Cowork open-sources a multi-agent task queue and control panel
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Cowork has been released as open source: a self-hosted control plane that connects coding agents such as Claude Code, Hermes, Gemini and Ollama into a unified task inbox; when an API hits a quota limit, it automatically hands the task to the next agent along a fallback chain. The core server, dashboard and remote agent client are free and open source, while Cowork Pro ($59) is a separately paid add-on package offering advanced workflows, priority support and lifetime updates. Running it requires Node.js 20 or later (tested on v22) and npm 10 or later. Hosts on non-loopback addresses must set a key: configure server.apiKey (or the COWORK_API_KEY environment variable), or use the api-key generated next to the configuration file on first launch.
AI overview based on source reports · Updated 33 min ago
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- Hacker News AICowork – Self-hosted task queue and dashboard for Claude, Codex, and AI agents
Cowork is an open-source control plane that connects coding agents such as Claude Code, Hermes, Gemini and Ollama into one task inbox, with fallback chains that hand work to the next agent when an API hits its rate limit. It offers a dark single-pane dashboard with host telemetry, a zero-database design storing state as plain JSON and Markdown, one-command remote worker deployment, and 285+ built-in specialist personas across 19 departments. It runs on Node.js ≥ 20 and ships as a server install script, a skill installer for agent clients, or a Docker image exposing an MCP endpoint at /mcp.
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