I'm working on an open-source Claude Cowork alternative, looking for feedback!
A little bit of back-story... basically, I really wanted something like Claude Cowork, but I don't want to pay 20 bucks a month to use Claude Cowork, so I started to make my own thing. I originally was working on AgentOne around 2024, but I pivoted it to a Cowork-type thing earlier this year.
I had a few goals:
- Make it not feel vibe-coded. I want it to feel very polished, and it should work on Linux, macOS, and Windows. I discovered the best way to make it not feel vibe-coded was (*gasp*) to not vibe-code it, so I put a lot of effort into manually fixing up the UI.
- Make it free (this is pretty easy)
- Make it easy for anyone to use it, but SUPER customizable. I tried to put as many customization options as I could, like changing the app colors, background images, chat order, streaming etc etc. even tiny details like hiding buttons which annoy you. But I don't want it to be complicated, so I tried to make the main chat area pretty simple. I also made an extension marketplace, so you can browse all the extensions instead of having to install MCP servers like lots of other apps.
It wound up taking a lot more time to build than I expected, but a few thousand commits later, here it is 😅
https://github.com/The-Best-Codes/agent-one
It works for me, but I want to know how well it works for you. You can use most popular API providers with it (like 70 built-in); you don't need an account, though it will prompt you to sign in.
I'd especially love feedback from those of you who use Claude Cowork. What do you like about Cowork? What features does it have that you use a lot? If you could add or change one thing about it, what would it be?
Thanks in advance ✌️
Posted Aug 21, 2026, 2:38 AM UTC