January 14, 2026
AI interns, budget burn?
Eigent: An open source Claude Cowork alternative
AI interns or pricey coworkers? Fans hype, skeptics cry “open‑ish”
TLDR: Eigent pitches an open-source “AI workforce” you can run locally or in the cloud, with lots of tool integrations. Commenters love the idea but question the “open” claim and warn that using premium models like Opus could be pricey; they want proof it works and clarity on licensing and costs.
Eigent just launched a “multi‑agent workforce” desktop app—think a team of AI helpers that split tasks, work in parallel, and plug into lots of tools via MCP (Model Context Protocol). It promises local deployment, privacy, and is billed as 100% open source with a cloud option and a GitHub repo plus an official site. But the crowd is already spicy. One camp is hyped about having digital interns to write code, search the web, and draft docs; the other is side‑eyeing the bill. The top money warning: using premium models like Opus could melt your credit card, so choose cheaper models or run locally. The biggest drama? The “open source” label. A vocal skeptic calls it open‑ish, noting pricing pages and dependence on paid APIs—translation: if it’s just a wrapper around expensive services, how open is it really? Meanwhile, lurkers want real‑world trials before they commit. Jokes are flying: “Human‑in‑the‑loop” becomes “manager babysitting,” “zero setup” vs the classic “npm install” eyebrow raise, and “multi‑agent” gets rebadged as “multi‑arguments” as camps clash. Verdict: hype meets hesitation, and the community wants receipts, clarity, and a model that won’t torch their wallet.
Key Points
- •Eigent releases a desktop application for building and managing a customizable multi-agent AI workforce.
- •The platform is built on CAMEL-AI’s open-source project and emphasizes parallel execution, customization, and privacy.
- •Deployment options include a managed cloud version, a self-hosted Community Edition (Node.js v18–22 and npm), and an enterprise offering with SSO/access control and SLAs.
- •Eigent integrates Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, supporting web browsing, code execution, Notion, Google suite, Slack, and custom/internal tools.
- •Predefined agents include Developer, Search, Document, and Multi-Modal, and the system supports human-in-the-loop interventions.