OpenDots: Detailed Introduction

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OpenDots: Detailed Introduction

OpenDots is an open-source, self-hosted template from CopilotKit for building your own agent workspace. It is positioned as an open alternative to OpenAI Dots: you define Specialist Dots, give each Dot its own computer, connect services through MCP, and review every non-trivial action before it runs.

Table of Contents

1. What is OpenDots
2. Core concepts
3. Architecture
4. Quick start
5. Pricing and license
6. Related links

What is OpenDots

OpenDots is not a hosted product. You clone the repository, run it locally or on your own server, and configure the model provider and CopilotKit Intelligence project. Each Dot is a configurable agent with a role, allowed tools, and optional isolated computer.

Core concepts

• Spaces & Pages: A Space is a document workspace. Dots can read and write Pages, which are stored locally and support rich editing, slash commands, and autosave.
• Specialist Dots: Each Dot has its own name, role prompt, and tool permissions. One Dot can research, another can write, another can operate a computer.
• Dot computers: Using OpenBot, each Dot can have an isolated browser, file system, and terminal. Browser profiles and workspace files persist across restarts.
• Human-in-the-loop: Dots pause for approval before saving drafts or running non-read-only tools. Approved actions create an audit trail.
• Connections / MCP: Add any MCP server to a Dot — email, calendar, GitHub, your own APIs. Read-only tools run autonomously; others require approval.
• Calls & Slack: Real-time voice calls with a separate compute agent, plus a managed Slack integration via Channels SDK.
• Background work: Dots can schedule server-side turns and continue working asynchronously, with pause/retry controls.

Architecture

OpenDots is built on the CopilotKit stack:

• AG-UI streams messages, tool calls, and agent state between the backend and the React UI.
• CopilotKit runtime + React SDK power chat, threads, and human-in-the-loop cards.
• TanStack AI handles model streaming and server-tool execution against any OpenAI-compatible provider.
• CopilotKit Intelligence provides durable Threads and conversation persistence.
• Channels SDK enables the managed Slack integration.
• OpenBot provides the container supervisor and computer service for Dot computers.

Quick start

Requirements: Node.js 24 and npm.

git clone https://github.com/CopilotKit/OpenDots.git
cd OpenDots
npm ci
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

Open http://127.0.0.1:5173. To start chatting, sign in to CopilotKit Intelligence, select or create a project, and set OPENAI_API_KEY / OPENAI_MODEL in .env.

Pricing and license

OpenDots itself is MIT-licensed and free. You bring your own model provider and CopilotKit Intelligence deployment; those may incur costs. Local evaluation of Intelligence is possible via Docker.

Related links

• OpenDots GitHub
• CopilotKit blog: Introducing OpenDots
• AG-UI documentation
• CopilotKit documentation