Bytebot
Open-source desktop-agent runtime that runs an LLM-controlled Linux desktop inside Docker — uses xdotool / X11 capture for control. Pitched as the 'self-hosted Operator' alternative; agent sees a real desktop screen, not just a browser.
Archived · Verified 2026-10-29 · fresh as of 2026-10-29 · 40 cited facts, 2 with a third-party source · 2 recorded changes · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Tier
- T3
- Section
- Computer-use & desktop agents
- Created
- 2024 (GitHub first commit) repo fix
- Latest release
- none — no GitHub releases published; repo archived 2026-03-07 repo fix
- License
- Apache-2.0 repo fix
- Funding
- searched not found fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-29 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- open-source repo fix
- Deployment locus
- computer-use repo fix
- Developer activity
- OpenRank 1.77 (12-mo avg 4.8) · 6 participants — 2026-01 third-party fix
When to use
Optimised for: Self-hosted alternative to Anthropic Computer Use / OpenAI Operator
Anti-fit: Tiny project — no SLA, no commercial backing visible; not for prod-grade workloads
Pros & cons
Pros
Self-hosted full-desktop sandbox; permissive (Apache) license; works with multiple LLM providers.
Cons
Tiny project; no funding / customer story visible; performance vs reference (Computer Use / Operator) unbenchmarked.
Claims & capabilities
Open-sourced 2024; runs full Linux desktop in container with xdotool control; works with Claude / GPT-4 / Gemini
Technical surface
- API surface
- Python SDK + REST control plane
- Backend storage
- Container ephemeral disk; user provides durable storage
- Deployment
- Self-hosted only — Docker (Linux desktop container); repo archived
- Embedding model
- not applicable — not a memory product
- Multi-tenancy
- Single-tenant per container
- MCP
- searched not found
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Alternatives to Bytebot → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other computer-use & desktop agents in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Browser Use T1
Python library that turns any LLM into a browser agent — extracts DOM into a structured representation the LLM can act on (rather than pure screenshot). Browser Use Inc. raised $17M seed Q1 2025 (Felicis); cloud product at cloud.browser-use.com. Project is one of the most-starred browser-agent OSS repos.
- Stagehand T1
Open-source browser-automation framework by Browserbase (TypeScript core plus Python and Go SDKs). Mixes Playwright-style code with natural-language act/extract/observe; pairs with Browserbase Cloud.
- Hyperbrowser T2
Cloud-hosted headless browser API tuned for AI agents — captcha solving, stealth mode, session recordings. Y Combinator S24; pitched as a faster / cheaper Browserbase alternative. Used as substrate by agents that need browser execution but don't want to run their own Chromium fleet.
- UI-TARS T2
ByteDance Seed's open-source GUI-agent foundation model — released Jan 2025; trained end-to-end on screenshot → action pairs. Comes with UI-TARS-Desktop (Electron app) that runs the model against the user's screen. SOTA on OSWorld at release; weights on HuggingFace.
- Anthropic Computer Use T1
Anthropic's API-surface capability that lets Claude control a virtual desktop — see screenshots, type, click. Launched 2024-10 as a public beta. Not a finished IDE itself; it's the substrate that other harnesses (and Anthropic's own Claude apps) use to operate a computer.
- Skyvern T2
Open-source autonomous browser agent that uses computer vision + LLMs to navigate websites. Workflow-based: agents follow recorded plans that adapt to layout changes. Skyvern Inc. raised $4.5M seed (Sep-2024, Felicis lead). Self-hostable; cloud version on skyvern.com.
Sources (39 cited facts, 2 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is OSS desktop-control agent runtime (containerised Linux desktop) vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Open-source desktop-agent runtime that runs an LLM-controlled Linux desktop inside Docke… vendor
- Claims / benefits Open-sourced 2024; runs full Linux desktop in container with xdotool control; works with… repo
- Modalities text + screen images + keyboard/mouse vendor
- Created 2024 (GitHub first commit) repo
- Latest release none — no GitHub releases published; repo archived 2026-03-07 repo
- License Apache-2.0 repo
- GitHub bytebot-ai/bytebot — ~11.1k stars, archived 2026-03-07 repo
- Mindshare Niche but growing GH community; HN posts; comparisons to Anthropic Computer Use repo
- Pricing Free (Apache-2.0 OSS; repo archived, no paid tier listed) repo
- Data handling Self-host = your infra; no telemetry by default repo
- Deployment Self-hosted only — Docker (Linux desktop container); repo archived repo
- Code/weights release OSS — github.com/bytebot-ai/bytebot repo
- API surface Python SDK + REST control plane repo
- Backend storage Container ephemeral disk; user provides durable storage repo
- Multi-tenancy Single-tenant per container repo
- Encryption TLS for control plane; inherits container security repo
- Namespace primitives per-container session repo
- Forgetting policy Container ephemerality — sessions destroyed on stop repo
- Validated verticals RPA, QA testing, internal tooling automation vendor
- Time to running <1hr (Docker compose) repo
- Anti-fit Tiny project — no SLA, no commercial backing visible; not for prod-grade workloads repo
- Optimised for Self-hosted alternative to Anthropic Computer Use / OpenAI Operator vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure Docker; xdotool; X11; LLM provider APIs repo
- Pros Self-hosted full-desktop sandbox; permissive (Apache) license; works with multiple LLM p… vendor
- Cons Tiny project; no funding / customer story visible; performance vs reference (Computer Us… repo
- Project & sources bytebot.ai; github.com/bytebot-ai/bytebot repo
- commit-trajectory [{"ym":"2025-02","cum":1},{"ym":"2025-03","cum":38},{"ym":"2025-04","cum":133},{"ym":"20… repo
- cost-input-usd-per-mtok 0 vendor
- cost-output-usd-per-mtok 0 vendor
- cost-tier free vendor
- cost-pricing-model free-tier vendor
- cost-last-verified 2026-06-29 vendor
- adoption-accelerator yc-s21 third-party
- architecture-deployment-locus computer-use repo
- licensing-bucket open-source repo
- positioning-platform-vs-product product repo
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- developer-activity-opendigger {"activity":9.23,"as_of":"2026-01","openrank_12mo":4.8,"openrank_current":1.77,"particip… third-party
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)
- 2026-10-26
- License “Apache 2.0” → “Apache-2.0” source
- Latest release “v0.x ongoing on GitHub” → “none — no GitHub releases published; repo archived 2026-03-07” source
- Pricing “OSS free; cloud tier on roadmap” → “Free (Apache-2.0 OSS; repo archived, no paid tier listed)” source
- Deployment “Docker self-host (Linux container with VNC)” → “Self-hosted only — Docker (Linux desktop container); repo archived” source
- 2026-05-16
- Lifecycle first recorded as “archived”