CoWork-OS

CoWork OS is a local-first AI operating system designed to run on your machine with security-first defaults. It surfaces a rich set of capabilities including more than 30 LLM providers, 15 messaging channels for interaction, and 139 built-in skills that cover tasks from documents and code to web search and image generation. The platform emphasizes local data and keys, encrypted storage, and sandboxed execution, helping you build and run AI-powered workflows without exposing data externally. As an MCP server, you can use the included tooling to manage multiple agents, channels, and skills, and you can leverage the Plugin Platform and Think With Me mode to brainstorm and validate approaches before execution. The system also includes a unified memory and evolving intelligence features that maintain context across tasks and optimize prompts over time.

To get started, install the cowork-os package globally (via npm) and run the server. Once running, you can engage via the built-in channels (e.g., messaging apps integrated into CoWork OS), deploy or import skills, and use the Playbook-driven workflows to capture successful patterns. The platform supports agent teams for collaborative tasks, runtime resilience for long-running tasks, and governance through admin policies for organizations that opt into enterprise capabilities. Explore the docs and examples to see how to bootstrap a workspace, add connectors, and tailor the agent behavior to your specific production workflow.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (LTS) and npm installed on your machine
• Basic familiarity with command line operations

Installation steps:

1. Install the CoWork OS CLI globally via npm: npm install -g cowork-os

2. Verify installation by checking version or help output (example): cowork-os --version cowork-os help

3. Run the CoWork OS server locally: cowork-os

4. Optional: configure environment or startup options as needed (see docs for environment variables and config settings).

Notes:

• The first run may prompt for permissions or local storage setup depending on your OS.
• If you are behind a proxy or need to customize storage, refer to the environment variables documented in the repo.

Platform-specific tips:

• macOS: You may need to allow applications or grant filesystem permissions depending on how CoWork OS initializes local data.
• Windows: Ensure npm global binaries are in your PATH (npm-windows-upgrade can help if you encounter permission issues).

Tips and common issues:

• Data stays on your machine by design; ensure you manage backups of your local data directory if needed.
• If you encounter network-related prompts while using external providers, ensure your system firewall allows outbound connections as required by the integrated providers.
• When upgrading CoWork OS, review any breaking changes in the release notes and regenerate any needed tokens or keys for provider integrations.
• Environment variables to be aware of (examples): CO_WORK_OS_STORAGE_PATH for custom data path, CO_WORK_OS_LOG_LEVEL to control verbosity, CO_WORK_OS_DISABLE_MACRO_SANDBOX to relax sandboxing for debugging (not recommended for production).
• If you run into issues with plugin packs or skill proposals, consult the admin/enterprise configuration options to enable or disable specific packs or enforce governance rules.