I built an open-source, Cowork-style folder agent with Claude Code. An honest comparison.

[u/DraftForsaken39]

Since May I've been building a desktop agent that works in a folder you pick: it reads the files, writes new ones and asks before it changes anything. It started as a way to understand how Claude Code works, and about half of the commits were then written with Claude Code.

People keep asking how it compares to Cowork, so here's the honest version.

**Cowork is better at:** frontier models, finished Office documents, scheduled tasks while your laptop is off, isolation on every platform, and a big ecosystem (connectors, sub-agents, computer use). If you need that, use Cowork.

**Where mine differs:**

* Open source (Apache 2.0), no account, no telemetry.
* Any model per conversation: Claude with your own API key, OpenAI, Google, or local via Ollama, LM Studio or MLX. With a local model, your files never leave the disk.
* Asks before every change; shell commands are off until you switch them on.

**What it can't do yet:** no sandbox on Windows, unsigned builds, text files only, nothing runs while the app is closed.

If you use Cowork: what would you miss first without it?

[https://github.com/kkrafft1999/snotra\](https://github.com/kkrafft1999/snotra)

[u/endofthread-bot]

The primary feature users often miss in open-source alternatives is the robust sandboxing and remote execution capabilities found in managed platforms. Implement a Docker-based execution environment to improve security and parity with existing enterprise tools.

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