OpenInstinct Eve Agent

A personal iMessage assistant that can use a browser like you.

It can do your chores, book you movie tickets, or handle your groceries. You stay in control of your passwords, credit cards and context.

It's Open Source, self-hostable, and can use any model.

Why self-host?

Personal agents are much more useful when they can sign in, book, buy and act on your behalf. But your accounts, your passwords, are the keys to your digital kingdom. OpenInstinct runs in your own Vercel account. Secrets are encrypted before they touch your database and models never see them. Verify yourself by reading the code!

Deployment

The Vercel one-click deploy flow provisions Kernel for cloud browsers, Neon for Postgres, and a private Vercel Blob store for browser images, per-user memory, and installation secrets. It also creates and attaches a Linq connector for iMessage. Vercel AI Gateway handles inference. Usage is billed to your Vercel account.

On first use, OpenInstinct creates independent Better Auth and vault-encryption keys in the private Blob store. Vercel supplies the application URL, database, Kernel, Blob, and Linq configuration, so the deploy flow requires no environment-variable values. For a non-Vercel host or an existing installation that manages its own keys, set both secret overrides and the public application URL explicitly:

1BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 32)"2BETTER_AUTH_URL=https://your-host3SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY="$(openssl rand -base64 32)"

The application database schema and versioned migrations live in db/. The Drizzle application store uses DATABASE_URL for runtime queries; its migration commands require the direct DATABASE_URL_UNPOOLED connection. Run pnpm db:migrate before starting against a new or upgraded local database. Vercel uses Turbo to run the uncached migration task before its application build.

Treat the private Blob store as production key material: deleting it loses the automatically generated encryption key, and rotating that key requires re-encrypting existing vault values.

Blob storage

The one-click deploy creates and connects a private Blob store automatically. Vercel supplies BLOB_STORE_ID and a short-lived VERCEL_OIDC_TOKEN to each deployment, so there is no long-lived Blob credential to copy.

OpenInstinct uses this store for persistent per-user memory and browser images. Production conversations require it because memory is recalled before each agent turn. Local Eve development uses process-local memory instead.

Ongoing undertakings use a separate workstreams memory slot backed by the application database. Run the application migrations before using this feature; it needs no additional service or credentials. The root agent can save goals, constraints, decisions, source-linked observations, and unresolved steps across conversations. It recalls an index of the eight most recently updated active or waiting workstreams, then reads the selected record before continuing. Older and completed workstreams remain searchable.

Workstreams are scoped by authenticated workspace and Eve's deployment-aware memory key. Updates require the current revision. Each scope retains content for up to 100 bounded records; the agent asks which obsolete record to forget at capacity. Forgetting erases the content and source references, retaining only a tombstone to prevent an interrupted save from restoring them. Existing chat history is unchanged. This slot is available only in interactive root turns; remembering work does not start a job, create a schedule, or authorize an action.

For an existing Vercel project, link it first with eve link --project <your-vercel-project> --non-interactive, then create and connect the store with one command:

1pnpm exec vercel blob create-store open-instinct-images --access private --yes --environment production --environment preview --environment development

Outside Vercel, set BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN from a private Blob store instead. The memory provider uses that token explicitly, and browser image capture uses the same store.

Linq iMessage setup

The deploy button creates a managed line, writes LINQ_CONNECTOR, and attaches the inbound webhook trigger automatically. For an existing Vercel project, link the checkout, create a Linq line, and attach its connector for both app tokens and inbound webhook triggers:

1vercel link2vercel connect create linq --connection-method line --name open-instinct --json3vercel connect attach <returned-connector-uid> --project <your-vercel-project> --environment production --triggers --trigger-path /eve/v1/linq --yes4vercel env add LINQ_CONNECTOR production --value <returned-connector-uid> --yes5eve deploy --non-interactive --yes

The create command returns the connector UID. Repeat the attachment and environment-variable steps for preview or development if those environments should use Linq too. LINQ_PHONE_NUMBER is an optional E.164 override that adds a click-to-message shortcut in the workspace; Linq delivery itself uses the line assigned to the connector.

