Run the team server yourself
Learn how self-hosting an OpenBot team server works, where conversations and files live, what the account service handles, and who is responsible for uptime.
OpenBot keeps your agents, threads, workspaces and files on your own computer.
What a team adds
A team is what you want when a second person needs to see the work. One computer runs the host, the others join it, and the chats and files stay on the machine that runs the host. If you run that host yourself, it is your hardware and your network.
What the account is for
There is an account service, and it is deliberately small. It holds accounts, avatars, memberships, invitations and the configuration that lets one computer find another. It does not hold your conversations, your files or your commands.
The account service is separate from the team server. With self-hosting, the host and your work run on hardware you control. With an OpenBot hosted server, OpenBot provides the Linux machine and your team's work stays there instead of on your own computer. The account service still handles memberships and invitations. See our guide to OpenBot hosted servers for the plans and setup.
In other words, the account service handles the connection between people and servers; the team server is where the shared work lives.
The trade you are making
Self-hosting means uptime is yours. If the machine that runs the host is asleep, the team is offline, and no one else is going to wake it up for you. That is the cost, and it is worth knowing before you build a workflow that depends on it.