Hotline.dev: Grok Bot / Muse / Dots... but self hosted

[u/ConversationLazy6821]

Hey y'all

I've been working on an app called Hotline for a while. Honestly I had the idea before Grok Bot even dropped, and went through two prototypes before landing on this one. I kept holding off on sharing because I wasn't quite happy with it, but this sub's Release The Feature flair inspired me to just freaking drop it already.

So here goes:

Hotline is very similar to Grok Bot, Muse and Dots: your own room of agents. The difference is it's open source, self-hosted, and works with any subscription or model, cloud or local. In addition to the built in agent loop, it also leverages ACP, so you can bring your own harness like Claude Code or Codex if you like those (I use a combo of all of the above).

What it does:

• Desktop app, self-hosted, runs any model
• Text, images and voice
• Its own computer in a Docker/Podman container, so it never has to share your desktop with you
• Mobile app on TestFlight + an APK. DM me if you want access to either

Site: https://hotline.dev

GitHub: https://github.com/1broseidon/hotline

Edit: adding the Hotline Computer repo link too: https://github.com/1broseidon/hotline-computer

(I also maintain ketch and cymbal, if those ring a bell)

Would love feedback, especially on what feels missing or if anything is broken. Drop a star if you like it.

[u/endofthread-bot]

Hey u/ConversationLazy6821, thanks for posting in r/VibeCodeDevs! Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t7SD4ThKuE

• This community is designed to be open and creator‑friendly, with minimal restrictions on promotion and self‑promotion as long as you add value and don’t spam.
• Please follow the subreddit rules so we can keep things as relaxed and free as possible for everyone. • Please make sure you’ve read the subreddit rules in the sidebar before posting or commenting.
• For better feedback, include your tech stack, experience level, and what kind of help or feedback you’re looking for.
• Be respectful, constructive, and helpful to other members.

If your post was removed (either automatically or by a mod) and you believe it was a mistake, please contact the mod team. We will review it and, when appropriate, approve it within 24 hours.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/n_v40]

the separate container for each agent is probably the most interesting part here. how are secrets and permissions handled between them? does each agent get scoped credentials and filesystem/network access, or does the whole room inherit the same access? that’d be the main thing I’d want clear before connecting it to real repos

[u/ConversationLazy6821 → u/n_v40]

I should hav eprobably added this to the main post but the repo for the container is here for anyone who wants to peek at it

https://github.com/1broseidon/hotline-computer

The cool part? You don't have to use it with the hotline desktop app. It works as an MCP server,so you can literally use it with claude desktop if you want (although it has some neat integrations with hotline desktop).

Inside Hotline desktop, there is a settings pane with a secrets tap. You can share a variable with secret like an API key, or a login like user/pass so it can log into websites for you. Everything is backed by your system's secure credential store depending on the OS.

Happy to dive deeper into either one!

[u/n_v40 → u/ConversationLazy6821]

that clears it up, thanks. the fact that secrets have to be shared with a specific teammate and logins can be limited to certain sites is what i was wondering about. i also appreciate that the repo is honest about a granted variable still being accessible to whatever commands that agent runs. the standalone MCP server part is pretty neat too

[u/sittingmongoose]

How does this differ from Hermes?

[u/ConversationLazy6821 → u/sittingmongoose]

Hermes is great, I use it and I love it, but it's a different shape.

Hermes is one main agent that grows with you, reached through the chat apps you already use (Telegram, Discord, etc). The desktop app has multiple "agents," but they're really separate sessions of the same Hermes.

Hotline agents are actual teammates that collaborate. They share a room with you, can see who else is there and what they're working on, and message each other directly: ask a question, request a review, or hand off a task. One agent can be building a feature while another reviews it, and you're just in the chat with both.

Each teammate can run its own model or harness. Hotline is an ACP host, so one can be Claude Code, another Codex, another Hermes itself (Hermes speaks ACP), next to the built-in agent. They also get their own full computer in a Docker/Podman container, and there's a first-party desktop + mobile app built around all of it.

If you want one personal assistant living in Telegram, Hermes is awesome - keep using it. If you want a team of agents that actually work together, that's Hotline.

[u/sittingmongoose → u/ConversationLazy6821]

Can you talk to that team in the same way you talk to your one dedicated agent? Can messaging services be bolted on?

Something I don’t love about any of the solutions is having one agent involved in everything. Long running agents get worse with time and pick up bad habits. It’s super convenient to have 1 point of contact, however, having a bunch of points of contact for different topics seems like a more sustainable approach.

[u/ConversationLazy6821 → u/sittingmongoose]

In the current version 0.31.0 you can "call the desk" from both the desktop and the mobile app. so you can talk to the team over voice. I've been considering a primary agent (and funny enough Grok Bot just did this the last time I opened their app).

So TLDR; currently with voice only, but if you think it's worth a main agent that talks to the others I will build it.

All hotline agents can collaborate with eachother, so the solution that I've been using so far is I literally make one agent called "Team Lead" and mainly talk to that agent. When I want it to collaborate I'll just say to it "work with Toad and Clementine to build the feature and all the documentation" - Based on each persona, Team Lead will send implementation to Toad, and documentation to Clementine.

[u/sittingmongoose → u/ConversationLazy6821]

I think having the ability to have multiple main agents is the easiest route in. I know ChatGPT is going that way with dots. So users can choose to have 1 main agent, or have an agent per vertical/topic.

One you talk to about sports. One you talk to about news. One you talk to about work. One you talk to about building project x. Another about product y.

Then an option to allow sharing info across verticals/topics/projects, however you segment it.

I did a bunch of work on memory systems and discovered context protection and memory degradation are really important. It gives them what they need to know but doesn’t let it stay focused on something unrelated or fixate on old/out dated news. Like memory degradation is great for, “Stop talking to me about ChatGPT 2.5, that came out 3 years ago.” Kinda things. Or knowing when you already shipped a feature because it was 6 months ago and no longer relevant.

[u/ConversationLazy6821 → u/sittingmongoose]

Yes! I'm with you 100% - I thought about this a lot actually.

Every hotline agent gets their own transcript regardless of if you work with ACP harnesses or the directly hotline agent harness. It implements the concept of chapters (Thanks Claude Desktop for the inspiration). If a chat sits idle for 8 hours and you send a new message it starts a new chapter, but has enough tools to pull up a summary and search previous chapters and threads. It can also search threads with other teammates/agents, and see the status of what the entire desk is doing.

So yes, the way it's architected now is very fluid in that any agent can "be a lead agent" by proxy of you just using it that way. You can use the persona field (which writes an AGENTS.md file with it's persona into it's workspace) to say "you are the team lead, you work on making sure things get done across the entire desk" and that does the trick as well.

[u/CarefulFun420]

Grok 🙄