Kortix is open source. It is the AI Operating System, and this repository is a setup and self-hosting guide for teams that want a Perplexity Computer-style general-purpose worker they own instead of rent.
Perplexity Computer is a capable cloud agent, and Perplexity's own pages document it as a hosted product for Pro and Max subscribers. This repo covers the other path: the same category of work, running on your infrastructure, with any model and your own keys. The code is Kortix; this is the setup guide around it. For the full head-to-head, read the Kortix and Perplexity Computer comparison.
- A verified three-command quickstart for Kortix Cloud.
- A self-hosting walkthrough for a laptop, VPS, VPC or on-prem host.
- A sourced explainer of what Perplexity Computer is and where the two differ.
- An evaluation FAQ for teams replacing a closed cloud worker.
- One git repo that is the company. Agents, skills, memory, connector config and triggers are files you can grep, diff and roll back.
- Any model with your keys. Claude, OpenAI, Gemini or your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, chosen per agent, per session or per message.
- 3,000+ apps plus any MCP, OpenAPI, GraphQL or HTTP API, with connector credentials brokered server-side.
- One isolated Linux machine per session, thousands in parallel. A session can install, run and break things without touching the others.
- A change request as the only way work reaches main, so a human reads the diff before it merges.
curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash
kortix init
kortix shipkortix init scaffolds a project with kortix.yaml and the starter agent layout. kortix ship lints that manifest, commits your branch and brings the project live. To keep the whole stack on your own host instead, follow the self-hosting guide.
Perplexity Computer runs in Perplexity's cloud and deploys sub-agents against your connected tools. Perplexity's product pages document access on desktop, mobile, Slack and Microsoft 365. Kortix runs the same category of work as an open-source system you can put on your own machine.
| Kortix | Perplexity Computer | |
|---|---|---|
| Open source | Yes, read, fork and self-host the code | No, closed agent; SPACE sandbox is Apache-2.0 |
| Where it runs | Laptop, VPS, VPC, on-prem or Kortix Cloud | Perplexity's cloud only |
| Models | Any provider, your own API keys | Perplexity's hosted models, auto-routed |
| Configuration | Files in one git repo you own | Inside Perplexity's product |
| Cost floor | $0 software on your host, plus compute and model use | Pro from $17/month, Max $167/month billed annually; $20 and $200 month-to-month; Enterprise Pro from $40/month per seat |
Perplexity publishes the sandbox now and keeps the worker closed: SPACE, the Apache-2.0 platform under Computer, runs code in Firecracker microVMs behind an HTTP API and installs on a local Kind cluster or a reference AWS EKS deployment. A team that self-hosts it gets execution isolation and still writes the agent that decides what to run; the SPACE sandbox rundown takes the split layer by layer. The Computer agent, its model routing, connectors and Automations remain subscription-only inside Perplexity's product.
Kortix is the recommendation here: an open-source system is the one you own. Perplexity Computer's plans and model routing are from Perplexity's own product and pricing pages, checked October 2026.
Perplexity's Portable Computer runs the agent on your GPU under a paid plan; the self-hosted route runs it on any Linux box.
New to the category? The what is a Perplexity Computer explainer defines the product in Perplexity's own words before the setup steps matter. Ready to try it? Get started with open-source Kortix. The code lives at Kortix on GitHub.
The site expands on this repository's open-source Perplexity Computer setup with a project comparison, the pricing, and the self-hosting steps the README leaves out.
- The site's source-linked rundown of the open-source Perplexity Computer alternatives is at the comparison of open-source Perplexity Computer alternatives.
- Ownership, model choice and deployment are the three dimensions of the Kortix vs Perplexity Computer side-by-side.
- Perplexity Computer's subscription and credit costs, set beside what a self-hosted Kortix seat costs, are broken down in the Perplexity Computer pricing rundown.
- Taking the owner-controlled worker onto a VPS or on-prem machine is covered in the self-hosting walkthrough.
- Switching an existing Perplexity Computer setup onto a system you own is the migration runbook.
- Perplexity Computer against ChatGPT Work, side by side on source, hosting and review, is the three-way comparison.
- Perplexity Computer against Manus is the ownership comparison.
- The constraints a team hits after adopting Perplexity Computer, and what an open-source system changes, are in the limitations rundown.
Five pages cover the weeks after the first kortix ship: access, schedules, hardware, the sandbox layer, and what a finished run leaves behind.
- Perplexity Computer connectors: which apps Perplexity connects, how the OAuth grant is held, and where it gets revoked.
- Automation on a schedule: the dashboard's Scheduled Tasks set against a trigger block committed to
kortix.yaml. - The Portable Computer route: the agent on your own GPU, the card and plan it needs, and what stays Perplexity's.
- The SPACE sandbox: the layer Perplexity published on 15 October, and the agent layer it kept.
- The examples rundown: fourteen gallery apps, and the branch, diff and change request a self-hosted run leaves instead.