Ownership

The open-source AnythingLLM alternative: what you actually own

Yes: AnythingLLM is open source. Mintplex Labs develops it under the MIT license in the public Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm repository, and both the desktop app and the Docker deployment are built from that codebase. You can read every line, fork it, and run it on your own hardware. The license does exactly what it promises.

A license settles one question: who may use, change, and redistribute the software. Most people searching for an open-source AnythingLLM alternative are asking a second question at the same time.

Try Kortix

Scope Config in the app Config in your repo

FIG 01 The license decides the code; the switch decides the running system

What the MIT license gives you

AnythingLLM is a local-first AI application from Mintplex Labs. You connect a local or cloud model, ingest your documents, and chat with them or run agents on top of them. It ships as a one-click desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux, or as a Docker image you host on any server. Its own tagline puts the promise plainly: "Stop renting your intelligence. Own it."

The license holds up. Two packaging facts matter when you choose how to run it:

The desktop app is single-user. Multi-user support, user management, workspace access control, and password protection are Docker-only features. AnythingLLM's documentation states it directly: if you do not need multi-user support, you should use the desktop app.
Telemetry is on by default. The app sends anonymous usage events to PostHog, and you switch it off by setting DISABLE_TELEMETRY to true in the server or Docker environment (checked October 2026). Even with telemetry off, the repository documents the calls that remain: the vendor's CDN for model downloads and GitHub for context-window caches. A zero-outbound install takes deliberate configuration.

What a license does not decide

They want to own the system that runs their work: the agent definitions, the skills a team builds up, the company memory the system accumulates, the connector configuration, and the automation that starts work with nobody present. Where those things live decides how much of the system you keep, and a license does not decide it. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System, built for that kind of ownership.

Running AnythingLLM on your own hardware, three things are yours without argument: the model (a local one through Ollama or LM Studio, or a cloud provider on your own API keys), your documents, and the machine the app runs on. Document text and embeddings stay on the instance too, because the default vector store is an on-instance LanceDB database. For one person chatting over private documents, that covers most of what ownership means.

The gap appears when the thing you want to own is the running system. In AnythingLLM, agents and their skills are configured through the app's interface, workspace context is whatever documents you have ingested, and scheduled tasks are set per instance. None of it sits in a repository you can diff. The configuration that makes your instance useful lives in the application's own storage, with no version history to review. That state belongs to the instance: move to a new one, and it starts empty.

Kortix: the open-source system you own

Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, their skills, your company memory, and every connector in one git repo you own, with the agents working on real cloud computers. A Kortix project is a company you can clone.

The repo holds everything the system needs to run. Agents are markdown personas. Skills are markdown plus scripts that encode how the company does one job. Company memory is plain files that accumulate as the work happens. kortix.yaml declares the machine image, the connectors, the triggers, and the secret names and grants. Because all of it is text under version control, you can grep the whole company, diff any change, and roll any part of it back.

project (git repo + kortix.yaml) └─ session ──> cloud computer: an isolated sandbox on a branch named after the session └─ the OpenCode agent works └─ change request ──> you review & merge ──> main

FIG 02 The system as files and reviewed changes, from the Kortix README

The ownership also holds in daily operation:

Models: bring any provider on your own keys, and set the model per agent, per session, or per message. Switching models is a config edit in the repo.
Deployment: run Kortix on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. Self-hosting is free.
Governance: connector credentials are brokered server-side and never enter the machine, every connector call is set to allow, ask, or block, and each session has its own isolated machine and branch. Per-resource permissions cover people and agents, with roles, groups, and an audit trail. Finished session work reaches main through a change request, and merge is default-deny for agents.

You can verify the open-source claim yourself: the full codebase is Kortix on GitHub, with 20,000+ stars as of October 2026.

What lives where: Kortix vs AnythingLLM

What you want to own	Kortix	AnythingLLM
Open source	Yes	Yes (MIT)
Agents and skills	Markdown agents and skill files in the repo	Configured in the app, stored on the instance
Company memory	Plain files in the repo, versioned	Workspace context on the instance
Connector config	Declared in `kortix.yaml`, credentials brokered server-side	Set per instance in the app
Triggers	Cron and webhook triggers in the repo	Scheduled tasks set in the app
Models	Any provider, your keys, set per agent or session	Local and cloud providers, chosen in settings
Where it runs	Kortix Cloud, free self-host, VPC, or on-prem	Desktop app or a Docker server you host
How work lands	Change request a person approves	Replies appear in the app

Both products share the first row: open source, code you can take with you. The rows under it differ in one direction. AnythingLLM keeps its configuration inside the application, while Kortix keeps the company in files that version control tracks.

Which ownership fits your job

AnythingLLM suits a person, or a small team on a shared Docker instance, that wants private document chat and local agents on its own hardware. The permissive license, the local defaults, and the one-click install cover that job well.

Kortix suits a company whose agents need to act across real tools: an open-source AI Operating System where the agents, skills, memory, and connector setup are files you own, and finished work arrives as a change request a person approves. If that is the job in front of you, we recommend Kortix. Try Kortix, self-hosted or in the managed cloud.

For the feature-by-feature version, read our Kortix vs AnythingLLM comparison. Weighing other options too? Our roundup of the best AnythingLLM alternatives covers the field, and every AnythingLLM alternative guide on this site works from the products' own documentation and ends in a clear recommendation.

Frequently asked questions

Is AnythingLLM open source?

Yes. AnythingLLM is MIT licensed, and Mintplex Labs develops it in the public Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm repository. The desktop app and the Docker deployment are both built from that codebase, and the MIT terms let you read, change, and redistribute the code, including in commercial products.

Is Kortix open source?

Yes. Kortix is open source: the code is public, you can fork and audit it, and self-hosting is free. The design keeps the running system inspectable as well, because agents, skills, company memory, and connector configuration are text files in one git repo you own.

Can I self-host Kortix?

Yes. Kortix runs on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network, and self-hosting is free. A self-hosted Kortix runs the layer your company's work happens on: agents, connectors, memory, and triggers, with each session on its own isolated machine and branch. That is a wider footprint than a document chat instance.