Facts checked · Merit Systems, Maria Gorskikh (Maritime) and others · open source
OpenInstinct vs MausBot
Two serious OpenInstinct projects: Merit Systems' Vercel template and Maria Gorskikh's Maritime agent. Both are iMessage agents you deploy. MausBot is an app.
OpenInstinct is two unrelated GitHub projects that clone Instinct, Spear Street Technology's iMessage agent: Merit Systems' OpenInstinct (422 stars, MIT), deployed to a paid Vercel plan with a cloud browser and an iMessage line, and Maria Gorskikh's open-instinct (241 stars, MIT), a Node service on Maritime microVMs with an agent-to-agent trust network. MausBot is the open source agent you install as an app: bots on your own machine, Apache 2.0.
What OpenInstinct is
Instinct opened its invite-only beta on August 26, 2026 and raised at a $10 billion valuation a month later. Merit Systems released OpenInstinct the next day: a multi-tenant iMessage agent built on Vercel's Eve framework, with Kernel cloud browsers, Neon Postgres, a Linq-managed iMessage number, a model-blind password vault with browser autofill, Stripe Link purchase approvals and scheduled workers every minute, which is why it requires Vercel Pro. Its README says it is not software intended for production use. Maria Gorskikh, CEO of the YC company Maritime, released open-instinct on October 3: one Firecracker microVM with a Linux desktop per person, texting over Inkbox, apps over Composio, single-use Stripe Link cards, six code-enforced trust tiers and a typed protocol so your agent can negotiate with a friend's agent; Maritime is the default host. A third, Yeachan Heo's Mac menu-bar app, has 20 stars and no licence file. No open source Cue by Manus exists at all.
Launched: August 27, 2026 (Merit Systems); October 3, 2026 (Maria Gorskikh). Sources: Merit-Systems/OpenInstinct on GitHub; mariagorskikh/open-instinct on GitHub; TechCrunch: Instinct raises $1B Series C.
Why people compare OpenInstinct with MausBot
- Both are services you deploy and pay vendors for: Vercel Pro, Kernel, Neon and Linq for one; Inkbox, Maritime and Composio for the other. Neither is an app you open.
- Both reach you by iMessage, so an iPhone is required, there is no chat window on your computer, and Android users get an SMS line at best.
- Merit's approvals are prompt-level: the instructions tell the model to ask before consequential actions, and tools run without a separate approval step; money is gated by Stripe Link.
- Maria's open-instinct is five days old, self-declared beta, with quiet hours and the proactive cap still unimplemented, and its default host is the author's own company.
- One agent per person, every clone, with no way to run a Claude bot and a Codex bot side by side.
- There is no open source Cue: every repo named open-cue or OpenCue is a render-farm manager, a teleprompter or an unrelated meeting tool.
OpenInstinct vs MausBot
The OpenInstinct column comes from the vendor's own pages and the press cited above, checked on October 8, 2026. Where the vendor has not said, the cell says so.
| OpenInstinct | MausBot | |
|---|---|---|
| License, stars | MIT, 422 (Merit); MIT, 241 (Gorskikh); none, 20 (Heo) | Apache 2.0, about 4.2k |
| Shape | An iMessage agent service you deploy to Vercel; a Node service and CLI on Maritime microVMs | A desktop chat app of bots; iOS and Android companions |
| Models | Any model through Vercel AI Gateway, no local (Merit); Claude by default, any Pi provider incl. Ollama (Gorskikh) | Claude, Codex, Grok, and other CLIs, chosen per bot; switch mid-conversation |
| Before a shell command runs | Prompt-level rules, Stripe Link for money (Merit); a policy guard in front of every tool, six trust tiers (Gorskikh) | Allow / Deny cards for shell commands and file edits; answer cards for questions |
| Agents | One per person; Gorskikh's talk to other people's agents | As many bots as you like, in group rooms |
| Where it runs | Vercel serverless plus Kernel cloud browsers; a Firecracker microVM on Maritime, or your laptop | Your own machine; or a cloud desktop per bot |
| Platforms | iMessage, so an iPhone; a web dashboard (Merit); iMessage, SMS, email (Gorskikh) | macOS, Windows, Ubuntu; iOS and Android companions |
| Setup | Deploy to Vercel Pro with Kernel, Neon and Linq; or instinct init, Inkbox, Maritime, Composio | Download, sign in with your CLI, meet a bot |
| Price | Free code; Vercel Pro from $20 a month plus Kernel, Neon, Linq and model usage; or Inkbox, Maritime from $1 an agent, model usage | Free. Model usage on the Claude, ChatGPT, or Grok account you already have. |
What MausBot is
MausBot is a free, open-source chat app where every contact is an AI bot with its own model, its own computer, and its own connected apps. Bots run on the claude, codex, and grok CLIs installed on your own machine, with your existing logins, so one bot can be on Claude and the next on ChatGPT. Shell commands and file edits surface as Allow / Deny cards before they run, bots share group rooms and hand work to each other, and your data stays in ~/.openmausbot on your disk. It is published on GitHub under Apache 2.0, with iOS and Android companions, and paid Cloud plans from $29 a month keep bots working with the laptop closed.
What OpenInstinct still does better
- Merit Systems OpenInstinct: one-click provisioning of browser, database, storage, iMessage line and model gateway in about five minutes, a model-blind vault that autofills passwords and cards, and real purchases through Stripe Link.
- Maria Gorskikh's open-instinct: an agent-to-agent trust network with code-enforced tiers and a written protocol, which nobody else clones, plus a sleeping microVM desktop per person, single-use cards, local models and readable Markdown memory.
- Both: a phone number your agent owns, so you text it like a person.
Other OpenInstinct alternatives
The other open-source clones first, then the big agent apps, each with its own comparison page:
- Open Dots by Composio, Anil Matcha, CopilotKit: OpenAI launched dots on September 29, 2026 for ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium.
- OpenBot by CopilotKit: OpenBot (6,182 stars, 841 forks, MIT) is the most-starred of the open source Grok Bot clones.
- Rakazo by Inbox Zero Inc. (Elie Steinbock): Rakazo (3,418 stars, 599 forks, Apache 2.0) was created two days after Grok Bot launched and is the closest of the clones to MausBot in shape: persistent bots with their own memory, routines and group channels, each on a model you choose through the Pi harness, including Claude Pro or Max and ChatGPT Plus or Pro sign-in, API keys, and Ollama.
- OpenMuse by CopilotKit, nanoMuse and twelve smaller repos: Meta's Muse arrived on September 8, 2026 as a single proactive agent in a secure VM.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there an open source Instinct?
- Yes, two: Merit Systems' OpenInstinct, released August 27, 2026, and Maria Gorskikh's open-instinct, released October 3. Both are MIT and both are iMessage agents you deploy to cloud services rather than apps you install.
- Is there an open source Cue by Manus?
- No. As of October 8, 2026, no GitHub project positions itself as an open Cue; the OpenCue name belongs to the Academy Software Foundation's render-farm manager. The closest open-source match for Cue's team of agents with their own computers is MausBot.
- Does OpenInstinct work on Android?
- Merit's is iMessage only and needs an iPhone. Gorskikh's gives Android users an SMS line or email. MausBot has native iOS and Android apps.
- Who makes Instinct?
- Spear Street Technology, founded by Noah Shinn, not Anthropic or any big lab. It raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation on September 28, 2026.