Coworker: open-source agent that runs on local models

Melvin Vivas · X post · 2026-09-09 · Open on X

Topics: AI Agents, Tool Use & MCP, Portfolio Projects · Level: intermediate

Summary

The creator shares Coworker, his open-source personal agent project. It can run on local models through Ollama or LM Studio, and he recently added pairing with a Telegram bot. He invites people to fork it on GitHub and customize it.

Key points

• Coworker can run on local models served by Ollama or LM Studio.
• It has a new feature to pair it with a Telegram bot.
• It's a solo side project with no funding, mainly for the creator's own use.
• You can fork the GitHub repo and customize it.

Resources mentioned

• Coworker (donvito) · repo · github.com · free
  GitHub release page for Coworker v0.3.1, Melvin Vivas's open-source project, which adds streaming sync with Telegram.
  Also in: Coworker v0.3.1: Telegram Streaming Sync, Built Fast with Codex (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Coworker v0.3.1: Streaming Sync Between Telegram and Coworker (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• Ollama · tool · x.com · free · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  Open-source tool for downloading and running LLMs on your own machine with minimal setup.
  Also in: Running LLMs Locally Without an Expensive Rig (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Adding Vercel AI Gateway as a provider in AIBackends with Devin (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Running Qwen3.8-27B Locally on an M5 Max MacBook with Inco Splash (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), AIBackends: An API Layer Between Your App and AI Models (Now with Jev) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 12 more
• LM Studio · tool · x.com · free
  Desktop app for downloading and running LLMs locally, with a developer mode that serves models through an API.
  Also in: Running LLMs Locally Without an Expensive Rig (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Adding Vercel AI Gateway as a provider in AIBackends with Devin (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), LoRA Fine-Tune Qwen3.5-2B on Your Tweets with Unsloth Studio (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), AIBackends: An API Layer Between Your App and AI Models (Now with Jev) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 31 more

Try this

• Fork the Coworker repo on GitHub and customize it.
• Build a personal agent that runs on local models (Ollama or LM Studio) and connect it to a Telegram bot.