Why Open Source
Why FoundersOS is MIT-licensed, self-hosted, and built with no lock-in.
Running a small business shouldn’t require a suite of expensive SaaS tools or a computer science degree. Your AI should just know your business. That belief is why FoundersOS is open source, and why it’s built the way it is.
Your data, your database
FoundersOS runs against your own Supabase project. Your customers, finances, tasks, and memories live in standard PostgreSQL tables that you own. Your data never passes through our servers. If you ever want to leave, everything is right there - export it, query it, do whatever you want with it. There’s no proprietary format and no exit tax.
No lock-in, by design
Because FoundersOS is built on the Model Context Protocol - an open standard backed by Anthropic and adopted by a growing list of AI tools - you’re not tied to any single AI. Use it with Claude Desktop today and switch to something else tomorrow. The tools come with you.
No “open core” catch
The entire codebase is MIT-licensed. That means you can read every line, modify it for your own needs, use it commercially with no strings attached, and nobody can take it away from you.
There’s no premium tier waiting in the wings and no critical feature held back behind a paywall. The tools you see today are the tools you get. When something new gets built, it goes in the same repo.
Built to actually help
FoundersOS is built by OurThinkTank, a small team that believes in tools that help people rather than lock them in. Open source keeps us honest: if the tool stops being useful, you can fork it, fix it, or walk away. That’s the point.
Open source. Plain language. No lock-in. Your data, your rules.