How to set up a desktop AI agent on your own machine, route its model calls through a local proxy, and stop paying $20/month for chatbots that only talk. There is a meaningful gap between AI tools that describe what to do and AI tools that do it. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity — these are chat boxes. You ask, they answer in words, and you are still the one opening PowerPoint, dragging files around, summarizing the webpage by hand. The actual work hasn't moved. The newer category — agentic desktop apps — closes that gap. Anthropic shipped Claude Cowork. The open-source community shipped Open Cowork, which does the same thing without locking you to one vendor. Pair it with Lynkr, a local Anthropic-compatible proxy, and you get a complete AI agent stack running on your own machine with no monthly subscription. This article explains what Open Cowork is, what Lynkr is, why they pair well together, and how to set up the integration end to end. Part I — What Is Open Cowork?…