OpenBot vs Muse: A Local Alternative to Meta's Muse

OpenBot runs the provider tools you already use, with the plans you already pay for: Codex with your ChatGPT plan, Claude Code with your Claude plan, Gemini with your Google AI Pro or Ultra plan, and Grok CLI with your Grok account or an xAI API key. OpenCode runs free models, or your own model on any OpenAI-compatible server, also one on your computer. You choose the provider, the model and the reasoning effort for each agent. When you move an agent to a different provider, it keeps its role, workspace and conversation.

Muse runs on Muse Spark, Meta's own model, and Meta states no way to use a different one. You pay Meta for use: Muse is free with a weekly limit, and the Power and Maximum plans give more Muse tokens each week. A plan that you already pay for at another AI company does not apply.

OpenBot runs on the computer that hosts it. Agent workspaces, conversations and app data stay on that computer, so it must stay on while its agents work. Run it on a desktop or a server that stays on, and your agents keep working while your laptop is closed. Local-first is not offline: an agent that uses a hosted provider still sends its requests to that provider.

Each Muse lives on its own cloud computer, the Muse Secure VM: a Linux computer with a browser and storage that Meta hosts. Your data and the sign-ins of the services you connect are kept there. Muse keeps working after you close the app. With your permission, Muse for Mac can also use the apps on your Mac.

The OpenBot apps for iPhone and Android connect to the computer that runs your agents. From anywhere, you chat with them, follow their progress and send files. The connection goes directly between your devices when it can, it is encrypted, and no cloud stores your chats or files. Remote access needs an OpenBot account.

Muse has apps for iPhone and Android, a web app, a Mac app, and a chat in WhatsApp. Meta says Muse comes to its AI glasses in the coming months. Muse itself and your data stay on your cloud computer at Meta.

In OpenBot, each agent has a name, a job and its own workspace. A lead agent can give parts of a task to other agents in a shared channel. You follow their work and step in when a decision needs you. For a team of people, one computer runs the host and the others join it; the chats and files stay on the host.

Muse is one personal agent for each person. Side chats keep separate topics apart. Meta describes no way to run several agents, to let agents work together, or to share an agent with coworkers.

OpenBot keeps workspaces, conversations, attachments and browser data in a SQLite database on the computer that runs it. There is no copy on OpenBot's side. An account holds only your profile, team memberships, invitations, sign-in sessions and the settings that let devices find each other.

Muse keeps your data on your cloud computer at Meta. A separate agent, Sentinel, must approve each action through a connected service and all network traffic, and Muse asks you before sensitive actions such as an email or a purchase. By default, Meta can use your conversations to train its models; you can turn this off in Settings. Meta says it does not give Muse conversations or VM data to its ad systems. A Confidential VM that stops Meta from reading the data in your VM is planned for later in 2026.