The OpenWorker Starter Kit — Andrew Ng's Free AI Coworker That Hands You Finished Files, Not Chat (Setup + 3 Tested Prompts + Safety Checklist)
The companion to the full video where we installed OpenWorker on launch week, gave it three real jobs, and planted a trap in the files to see if it would catch it. It caught it. OpenWorker (github.com/andrewyng/openworker, MIT, from Andrew Ng and Rohit Prasad) is the free, open-source desktop AI coworker: you ask for an outcome, it works across your granted folders, and it saves a finished file — asking permission before every consequential action. INSIDE: (1) WHAT OPENWORKER IS AND IS NOT — the facts table: free, MIT, open beta; Mac signed, Windows shipping but unsigned; bring any model key or run Ollama locally for $0; 40 connectors listed in-app plus anything MCP; local-first, works without signing in. (2) THE 5-STEP SETUP — download, connect a model (with the zero-dollar Ollama path), the 'Continue without sign-in' privacy move, and folder grants with write access. (3) THE 3 TESTED PROMPTS WORD FOR WORD — the customer brief that cross-read a contract against an email thread and caught a planted 45-vs-52 seat mismatch unprompted; the spreadsheet report where it wrote its own Python and matched my ground truth to the dollar ($15,454 across 60 orders); and the folder cleanup that renamed five chaos-named invoices perfectly and totaled payables exact to the cent ($2,978.22). Plus the OUTCOME → SOURCE → DESTINATION prompt shape that went 3-for-3 first try. (4) THE SAFETY CHECKLIST — the approval gate with full file previews, the on-camera Deny test ('1 declined', no file written), the per-session folder-grant rule that costs newcomers a session, and the habit worth keeping: deny one action on purpose, because a brake you've never tested is not a brake. (5) THE DECISION CARD — who should install today, who should let the beta polish, and why OpenWorker plus a local model is the best free option we've tested for data that can't leave the building. Every claim verified against github.com/andrewyng/openworker and openworker.com on July 24, 2026. Independent field kit from Hyperautomation Labs — not affiliated with OpenWorker, Andrew Ng, or AI Fund.
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