Deft

Where humans and agents work together.

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Deft is a self-hostable, open-source workspace where people and AI agents share chat, tasks, knowledge, calendar context, approvals, and action history.

Capture a team discussion into knowledge, ask Defty to propose a task using that context, review and approve the proposal, and keep the agreed details in the resulting task.

Alpha: for technical evaluation and controlled pilots. The walkthrough uses seeded demo data; it is not evidence of a live customer workspace or an active external agent runtime.

Watch the full walkthrough — 5:09.

Quick start with Docker

Use the prebuilt v0.3.0-preview.15 release for evaluation. It targets Linux amd64 and needs Docker Desktop or Docker Engine with Compose v2. An AI provider is optional. No source build, Node.js, or pnpm is needed for this path.

Download docker-compose.yml, compose.prod.yml, compose.release.yml, and default.env.example from that release into a new directory. In Bash (macOS, Linux, or Git Bash on Windows):

cp default.env.example .env
openssl rand -hex 32  # POSTGRES_PASSWORD
openssl rand -hex 32  # JWT_SECRET
openssl rand -hex 32  # JWT_REFRESH_SECRET
openssl rand -hex 32  # ENCRYPTION_KEY

Paste each independently generated secret into its corresponding .env variable. All four are required for Docker, including local evaluation. Keep the encryption key with your backups. Leave AI keys empty and OLLAMA_URL commented unless you intend to configure a provider.

Add this pinned release image to .env:

DEFT_IMAGE=ghcr.io/maneek21/deft@sha256:665a66083adaaf9db876fa815203c854509c5fdde72b89a0db212fe2e07d398b

Then run, from that directory:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml config --quiet
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml up -d postgres
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm init
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml up -d deft
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm doctor
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm smoke

Open http://localhost:3000 and create the first account, which owns the workspace. Subsequent users join by invitation. This creates an empty workspace with the platform bundle, not the video's demo records. Create a chat message and a task to try the core workspace without AI.

Use init only with a fresh database. For custom ports, public URLs, image verification, source builds, backups, and upgrades, follow the self-hosting guide. Versioned upgrades start at v0.2.0-preview.1; use the backup-first upgrade flow for existing workspaces. Historical releases through v0.2.0-preview.4 retain their shipped BSL 1.1 license; the selected release is AGPL-3.0-only.

Try Deft: install a workspace, connect your AI client, or build an internal App. See the current availability map before enabling an experimental feature.

Architecture · Current limitations · Licensing

Try one workflow

• Set up your first workspace
• Ask Defty for a task and approve it
• Connect a personal AI client
• Build a small vendor Module

The core loop

1. Capture the discussion. Save useful decisions and references in Knowledge with links back to their source conversation.
2. Ask Defty for a task. With an AI provider configured, Defty can use workspace context to propose the title, owner, dates, and description.
3. Review and approve. Under a policy requiring review, inspect the proposed details before approving. Trust settings can permit some actions to execute automatically.
4. Keep the agreed details. The task stores the approved content, and governed agent actions have approval history and receipts to inspect.

Optional video chapters: Knowledge capture — 1:09 · Defty task request and approval — 2:06 · ChatGPT connection and workspace read/write — 3:25.

Personal MCP connections use a different authority model. ChatGPT and other personal clients act as the authorizing user within their granted scopes and normal permissions. Their writes do not automatically enter Deft's agent approval queue. Defty and Agent Employees use agent identities and policy-based approval flows. See MCP access and agents.

What ships today

A workspace people can use normally

• Real-time chat with spaces, DMs, threads, mentions, reactions, files, presence, and rich text
• Task management with Board, Table, Timeline, Calendar, and personal views
• Notes, company knowledge, channel memory, decisions, references, and knowledge graph views
• Native calendar events plus read-only ICS subscriptions
• Dashboard, inbox, notifications, people, teams, roles, and profile management
• Dark and light themes, desktop and mobile layouts

A work record agents can use safely

• Built-in Defty workflows for workspace questions and governed native actions
• Personal MCP access for Codex, Claude, ChatGPT, and streamable HTTP MCP clients
• Agent employees that can participate in channels, receive assignments, and use Deft tools
• Native task, message, wiki, note, calendar, member, team, and context-packet tools
• Approval tiers, trust levels, token scopes, revocation, activity history, and action receipts
• Provider-neutral AI configuration: OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, OpenAI-compatible endpoints, or local Ollama-style providers

Deft still works as a normal workspace without an AI provider key. Chat, tasks, notes, knowledge, calendar, people, and teams remain available; AI features stay disabled until a provider is configured.

An extensible workspace through Modules and Apps

Modules add domain records, relationships, and native views. Apps package Module resources and may request supported connected actions. They use different manifests and installation flows; start with Modules and Apps. Declarative internal Apps, connected Apps, and bounded scheduled actions are opt-in alpha capabilities and remain disabled by default. Arbitrary custom UI and public portals are planned rather than part of the current contract.

The bundled Contacts module is the first example of this model. The goal is not to turn Deft's core into every application a company might need, but to let new capabilities live on the same shared substrate instead of becoming another disconnected system.

See Deft, App Kit and domain App boundaries for the authoring contract, native UI conventions, permissions and current execution limits.

Product surfaces

Chat keeps the source conversation attached

Chat is both a human communication surface and part of the workspace record. Threads, structured mentions, quiet knowledge capture, and agent replies keep decisions close to their source.

Tasks turn context into accountable work

Projects support Board, Table, Timeline, and Calendar views, plus dependencies, subtasks, recurrence, comments, activity diffs, bulk actions, and agent-created drafts.

Knowledge becomes durable team memory

Deft separates transient conversation from durable concepts, entities, decisions, resources, procedures, preferences, and facts. Agents can ask for org-wide or channel-specific context instead of reading an undifferentiated transcript.

Connect the AI app you already use

The Connections page guides each user through the setup required by their client. Personal connections act as that user, inherit their access boundaries, expose explicit scopes, and can be revoked.

Why Deft is different

Local development

Requir