Blog
Notes on open-source AI agents, local-first software, and building a chat app full of bots.
· 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. Maus 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 It comes with SuperGrok ($30) and Cursor Pro ($20), with its own unpublished weekly quota and overage billed at Grok 4.6 token rates.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 Canada? Do this instead
Meta Muse is US only as of September 2026, and we found no announced date for India, Canada, the UK, 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? Maus 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 Maus itself. Here is what that fixes, in plain words.
· 7 min read
Grok Bot vs Maus: a feature-by-feature comparison
A line-by-line comparison of xAI's Grok Bot and Maus: 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
Maus: the open-source alternative to Grok Bot
Maus is a free, Apache-2.0-licensed alternative to xAI's Grok Bot: a chat app of AI bots that runs on your own Mac or PC using Claude, Codex, and Grok.