Deploy and Host

OpenBot Lite — OpenBot by CopilotKit — is an open-source AI-coworker runtime that speaks the AG-UI protocol: persistent coworker bots with a policy gateway, a credential vault, and an append-only audit log — with any agent harness (built-in bots, or external LangGraph / Mastra / CrewAI agents over AG-UI).

This Lite template ships the whole runtime in one container (the official ghcr.io/copilotkit/openbot:v0.0.15 image): AG-UI server + web UI + up to 3 built-in bots + an embedded Chromium "computer" for browser-using bots + embedded Postgres 16 (pgvector) for the audit trail and policy store — no companion database service required, and every bot's state survives redeploys on a persistent volume.

Web app: /agents, /audit, /credentials, /settings, SSO provider management (/sso/providers)
Single-user mode by default (every visitor is the admin, no passwords, no registration) — flip to SSO (Google / Microsoft Entra / Okta) when the domain is shared
Credential vault encrypted with KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY, auto-generated once and persisted on the volume — redeploys never lock you out of stored secrets
Durable threads & bot memory via CopilotKit Intelligence (managed api.intelligence.copilotkit.ai — the Pro plan)
Point OPENAI_API_KEY / OPENAI_BASE_URL at OpenAI or any OpenAI-compatible gateway (vLLM, Ollama, LiteLLM)
Optional external harness: MANAGED_AGENT_AG_UI_URL + MANAGED_AGENT_TOKEN for LangGraph / Mastra / CrewAI agents

Why Deploy

OpenBot is one of the clearest open-source implementations of the AG-UI protocol: it gives agents a real "computer" — browser, file workspace, credential vault, audit trail — with human takeover and per-agent policy gates. Shipping it as a single-container Railway template means:

One click — no companion Postgres to configure, no Helm chart, no S6 container orchestration (the base image handles it internally)
Persistence — one Railway volume covers the Postgres cluster, the credential vault encryption key, bot workspaces, and Chromium login profiles; a redeploy never loses state
SSO-ready — the entrypoint shim detects which sign-in provider you configure and sets TRUSTED_ORIGINS + OPENBOT_SINGLE_USER so the app's own boot guards are always satisfied
Any LLM — OpenAI, vLLM, Ollama, LiteLLM, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint via OPENAI_BASE_URL
External harness support — bring your own LangGraph / Mastra / CrewAI agent over AG-UI via MANAGED_AGENT_AG_UI_URL

Required inputs

Two things are mandatory — the server refuses to start without them, by design:

Variable	Where to get it
`INTELLIGENCE_API_KEY`	https://intelligence.copilotkit.ai → your project → API Keys (a `cpk-...` runtime key; CopilotKit Pro plan)
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	Any OpenAI key, or a key for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint via `OPENAI_BASE_URL`

INTELLIGENCE_API_URL and INTELLIGENCE_GATEWAY_WS_URL are pre-filled with the managed-service URLs and should stay that way.

Source Repository

https://github.com/CopilotKit/OpenBot · image: ghcr.io/copilotkit/openbot:v0.0.15 · template repo: https://github.com/mc9max/openbot-lite

System Requirements

RAM: 2 GB+ recommended (embedded Postgres + bot runtime + Chromium)
Disk: 1 Railway volume (5 GB minimum) — Postgres cluster, credential vault, audit trail, bot workspaces + Chromium profiles all live on it
Network: HTTPS domain; outbound to your LLM endpoint and to *.intelligence.copilotkit.ai
Accounts: a CopilotKit Intelligence project (Pro) + an OpenAI (or compatible) API key

About Hosting

Single service, Dockerfile build from the pinned upstream image, plus a small entrypoint shim that does the things a fresh Railway deployment needs that the base image won't do by itself:

Stable KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY — auto-generated once, persisted on the volume, re-exported every boot. A key rotated out from under the vault would corrupt stored secrets.
Sign-in gate — detects whether an SSO provider is configured and puts the app into the matching posture, anchoring BETTER_AUTH_URL/TRUSTED_ORIGINS to the public domain so the app's "no public origin while single-user" and "no sign-in configured" boot guards are always satisfied.
Embedded Postgres on — the base image ships EMBEDDED_POSTGRES=off (multi-container shape); we set it on so the whole stack runs in one container.
Bot state on the one volume — the base image keeps /workspace (bot dirs) and /profiles (Chromium logins) in ephemeral baked dirs. The shim re-points both onto the persistent volume via symlinks so every bot's files and browser logins survive a redeploy.

One Railway volume (Railway allows exactly one volume per service), mounted at the parent directory exactly as the image's own postgres-init.sh requires — a volume mounted directly on the data dir arrives with lost+found and initdb refuses it. Everything durable lives under it:

Path on the volume	Purpose
`/var/lib/postgresql/data`	Postgres cluster — bots, credential vault, policy store, append-only audit trail
`/var/lib/postgresql/.openbot.key`	The persisted `KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY`
`/var/lib/postgresql/workspace`	Bot working directories (symlinked as `/workspace`)
`/var/lib/postgresql/profiles`	Per-bot Chromium profile state — logins, cookies (symlinked as `/profiles`)

Dependencies for OpenBot Lite

Deployment Dependencies

All in-container. The only external services the app talks to:

CopilotKit Intelligence (durable threads/memory) — INTELLIGENCE_API_URL, INTELLIGENCE_GATEWAY_WS_URL, INTELLIGENCE_API_KEY (required)
Your LLM — OPENAI_API_KEY (+ optional OPENAI_BASE_URL) (required)

Optional: an external AG-UI harness (MANAGED_AGENT_AG_UI_URL + MANAGED_AGENT_TOKEN, and AGENT_TOOL_TOKEN for tool-callbacks back through this server).

Ports

3001 — web UI + AG-UI API (health at /health; both PORT and SERVER_PORT are wired to match)

Common Use Cases

A private "AI coworker" desk: persistent bot state, auditable credential vault, single admin
An AG-UI endpoint that CopilotKit front-ends (or other agents) can call directly
A policy-gated sandbox for bots that hold credentials (GitHub tokens, API keys) with an append-only audit trail and a one-line retention knob (AUDIT_RETENTION_DAYS)

License

OpenBot is licensed under the MIT License.