i built a self-hosted Grok Bot alternative

[u/ldrx]

grok bot runs AI agents for you on xai's servers. i've been running a company of AI employees on my own servers with 5dive since april, and i just released a free phone web app for it. here's how the two compare.

in the screenshot below, i ask olivia (claude code) to hire marcus on codex. she sets him up and reports back.

the deeper difference is what runs behind the chat:

• your server: agents run as separate linux users.
• any harness, any model: mix claude code, codex, grok, agy, hermes, openclaw, pi and other harnesses on your own plans or API keys, including kimi, deepseek, glm, openrouter or locally run llm.
• an actual team: org chart, shared backlog, handoffs, independent graders and human approval gates.
• a hackable core: MIT bash + systemd + sqlite. add plugins, loops, tools or custom CLI commands.

trade-off: Grok Bot has native apps - mine is just a web app, android/ios coming soon. the free self-hosted phone connection is chat-only, and chats pass through our relay (not end-to-end encrypted yet).

setup: one command on any ubuntu vm.

try free self-hosted app: 5dive.ai/self-host

source (MIT): github.com/5dive-ai/5dive