This is the inbox from my post. WhatsApp, Telegram and email in one list, on a computer or a server you own, with an assistant called Donna who sorts what is waiting on you and drafts your replies. Nothing sends until you press Send.
I built it because I already pay for Claude, and I did not want one more subscription. So it runs on the AI you already have.
On my own copy I found 4 opportunities hiding in my inboxes, and finally answered people who had been sitting in my DMs for weeks (sorry guys).
Below is what it does, what it costs, where it runs, and what to know before you connect. At the bottom, two ways to get it: I set it up with you, or you take the code.
What it does
One inbox. Every WhatsApp chat, Telegram chat and email in one list, with one search across all of them. You reply from the same place, on the app the message came in on.
Donna sorts. She works out who is waiting on you, what you promised to get back to, and who went quiet after your last message. Login codes and newsletters get filed away by simple rules, so the AI only reads what the rules can't settle. That keeps it cheap.
Donna drafts. Replies in your voice, learned from how you write on each app. How long, how casual, which language.
Ask your inbox. Type or say "what did Sam say about the proposal?" She looks it up herself, and every answer links to the messages it came from.
A pipeline built in. Every work chat gets a stage and a next step, so a proposal from three weeks ago doesn't slip.
Only you send. Donna writes. You press Send. Send later works too, at the time you pick.
What it costs
The AI is the expensive part of any AI inbox, and you probably pay for it already. Founder OS runs on whichever one you pick:
Your Claude or ChatGPT subscription. Through their own official tools, with your own login. It's your account, so check their terms. An API key avoids the question.
An API key from Anthropic or OpenAI. The one I suggest on a server, because it answers faster.
A model on your own machine, like Ollama. Nothing leaves the box.
No AI at all. The inbox still works: sorting by rules, and no drafts.
The maths from my post. Every app's own AI, on two Gmails, Slack, LinkedIn and WhatsApp: $570 a month (Frank Greeff added it up). Kinso, the best AI inbox I've seen: $59 a month at launch, in Frank's own post. Founder OS: $0 extra on a computer you already have.
A server is the one cost that can come on top. Prices change often, so compare on the provider's own page.
Where it runs
Messages arrive all day and WhatsApp needs a live link, so it lives on a machine that stays on.
A computer at home. A Mac, or one running Linux. Turn off sleep and it runs quietly in the background.
A small server. 4 GB of memory and Ubuntu 24.04. Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr and Akamai all work, and all have a Singapore site.
Your laptop. Fine for trying it, but only while it's awake.
On your phone it opens like an app. The easy way in is Tailscale, an app that links your own devices privately (free for personal use), so your inbox opens on your phone and nowhere else. No domain to buy, nothing open to the internet.
Check you have what it needs
Five ticks and you can install it yourself in about 15 minutes. Fewer, and the call at the bottom is the faster way.
How it installs
Once you have access, the email I send you has one line to paste into your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex or Cursor). That line is the whole instruction.
It reads the setup guide inside the code and walks you through the rest: where to run it, the install, the AI, and linking each app. You type passwords into the inbox or your own terminal, never into the chat.
No coding agent? It's one command on a server, and the guide in the code shows it. It takes about five minutes, and it comes back by itself after a restart.
You're done when the inbox opens in your browser and your chats start filling it.
Know what each app allows
In plain words, so you decide with the facts in front of you.
WhatsApp doesn't allow unofficial connections like this one. Most accounts are fine, but one can be limited or banned, most often after messaging lots of numbers that never wrote to you first. So Founder OS asks twice before a first message to someone new, and stops at five a day.
Telegram's API terms (section 1.5) say not to use Telegram data for AI. Founder OS sends your Telegram messages to the AI you pick, so read them and decide. With no AI picked, nothing goes to one.
Email connects the standard way every mail app does, with an app password you can take back any time.
What it won't do
- No Slack, LinkedIn or Instagram yet. WhatsApp, Telegram and email for now. Slack is next.
- It won't send anything by itself. On purpose. Donna writes, you press.
- It isn't a hosted app. You run it on your own machine. That's why it's free, and why your messages stay yours.
- No Windows yet. A Mac, a Linux computer or a server.
- It's for one person. Not a shared team inbox.
- It's early. It works end to end, and I'm still adding to it.
I set it up with you
Tell me which apps you use and I install it on your machine with you. Your chats linked, your voice learned, running before we hang up. You own it, and there is nothing to subscribe to.
Book a callOr take the code
Free, under an open-source licence. For now I let people in one by one, so I can help the first ones through setup. Leave your email and I'll send you access myself.