Orkas
An open-source, local-first AI workforce for complex work.
Orkas is an open-source, local-first AI workforce. A super-powered Commander coordinates specialist agents to complete complex work together. It runs as a desktop app on macOS, Windows, and Linux; your conversations, files, agent configs, and model keys stay local, and model calls go straight to your provider.
One super-powered Commander turns your goal into an executable path, does the general work itself, and coordinates specialist agents when the job needs a team. No flowcharts, no orchestration code. Your conversations, files, and API keys never leave your machine.
What is Orkas?
- Open-source, local-first AI workforce — a desktop GUI where you direct a coordinated workforce of specialist AI agents through one chat. Not a single chatbot, not a code framework, not a hosted SaaS.
- A super-powered Commander — the Commander understands context, breaks down goals, chooses the right agents, skills, connectors, and tools, and directly handles general analysis, writing, research, file work, and automation when no specialist is a better fit.
- Specialist agents that work together — agents can run in parallel or in sequence, each with focused skills, memory, and task context, so complex work can move across coding, research, data, video, and slides.
- Open-source ecosystem, locally orchestrated — plug in external CLI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cline) and onboard open-source projects like HyperFrames as local tools, all coordinated by the same Commander.
- Local-first by design — conversations, files, API keys, knowledge bases, and custom agents all stay on your disk. Model calls go straight from your machine to the provider — never through Orkas servers.
- Bring your own LLM keys — plug in Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, Qwen, MiniMax, or Doubao. Mix providers across agents. No vendor lock-in.
- Self-evolving workforce — each agent has its own private skills and memory, and improves through reflection after each task.
⭐ If Orkas is useful to you, a star helps more people find the project.
What can you build with it?
- Automate recurring reports & market research — a specialist agent gathers, summarizes, and ships a weekly report.
- Turn a product spec into dev tasks — the Commander breaks a PRD into tasks and dispatches them across agents.
- Chat with your documents & run local data analysis — drop files in, keep the data on your machine.
- Go beyond code — video, slides, and more — the Commander drives open-source tools like HyperFrames and hands off to CLI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cline) and other local agents, so one chat produces code, research, video, and slide decks.
Explore use cases → research workflows · data analysis · chat with documents · for developers · automate your workspace
Download
- Get the app → orkas.ai (macOS · Windows installers)
- Run from source → see Quick start below
How Orkas compares
| Tool | What it is | How Orkas differs |
|---|---|---|
| LangChain | A developer framework/library for building LLM apps and agents — code-first, embedded in your own Python/JS app. | Orkas is a local-first AI workforce you direct through chat, not by writing orchestration code. Data and keys stay local by default. |
| CrewAI | A Python framework for orchestrating role-playing autonomous agents — you define crews and agents in code. | Orkas brings multi-agent orchestration into a desktop app, with local-first storage and per-agent self-evolution built in. |
| Cloud agent platforms (SaaS orchestrators) | Server-hosted; conversations, files, and API keys live on the vendor's infrastructure. | Orkas is local-first: everything stays on your machine, and model API calls go straight to the provider — never archived by Orkas. |
| OpenClaw | A single always-on personal assistant reaching you across messaging channels. | Orkas gives you a local-first AI workforce: the Commander coordinates specialist agents from one desktop chat, and OpenClaw plugs in as an Orkas CLI backend. |
| Hermes-Agent | Nous Research's self-improving personal agent (TUI + multi-channel gateway). | Orkas is a desktop GUI for a local-first AI workforce, with per-agent private skills and meta-cognition — and Hermes-Agent plugs in as an Orkas CLI backend. |
Orkas is for you if you want a local-first AI workforce (not one assistant), a desktop GUI with file drop-in and visual agent management, and your data, keys, and agents on your own disk rather than a vendor cloud.
Not for you if you just want a single all-purpose chatbot, a fully hosted/cloud team where your data lives on a vendor's servers, or a pure code library to embed in your own app.
Full side-by-side comparisons → vs Claude Code · vs Cline · vs LangChain · vs ChatGPT · vs OpenClaw
FAQ
What is Orkas? Orkas is an open-source, local-first AI workforce. A super-powered Commander coordinates specialist agents to complete complex work together — not a single chatbot, not a code framework, not a hosted SaaS.
Is Orkas a local LLM? No. Orkas runs on your machine but calls the models you choose through your own API keys (or a local model endpoint). It orchestrates agents and tools — it is not itself a model.
Where are my API keys and data stored? On your disk. Conversations, files, knowledge bases, agents, and keys stay local; model calls go straight from your machine to the provider and are never proxied or archived by Orkas.
Does Orkas work offline? The app is fully offline-capable — only the model calls need network. Point agents at a local model endpoint and you can run without the cloud.
Can Orkas drive Claude Code and other CLI coding agents? Yes. Beyond its own Commander and specialist agents, Orkas can drive external CLI coding agents — Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cline — as local subprocesses, and onboard open-source projects like HyperFrames, all directed from the same chat.
How is Orkas different from Claude Desktop / CrewAI / LangChain? Claude Desktop is a single assistant; CrewAI and LangChain are code-first frameworks. Orkas is a local-first AI workforce: the Commander coordinates specialist agents, keeps data and keys local, and gives each agent its own private skills and memory. See the full comparisons.
Is Orkas free and open source? Yes — MIT licensed. Bring your own model keys; you only ever pay your model providers.
Quick start
Prefer the packaged app? Use the production installer links:
- macOS Apple Silicon -> Orkas-mac-arm64.dmg
- macOS Intel -> Orkas-mac-x64.dmg
- Windows x64 -> Orkas-Setup.exe
To run from source:
Requirements: Node 20+ · Python 3 · macOS / Windows 10+ / recent Linux
git clone https://github.com/Orkas-AI/Orkas.git
cd Orkas
./run.sh # macOS / Linux
run.cmd # Windows
run.sh / run.cmd auto-installs dependencies and downloads the embedding model (~95 MB). First launch creates a workspace under ~/.orkas/ (macOS / Linux) or <smallest non-system drive>:\.orkas\ (Windows). Then open Settings → AI Providers to add an API key or OAuth.
Screenshots
How it works (core design)
Full design and hard constraints →
CLAUDE.md
Group chat: visibility slicing + a single scheduling primitive
In one chat there's the Commander, N specialist agents, and you — but each agent does not see the same conversation.
- Visibility slicing — the main conversation is one full jsonl; each agent only gets a slice (
from==me ∨ to∋me ∨ mentions∋me). A worker never reads the full main conversation — saves tokens and prevents private context from leaking across agents. - One scheduling primitive — every dispatch (the Commander's
dispatch_to, the user's@, plan steps) funnels into the sameenqueueprimitive. No parallel routing paths. - Shared plan — when agents collaborate, the Commander writes progress into one
plan.md, visible to every member.
Agent dispatch: structured channels, not @ in prose
- Structured dispatch — Commander-to-agent dispatches go through the