Before the first sign-in, open the connector's Vercel Connect settings and follow the one-time Phone Numbers verification instruction. Additional users verify themselves by messaging the connector's Linq number once. The --triggers --trigger-path /eve/v1/linq options are also required: attaching a connector without them permits outbound token access but does not forward incoming messages to OpenInstinct.

Google Workspace connection

OpenInstinct can use a user's Gmail, Calendar, and read-only Contacts through a user-scoped Google OAuth grant. Vercel Connect stores and refreshes the tokens; OpenInstinct stores only the stable user identity used to request them. Gmail access deliberately uses gmail.modify, not the permanent-delete mail.google.com scope.

In one Google Cloud project, configure the OAuth consent screen and enable the Gmail API, Google Calendar API, and People API. 2. Create OAuth web credentials. Add https://connect.vercel.com/callback as an authorized redirect URI, then download the client-secret JSON. 3. Vercel expects top-level clientId andclientSecret keys, not Google's nestedweb.client_id andweb.client_secret download. Convert the download into a temporary file outside the repository, then create and attach the connector:

1vercel link2google_credentials_file="$(mktemp)"3jq '{clientId: .web.client_id, clientSecret: .web.client_secret}' /absolute/path/to/downloaded-client-secret.json > "$google_credentials_file"4vercel connect create google --connection-method oauth --name open-instinct --data @"$google_credentials_file"5rm -f "$google_credentials_file"6vercel connect attach <returned-connector-uid> --project <your-vercel-project> --environment production --yes7vercel env pull

Never commit either credential file. 4. Set GOOGLE_CONNECTOR_UID to the returned UID and redeploy. The default isgoogle/open-instinct .

Gotchas:

• Attach the connector separately to every Vercel environment that should use it. A production attachment does not make preview or local development work.
• The Gmail read/modify scope is restricted. A Google OAuth app in Testing mode only works for listed test users, and those grants expire after seven days. Broader distribution requires Google's OAuth verification and may require a security assessment.
• The scopes requested here must also be declared on the Google consent screen. After changing scopes or enabled APIs, disconnect and reconnect the account so Google issues a grant with the new access.
• The grant is keyed to the authenticated OpenInstinct user. iMessage reaches the same grant only when its verified phone number maps to that Better Auth account.
• Google Contacts search uses a provider-side lazy cache, so a contact created moments ago may not appear immediately.
• User-requested email and calendar operations run without an extra Eve tool approval. Calendar events with attendees send Google invitations.

Link wallet

The root agent mounts @stripe/link-integrations-eve in agent/extensions/link.ts. It uses Stripe's bundled wallet tools and skills, with per-user authorization through the existing Better Auth account. It does not use a shared wallet token.

To enable it, register a Link OAuth client and configure LINK_CLIENT_ID, LINK_CLIENT_SECRET, and STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY on the server. Register the exact redirect URI https://<your-app-host>/api/auth/callback/link with Stripe, including a separate localhost URI when developing locally. Set BETTER_AUTH_URL to the canonical application origin. These values are optional for installations that do not use Link.

Apply the database migration with pnpm db:migrate before enabling Link. It enforces one Link wallet per OpenInstinct account. Disconnect the current wallet before connecting a different one; reconnecting the same wallet refreshes its grant.

Users connect or disconnect their wallet from Link wallet in the sidebar. An agent request that needs a wallet sends a native connection link. Opening it redirects to Link's consent screen after any required OpenInstinct sign-in, then resumes through Eve's authorization callback. Purchase approval links use Link's original URLs directly. Connection attempts expire after ten minutes and belong to the signed-in user. Better Auth stores encrypted grants and refreshes tokens; disconnection revokes the Link grant before removing it. Phone sign-in continues to work after disconnecting a wallet.

Wallet access is available in interactive conversations, not scheduled workers or scheduled result delivery. Spend requests run without an extra Eve tool approval and always request purchase approval in Link. Its tools can return payment credentials into stored Eve tool results; the bundled skills instruct the agent not to repeat them in chat. Financial-data tools also require the corresponding Link grant scopes; the default grant requests payment_methods.agentic and userinfo:read.