A self-hosted agent that keeps its own browser open

What it does

OpenMuse is an alpha personal-agent application you host yourself. It gives an LLM a persistent Chromium browser, an optional isolated Linux terminal, and a durable task worker so the agent can browse sites, run commands, manage PDFs, and queue up multi-step work like filling permission slips or tracking price changes. You can watch its progress inline, open its browser or terminal to take over, and review actions before they touch your live Gmail or calendar.

The interesting bit

Most agent demos treat the browser as a throwaway tool; OpenMuse keeps persistent profiles and a live screenshot console, letting you hand off a session and reclaim it later. The architecture is deliberately modular—Expo/React Native clients, a Hono API, a separate browser worker, and an optional Docker computer—so you are assembling a small agent fleet rather than running a monolithic black box.

Key highlights

• Persistent browser profiles with a “take control” handoff; the agent can browse public pages and import PDFs while you watch inline.
• Optional Linux container for terminal commands and file editing, with a 30-second timeout and no host-directory mounts.
• Durable task plans with SQL-lease recovery, pause/resume/cancel, and explicit human review before any external write like Gmail sends or calendar changes.
• CopilotKit Rich Threads for conversation history, side chats, and replay, though this requires a separate server-only project key.
• React Native UI for iOS, Android, and web with inline cards for email, browser results, PDFs, and finance summaries.

Caveats

• Alpha and explicitly not multi-tenant: one owner, one shared access key, designed for local loopback or restricted network access.
• Several major features—live Google accounts, open-ended reasoning, and Rich Threads—require additional configuration and external service keys that are not included.
• The optional Linux container is just that: a container, not a full VM, with disabled terminal networking and no graphical desktop.

Verdict

Try this if you want to self-host a personal agent and are comfortable wiring up your own model provider, Google OAuth, and CopilotKit keys. Skip it if you need a polished, multi-user product or a drop-in SaaS.