Andrew Ng announced the release of a new version of the open-source desktop proxy OpenWorker, which introduces a security "collaborator" aimed at developers and defenders, covering code vulnerabilities, dependency supply chain, and cloud configuration risk checks.

OpenWorker is not just a chat tool, but a proxy framework that runs locally on users' computers: it can access local files, terminals, and authorized external applications, breaking down tasks to generate reports, repair suggestions, code branches, or pending approval actions. The project is currently in public testing.

The new Security Reviewer can call Semgrep and key scanners, filtering results based on whether vulnerabilities are actually reachable rather than just severity, and creating pending Pull Requests for fixes that conform to codebase style; the product promises not to print keys in plaintext in conversation logs.

Dependency Audit scans dependencies and lock files, identifying vulnerable packages and prioritizing actionable risks, proposing the minimum security upgrades that meet repair conditions; it requires user approval before modifying lock files and will not merge changes if tests fail.

Cloud Posture checks Terraform and AWS real configurations in a read-only manner, generating Terraform repair plans and attaching evidence commands after discovering attack surfaces such as public buckets and overly broad IAM permissions; this collaborator does not write directly to the cloud environment and will not execute terraform apply.

OpenWorker sets key external actions as approval thresholds: before sending emails, posting Slack messages, opening GitHub Pull Requests, executing shell commands, and modifying calendars, the proxy must request confirmation. The project supports users bringing their own API keys for models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc., as well as open-weight models like DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen, Mistral, and can run completely locally via Ollama.

Its open-source "harness" includes proxy loops, tool calls, connectors, key storage, and permission control layers. OpenWorker claims that conversations, connector tokens, and model keys are stored in the local key vault on the machine; the only optional cloud component is used to host part of the OAuth connection process, with tokens directly handed to user devices without being stored in the cloud. The code is licensed under the MIT License, and the GitHub repository currently has about 4,700 stars and 618 forks.

In terms of market mechanisms, security teams and development teams can delegate repetitive tasks such as initial vulnerability screening, dependency auditing, and cloud configuration reviews to local or chosen models, shifting expenses from manual code reviews and independent SaaS scans to model APIs, endpoint management, open-source proxy integration, and security validation. Beneficiaries include proxy infrastructure providers with local deployment, tool invocation, auditable logs, and approval control capabilities; closed security proxies that cannot explain data flows, permission boundaries, and action logs face higher procurement resistance when handling sensitive code.

Source: Public Information