# Show HN: OpenVole 4.5 Is Out > Source: > Published: 2026-07-10 09:21:54+00:00 **The self-hosted agent OS — run a fleet of AI agents on your own hardware, against any model, from one dashboard. Peer-to-peer networked. Nothing phones home.** OpenVole is a **self-hosted server for running and managing AI agents**. One command — `vole serve` — gives you a dashboard where you create, configure, and chat with a whole fleet of agents, each isolated with its own tools, memory, and identity. **Model-agnostic**— Gemini, OpenAI, Claude, xAI, or local Ollama. Your choice, swappable per agent.** Self-hosted & private**— runs entirely on your hardware, against whatever model you point it at, with nothing phoning home.** Networked**— connect instances over** VoleNet**, a peer-to-peer agent mesh, and share tools, memory, and even a brain across machines. Under the hood it's a **microkernel**: the core is just the agent loop and a plugin contract. Every capability — reasoning, memory, tools, channels — is a swappable plugin (a **Paw**), so you're never locked into someone else's worldview. A fresh install ships with zero baked-in opinions: you assemble exactly the agent you want. ``` npm install -g openvole # package is "openvole"; gives you the `vole` command mkdir my-agents && cd my-agents vole serve ``` `vole serve` prints a **tokenized dashboard URL** (the dashboard is gated by a session token) — open it, click **New space**, and onboarding installs the essential paws (brain, session, memory, compact, shell). Point a space at your model: ``` BRAIN_PROVIDER=gemini GEMINI_API_KEY=your-api-key ``` …then start it and chat in the **Chat** tab. Prefer one command? Use a preset: ``` curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openvole/openvole/main/presets/basic.sh | bash ``` The npm package is (it provides the`openvole` `vole` command). To run without installing:`npx openvole ` —not`npx vole` , which is an unrelated package. Full walkthrough → [Getting Started](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/getting-started). 🏠 Self-hosted & private | Your agents, your hardware, your data. Nothing phones home — point it at a local Ollama model and it never touches the cloud. | 🔌 Model-agnostic | One unified brain paw speaks Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, xAI, Ollama, and the local Claude Code CLI. Switch providers per agent with a single env var. | 🖥️ A server, not a script | `vole serve` is a control plane: create, start, stop, and chat with a fleet of agents — "spaces" — from one browser dashboard. No babysitting processes on ports. | 🧩 Microkernel, zero lock-in | A tiny, LLM-ignorant core. Every capability is a Paw you can swap, sandbox, or write yourself — and you can bring your own system prompt via `BRAIN.md` . | 🕸️ VoleNet | A peer-to-peer AI agent network: remote tools become local, cheap workers share one brain, memory syncs across the mesh — signed with hybrid post-quantum signatures (Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65), with leader election and no central server. | 🪟 An app platform | A Paw can ship its own UI, rendered as a panel under the dashboard's Apps tab — the way apps live on a desktop. The control plane becomes a self-hosted app you extend, one panel per paw. | A Paw can ship its own interface: it drops a static HTML file in its package, declares it in the manifest, and the control plane renders it as a sandboxed panel under the **Apps** tab — one entry per paw that has a UI. It's the app-platform model — self-contained apps embedded inside a host shell, the way apps live on a desktop or extensions add panels to an editor: the panel calls its paw's own tools directly (proxied over IPC — **no LLM in the loop, no tokens, no extra port**), so a paw author gets a real interactive app — dashboards, forms, live data views — running deterministically inside the dashboard. The reference example, `paw-markets` , embeds a live watchlist with sparklines and alerts. The further this goes, the less OpenVole is "an agent runner" and the more it's a **dashboard you extend into a full app** — every capability, agentic or not, a panel you can attach. **The agent loop** — the only thing the core does natively: ``` Bootstrap → Perceive → Compact → Think → Act → Observe → loop ``` **Paws** — subprocess-isolated plugins that connect OpenVole to the world (APIs, databases, browsers, messaging). Each runs behind a capability-based permission sandbox. **Skills** — behavioral recipes: a folder with a `SKILL.md` of instructions, optionally with bundled scripts the agent runs sandboxed to the skill's own directory. Install from [VoleHub](https://github.com/openvole/volehub) (OpenVole's registry, with per-file hash verification) or [ClawHub](https://clawhub.ai) (13,000+ skills). **Brain** — the LLM lives in a Paw, not the core. `@openvole/paw-brain` is one unified paw for all providers and auto-detects from your API keys. Deep dive → [Architecture](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/architecture). A growing catalog, all installed from [PawHub](https://github.com/openvole/pawhub) via npm and sandboxed by default: **Brain**· unified multi-provider (`paw-brain` )**Channels**· Telegram, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, MS Teams, Voice (Twilio)** Tools**· Browser, Shell, Filesystem, MCP bridge, Email/Resend, GitHub, Calendar, TTS/STT, Computer use, Database, Scraper, PDF, Image, Social (X/LinkedIn)**Infrastructure**· Memory (hybrid semantic + keyword), Session, Compact ``` vole paw add @openvole/paw-telegram ``` Full list & docs → [Paws](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/paws). Connect OpenVole instances across machines into a mesh. Remote tools appear in your local registry (the Brain can't tell the difference), brainless workers delegate thinking to a coordinator, and memory/sessions sync — all authenticated with hybrid post-quantum signatures (Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65), with leader election and load balancing. Eight topologies, one protocol, no central server. Agents talk to each other, too: one Brain can message a peer agent (`net_message` ), or you can chat with a connected peer directly from the dashboard's VoleNet tab. Every remote action — tool calls, brain delegation, chat — requires a signed message from an authorized peer; tools and brain are never exposed to peers unless you explicitly grant them. ``` vole net init my-instance # generate an Ed25519 identity vole net show-key # share your public key vole net trust "vole-ed25519 ..." # trust a peer ``` Architecture patterns & setup → [VoleNet docs](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/volenet). Sandboxed by default. Every Paw runs as a subprocess under Node's permission model — network, filesystem, and child-process access are denied unless you grant them, and effective permissions are the *intersection* of what a Paw requests and what you approve. Optional Docker isolation, and an AES-256 encrypted vault for secrets. Details → [Security](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/security). Both are open-source agent frameworks with a shared skill format (`SKILL.md` ), heartbeat pattern, and MCP ecosystem — skills written for one work on the other. The difference is philosophy: | OpenVole | OpenClaw | | |---|---|---| Core | Microkernel — empty, ~60KB, everything is a plugin | Batteries-included — 25 built-in tools, ~8MB | Brain / LLM | External Paw; core is LLM-ignorant | Configurable provider in core | Memory | Source-isolated (user / paw / heartbeat scoped) | Shared | Isolation | Node permission sandbox on by default + capabilities | Optional Docker sandbox | Networking | VoleNet P2P mesh across machines | Single machine | Server | `vole serve` control plane for a fleet of agents | Gateway web UI | If you like the microkernel approach — every piece a Paw you can swap, extend, or build yourself — come try it, build a Paw, write a Skill, and help this little vole grow. Full reference at ** openvole.github.io/openvole**: [Getting Started](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/getting-started)· [Configuration](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/configuration)· [CLI](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/cli)· [Dashboard](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/dashboard)· [Paws](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/paws)· [VoleNet](https://openvole.github.io/openvole/volenet) Contributions welcome — see [CONTRIBUTING.md](/openvole/openvole/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md), and the [PawHub guide](https://github.com/openvole/pawhub/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for building Paws. If it connects to something, it's a Paw.If it describes behavior, it's a Skill.If the agent calls it, it's a Tool.