Self-hostable open-source iMessage assistant, one-click deploy to Vercel
OpenInstinct is an AI agent you reach on iMessage. To start, self-host it. It messages you first rather than waiting to be asked.
How OpenInstinct works
The only listing here you run yourself, and the only one whose answer to the credential question is architectural rather than contractual. Its own repository describes it as an iMessage personal assistant plus a password vault: it runs in your Vercel account, secrets are encrypted before they touch the database, and the README states that models never see them. Then it says the thing no privacy policy can say, which is to verify it by reading the code.
Put that next to the rest of this directory. Instinct's policy describes being handed your password so it can sign in as you. Flip never takes the password and moves session cookies instead. Shuffle takes the verification code and deletes it after the task. Kernel keeps the card out of the runtime with an alias. This one keeps the whole vault on infrastructure you rent in your own name, which is the strongest version available and the one that costs the most effort to use.
The deploy flow is also the most complete provider disclosure in the set, because it is executable rather than written. One click provisions Kernel for the cloud browser, Neon for Postgres, a private Vercel Blob store for browser images and per-user memory and installation secrets, a Linq connector for iMessage, and the Vercel AI Gateway for inference. Every row this site tries to fill from a subprocessor table is a parameter in a URL.
It is MIT licensed, three weeks old, and it can use any model. The demo in the repository is it walking Fandango to checkout and reporting back the theatre, the showtime, the seat and the total.
What OpenInstinct costs, and how you start
| Channels | iMessage |
|---|---|
| How you start | Self-host it |
| Who starts it | Messages you first |
| Is there an app | Not stated on its own pages |
| Categories | Personal assistants |
| Can do | Email,Calendar and scheduling,Bookings and reservations,Payments,Web research,Task management,Persistent memory |
| Connects to | Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Kernel, Neon, Vercel |
| Pricing | Free and MIT licensed. What it costs is whatever your own Vercel account is billed for the browser, the database, the inference and the iMessage connector. |
| Number type | Not stated on its own pages |
| Contact number | None published |
| Documentation | None linked |
| First message, pre-written | None published |
| Runs on | Linq, provisioned as an iMessage connector by the project's own one-click deploy (source) |
| Browses with | Kernel (source) |
| Number carrier | No number to look up |
| Status | Live |
Does OpenInstinct train on your conversations?
| Trains on your conversations | No policy published |
|---|---|
| Data of people who never signed up | No policy published |
| What it holds when you connect an account | A vault you hold Secrets stay on infrastructure the user runs“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!” |
| If you cancel | No policy published |
| Model providers named | No policy published |
| Jurisdiction | No policy published |
| Security document | None published |
| Asks before acting | Nothing published |
| Prompt injection | Not mentioned anywhere public |
| Bug bounty | None published |
| Availability | Not stated |
OpenInstinct’s own pages answer 3 of the 9 questions this site asks of every listing. Not answered: has a privacy policy, says whether it trains on you, addresses people who never signed up, says what happens if you cancel, names its model providers, says where to report a bug. Fewer than most of its kind: 54th of 56 personal assistants.
Nothing published that a reader can check, looked for on 2026-09-10.
Who makes OpenInstinct
| Company | Merit Systems |
|---|---|
| Founders | Not published |
| Based in | Not published |
| Funding | Not published. An open-source project rather than a company product. |
| Investors | Not published |
| Traction | 306 stars and 46 forks on GitHub. The repository was created on 25 August 2026 and was last pushed to on 8 September 2026. |
From OpenInstinct’s own pages at github.com, last read 2026-09-10.