Open WebUI Computer

Your computer, in a browser tab. From anywhere.

Open WebUI Computer runs on a machine you own and serves the whole thing to a browser: files, a code editor, a terminal and git, all in one tab. Open it from your phone on the train, your laptop at a cafe, or a tablet on the couch. Push a hotfix, check a deploy, stage and commit, or drop into the terminal and work the old way. Close the tab and come back tomorrow on any device; sessions survive disconnects and everything is where you left it.

AI is built in but optional. Bring your own key and it becomes an agent that can read, search, edit and run things in your project. Leave the key out and Open WebUI Computer is still a full computer, just without the assistant.

View on GitHub → · Read the Manifesto →

New, and moving fast

Open WebUI Computer is a young project (currently v0.7.x) and a separate product from Open WebUI, not a plugin or an integration. Expect rapid changes. The GitHub repo is the source of truth for the latest.

Open WebUI Computer vs Open Terminal

These two look related because both involve a terminal and an AI, but they sit on opposite sides of the same idea. The short version: Open Terminal gives the Open WebUI chat AI a computer to work on; Open WebUI Computer gives you your computer, with AI as an optional helper.

	Open Terminal	Open WebUI Computer
What it is	A shell-execution backend you connect to Open WebUI as a tool	A standalone app: your machine (files, editor, terminal, git) in a browser
Who drives	The AI runs commands for you during a chat	You operate the machine; the AI assists when asked
Center of gravity	Chat first. The terminal is a tool the model calls	Computer first. Chat is one panel beside files, editor and git
Runs as	A component connected to an Open WebUI instance	Its own app (pip install cptr), not connected to Open WebUI
Interface	The Open WebUI chat UI	A mobile-first workspace: file browser, editor, terminal, git
AI	Required (it exists for the chat model to use)	Optional (bring your own key; works without it)
License	MIT	Open Use License (source-available)

If you want the model to build software for you inside a chat, that is Open Terminal. If you want to be at your computer from your phone, with the model as an extra pair of hands, that is Open WebUI Computer.

What you can do

Open WebUI Computer is a full workspace with an optional AI agent on top:

• The computer you operate. A browser-based terminal, file browser, code editor and git across multiple project workspaces, with global search, live port previews and voice memos.
• An optional AI agent. With your own key it reads, edits and runs code, browses the web, uses external MCP/OpenAPI tool servers and spins up sub-agents, following skills you define. Every change waits for your approval.
• Coding agents as backends. Connect a coding agent you already subscribe to (Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Grok, OpenCode) as a native backend, no API key needed. It shows up in the model picker and runs in the workspace with full tool access.
• Automation and reach. Scheduled automations, messaging bots (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal) and an OpenAI-compatible gateway that lets Open WebUI drive a workspace as a model.

See the full capability list, and Connect to Open WebUI to use an Open WebUI Computer workspace as a model from your own Open WebUI instance.

Install and run

Open WebUI Computer is distributed as a Python package named cptr (Python 3.10 or newer):

pip install cptr

To pull in every optional dependency (MCP tool servers, document support, PAM login) at once, install the all extra instead: pip install cptr[all].

Start the server and it opens in your browser:

cptr run

By default cptr run listens on 127.0.0.1, so it is reachable only from the machine it runs on. To open it to other devices on your network, bind to all interfaces:

cptr run --host 0.0.0.0

cptr run prints a one-time setup URL with a token, for example http://localhost:8000/?token=.... Other flags: --port (default 8000), --headless (do not auto-open a browser) and --reload (for development).

State lives in ~/.cptr by default; set CPTR_DATA_DIR to change it. After first-time setup you log in with a username and password, and sessions use JWTs.

For operations, Open WebUI Computer can write structured logs and an audit trail. Set CPTR_AUDIT_LOG_LEVEL to log every mutating API request (POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) to a JSON file with passwords and API keys redacted, and CPTR_LOG_UPSTREAM_REQUESTS=true to log outgoing AI API calls (provider, model, endpoint) to a separate file for debugging and cost tracking.

Docker

docker run --rm -it \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v cptr-data:/data \
  -v "$PWD:/workspace" \
  -w /workspace \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/computer:latest

State is stored in /data. Mount the project you want to work on into the container with -v "$PWD:/workspace" so Open WebUI Computer can reach it. A :dev image tracks the main branch.

Security model

Treat a shared Open WebUI Computer instance like an open SSH port

Once a user is authenticated, Open WebUI Computer gives them full access to the host filesystem and shell, the same as an SSH session. There is no path sandboxing and no per-user isolation. The AI's file read and edit tools are confined to the active workspace, but shell access (the terminal, and the AI's run-command tool) is not.

Open WebUI Computer is designed as "your computer, served to you", so that level of access is the point, not a flaw. It is safe only when both of these hold:

• you are the only user, and
• you control the network it is exposed on.

It is not safe if untrusted users share the instance, it is reachable from the public internet, or a reverse proxy in front of it forwards spoofable authentication headers. By default Open WebUI Computer binds to localhost only, so reaching it from another machine is an explicit opt-in (cptr run --host 0.0.0.0, or publishing the Docker port). When you do open it up, put it behind a VPN or a tunnel rather than a public port, the same way you would treat SSH.

License

Open WebUI Computer is released under the Open Use License: the source is available, but it is not MIT or otherwise open source, and all rights are reserved. Enterprise licenses are available. See the LICENSE file for the exact terms.