chat app of bots that runs the Codex CLI beside Claude. What each does, the limits, the price, and who needs which.
· 9 min read
MausBot vs Claude Code: what each is for, and using both
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding tool. MausBot is a chat app of bots that runs the claude CLI under it. What each does, what changes, and the price.
· 8 min read
Hermes Agent on Windows: native install, and a GUI for it
Hermes Agent is Tier 1 on Windows 10 and 11: one PowerShell line, no WSL. The current install, what still breaks, and how to run Hermes inside MausBot.
· 9 min read
AI agent memory: who keeps it, and can you delete it?
Where OpenAI dots, Meta Muse, Grok Bot, Cue, Instinct, OpenClaw, Hermes, and Claude keep memory, whether you can delete one entry, and what trains the model.
· 8 min read
Grok Bot Team Bots vs MausBot teams: shared agents compared
xAI's Grok Bot Team Bots, in public beta since Sept 28, against MausBot's Team plan and free rooms: price for five people, who runs the bot, chats, approvals.
· 8 min read
Muse for Small Business vs a team of bots you own
What Meta's Muse for Small Business is, what it is not, the trust questions a business has to ask, and how the same five jobs run on a team of bots you own.
· 7 min read
Which AI agent should I use? A five-question decision
Five questions that decide between Meta Muse, Grok Bot, OpenAI dots, Cue, and MausBot: one agent or a team, your plan, your region, your data, and uptime.
· 8 min read
Meta Muse vs OpenAI dots: the two one-agent products
Meta Muse and OpenAI dots compared on price, region, model, where the agent runs, memory, training, and phone calls, plus the open-source third option.
· 8 min read
Muse vs Grok Bot vs Dots vs Cue: which agent to pick
Meta Muse, xAI Grok Bot, OpenAI dots, and Cue by Manus compared on price, region, models, approvals, and where the agent runs, plus the open-source fifth.
· 9 min read
OpenAI Dots alternative: free, open source, any model
OpenAI's dots need ChatGPT Pro or Business Premium and run on GPT only. MausBot is the free, open-source alternative: a team of agents on your own machine.
· 8 min read
Cue by Manus alternative: open source, no invite code
Cue by Manus gives each agent its own phone, email, wallet, and computer, behind an invite code. MausBot is the open-source take: your agents, your machine.
· 9 min read
Managed Hermes Agent hosting compared, plus the free option
Nous now hosts Hermes itself; Hostinger, xCloud, Cloudways, and Elestio sell managed Hermes. Prices, what a managed workspace means, and a no-server option.
· 9 min read
Managed OpenClaw hosting compared, and the no-server option
Nine hosts sell managed OpenClaw, from $5.99 to $499 a month. What you get, the renewal traps, what a managed workspace means, and a free option with no server.
· 6 min read
OpenClaw on a VPS or a Mac mini? There is a third option
Where to run OpenClaw: a cheap VPS, a Mac mini in a cupboard, or a managed host. What each costs and breaks, and the desktop-app route that needs none of them.
· 9 min read
Best self-hosted AI agents 2026: assistants, not frameworks
Ten self-hosted AI agents you can actually chat with, ranked on GUI, approval gates, model choice, and Windows support. Assistants only, no n8n or LangGraph.
· 7 min read
An AI agent that controls your computer, safely
Several open-source agents can control your Mac or PC. The real choices are local machine versus cloud sandbox, and whether the agent asks before it acts.
· 7 min read
Grok Bot pricing in 2026: what it really costs
Grok Bot has no free tier. It comes with SuperGrok ($30) and Cursor Pro ($20), with its own unpublished weekly quota and overage billed at Grok 4.6 token rates.
· 9 min read
OpenClaw alternative with an approval gate built in
An OpenClaw alternative that asks before every shell command, ships as a desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu, and uses the Claude or Codex login you have.
· 9 min read
Claude Code desktop app: the official GUI and 6 more
There is an official Claude Code desktop app now. What the Code tab does, six GUIs that cover other jobs, and how to run Claude Code as a background agent.
· 8 min read
Claude Cowork alternative: open source, any model, Windows
Claude Cowork now runs on Windows and inside one Claude app. If you want open source, your own choice of model, or a local LLM, these are the alternatives.
· 8 min read
Meta Muse vs Grok Bot vs Instinct: which agent to pick
Meta Muse, xAI Grok Bot, and Instinct compared on price, region, models, approvals, and where the agent runs, plus the open-source option that works anywhere.
· 5 min read
Is Meta Muse open source? No. Here is what is
Meta Muse is not open source: the app, the agent VM, and the Muse Spark model are all proprietary. Open weights have no date. Here is what is open instead.
· 6 min read
Meta Muse not available in India or the UK? Do this instead
Meta Muse is US and Canada only as of October 2026, with no announced date for India, the UK, Australia, or the EU. What you can run today, anywhere.
· 8 min read
Meta Muse alternative: open source, runs on your machine
A Meta Muse alternative that is open source, works outside the US, and keeps your data off Meta's servers, on the Claude, Codex, or Grok login you already have.
· 8 min read
Instinct AI alternative: open source, no invite needed
No Instinct invite, or read its terms and closed the tab? MausBot is a free, open-source alternative: agents on your own machine that ask before they act.
· 6 min read
What your bot remembers, and who keeps the notebook
We moved the memory of every conversation out of the AI company's tool and into MausBot itself. Here is what that fixes, in plain words.
· 7 min read
Grok Bot vs MausBot: a feature-by-feature comparison
A line-by-line comparison of xAI's Grok Bot and MausBot: price, models, where agents run, where your data lives, and what Grok Bot still does better.
· 6 min read
How to run Claude Code and Codex side by side
Both agent CLIs want the whole terminal. Here is how to run Claude Code and Codex at once, in one window, with a model per task instead of one for everything.
· 6 min read
Why we built a chat app for AI agents instead of an IDE
Everyone is forking the editor. We think the right interface for a team of AI agents is the one you already use to manage a team of people: a messaging app.
· 5 min read
Open source Grok Bot: MausBot, the free alternative
An open source Grok Bot alternative: MausBot is a free, Apache 2.0 chat app of AI bots on your own Mac or PC, running on Claude, Codex, and Grok.
Comparisons
One page per rival, from the vendor's own pages or its GitHub repository, with what each still does better than MausBot. The hub has the whole table and a verdict.
- Bops alternative
- Hark Pro alternative
- Grok Bot alternative
- Meta Muse alternative
- OpenAI dots alternative
- Cue by Manus alternative
- Instinct alternative
- Open Dots vs MausBot
- OpenBot vs MausBot
- Rakazo vs MausBot
- OpenMuse vs MausBot
- OpenInstinct vs MausBot
- OpenClaw alternative
- Hermes Agent alternative
- Claude Cowork alternative