# The open-source Claude Tag alternative.

Claude Tag and pi-durable-bot (Pots) both read the channel and decide when to act. Pots is open source, runs on any machine you choose, and works with any model.

Facts checked 2026-11-10. All comparisons: https://pots.sh/alternatives.md

## Short answer

Pots is an open-source AI coworker that decides when to act and works on its own computer. Claude Tag is Anthropic's Claude in Slack; it also reads untagged messages and decides itself whether to act. The differences are open source, self-hosting and model choice.

## What Claude Tag is

Claude Tag puts Claude in Slack as a team member that anyone in a channel can tag. By default it also reads untagged messages and decides for each one whether to reply, offer help or start work. Each thread runs in a sandbox on Anthropic's infrastructure; it is a public beta for Team and Enterprise.

Sources: [Introducing Claude Tag](https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-claude-tag), [When Claude responds](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/users/when-claude-responds), [Security and data](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/concepts/security-and-data)

## Pots and Claude Tag, side by side

| | pi-durable-bot (Pots) | Claude Tag |
|---|---|---|
| Source code | Open, MIT | Closed |
| Where it runs | Any machine you choose | The maker's cloud; self-hosted runners optional, the service stays hosted |
| Model | Any: your subscription, 40+ providers, or a local model | Claude Opus and Sonnet; you can switch |
| Where you talk to it | Any channel (Slack, Discord, Telegram, and more) | Slack |
| Your data | On your machine, in each bot's folder | On the maker's cloud |
| Change the agent itself | Yes. It is your code | No. Connectors, plugins, skills |
| Run all of it yourself | Yes. Gateway, agent, log and memory on your machine | No. Runners execute in your network; control plane and conversation go to Anthropic |

Claude Tag cells: Anthropic's public pages, checked 2026-11-10. Your data: with a local model for the agent and the judge, nothing leaves your machine; with a hosted model, requests go to the provider you chose.

## Pick Claude Tag if

- Your team works in Slack and has Claude Team or Enterprise.
- You want Anthropic to host it, with no machine to keep.
- You want admin controls: channel access, spend limits, an action log.
- You want a fresh sandbox per thread, outbound traffic denied by default.

## Pick Pots if

- You want the source code, under MIT.
- You want all of it on your machine, not only the runners.
- You want any model, including a local one.

## Other open-source alternatives to Claude Tag

Open-source projects on GitHub that name or tag Claude Tag, found on 2026-11-10. We have not tested them.

- [agentconnect-md/agentconnect](https://github.com/agentconnect-md/agentconnect): Apache-2.0.
- [linxidnju/OpenTag](https://github.com/linxidnju/OpenTag): License not detected. A Slack agent gateway, tagged claude-tag.
- [fancyboi999/open-tag](https://github.com/fancyboi999/open-tag): Apache-2.0.
- [AgentBull/ankole](https://github.com/AgentBull/ankole): Apache-2.0.
- [Anil-matcha/open-claude-tag](https://github.com/Anil-matcha/open-claude-tag): MIT.

## Questions

### Does Claude Tag read messages that do not tag it?

Yes. By default it reads messages in its channels, tagged or not, and decides for each whether to act; a mention only guarantees a reply.

### Can I self-host Claude Tag?

Partly. Team and Enterprise can run sessions on self-hosted runners (public beta), but the control plane, the conversation and, by default, model inference still go to Anthropic.

### Can Pots use Claude models?

Yes. `pots login` can sign in with a Claude subscription or an API key; any other model pi supports works too.

### Is Pots affiliated with Anthropic?

No. The other products as their makers described them in public, checked 2026-11-10; they may have changed since. Grok Bot, dots, Claude Duet, Claude Tag and Muse are products of SpaceXSI, OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta. pi-durable-bot is not affiliated with any of them.

## Sources

- [Introducing Claude Tag](https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-claude-tag)
- [Claude Tag overview](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/overview)
- [When Claude responds](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/users/when-claude-responds)
- [Models](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/users/models)
- [Security and data](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/concepts/security-and-data)
- [Data lifecycle](https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/concepts/data-lifecycle)
- [Self-hosted environments](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/self-hosted-environments)

The other products as their makers described them in public, checked 2026-11-10; they may have changed since. Grok Bot, dots, Claude Duet, Claude Tag and Muse are products of SpaceXSI, OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta. pi-durable-bot is not affiliated with any of them.

## Get started

```
npm install -g pi-durable-bot
pots init
```

Repository: https://github.com/Crokily/pi-durable-bot · For AI agents: https://pots.sh/agents.md