AI agents
OpenHands
A self-hosted control room for keeping coding agents on duty
★ 86k
September 2026
MIT
AI agents
What we checked ourselves
Not copied from the project's own blurb. These are things we opened and verified, with the date.
- 6 Sept 2026We checked that the link to the project still resolves.
- 13 Sept 2026We read the licence text itself (LICENSE). No unusual restrictions were stated.
- 30 Aug 2026We read the project's own documentation and found signs that it may no longer be maintained.
Where this sits among the 114 tools we list in AI agents
- Commercial use confirmed as allowed95 of 114
- Requires terminal commands21 that do not →
- Requires an API key29 that do not →
- Sends your input to the provider11 that do not →
Counted from our own checks: every tool we list is examined against the same criteria.
What it does
Runs OpenHands' own agent out of the box but also drives Claude Code, Codex, Gemini or anything ACP-compatible from one canvas, with backends spanning your laptop, Docker containers, VMs or company infrastructure. Beyond ad-hoc conversations it automates recurring work — publishing reports into Slack, decomposing GitHub issues into tasks. Note the project's own warning: the simplest install runs the agent server directly on your machine with full filesystem access, so the Docker sandbox route is the safer starting point. Node 22.12+, npm and uv required. MIT.
Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.
Screenshots & visuals
Before you start
- Setup difficultySome setup needed
- Command lineRequired
- API keyRequired
- Sends data onlineYes
Judged automatically from the project's own metadata. Always confirm on the official page.
OpenHands FAQ
- Is OpenHands free?
- OpenHands itself is free, but it needs an API key for an external AI service. That service charges separately, though some have a free tier.
- Do I need to install anything or write code to use OpenHands?
- It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
- Does OpenHands work on a phone?
- No. It needs a computer.
- Can I use OpenHands commercially?
- The licence is MIT, which permits commercial use. Conditions such as keeping the copyright notice still apply, so read the licence text before shipping it inside something.
How it compares
The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.
| Tool | Command line | API key | Sends data out | Phone | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenHands (this page) | Required | Required | Yes | No | Yes |
| agent-zero | Required | Required | Yes | No | Not verified |
| openclaw | Required | Required | Yes | No | Not verified |
| AutoGPT | Required | Required | Yes | No | Yes |
"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.