An open-source AI sales agent is code you read before it runs. SalesGPT is a context-aware sales-conversation library you embed in your own service, with sales stages and a product-catalog tool built in. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: the agent, its permissions and the rules on the send live as files in a repo you own.
Kortix hosts the repo, or you connect your own. Agents, skills, memory, tools, triggers and connectors are files in it.
Source: https://kortix.com/docs
Open source. Read it, fork it, audit it.
The layout, the permissions and the send, in three places you can open.
Read the folder before anyone runs it: agents/ holds the persona, skills/ holds how your team does a follow-up, memory/ holds what the agent has learned, and kortix.yaml holds the rules.
`kortix.yaml` is the manifest at the root of a project repository. It declares the agents and what each one may reach, plus the triggers, connectors, secret names, sandbox templates, harness settings and Apps of the project.The project's `manifest_path` (default `kortix.yaml`) sets where Kortix looks.The starter agent ships with kortix_permissions: all. Drop project.gitops.merge from that list and its change requests wait for a person to merge them.
kortix_version: 2default_agent: supportagents: support: file: agents/support.md connectors: [helpdesk] secrets: [HELPDESK_API_KEY] skills: [kortix-cli, triage] kortix_permissions: [project.session.read, project.review.submit]The agent researches and drafts freely, but nothing goes out on its own: every follow-up stops at a human approval gate as a draft for a person to review and send.No message reaches a lead without a person reviewing the draft and sending it.Only the drafts it produces are written back out.Each item sits where a reviewer opens it, and the comparison hub sets the managed SDRs beside this setup.
The agent's persona, skills and permissions are files in the repo, versioned and changed through a reviewed change request, not a dashboard setting.
Session work arrives as a change request, so you read a diff of the files the agent touched before any of it lands. Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. The self-hosted setup keeps that review on infrastructure you control.
Connector credentials are brokered server-side and never enter the machine, and the HubSpot, email and calendar secrets are injected at runtime, scoped to the agents you grant them to.
Kortix cells come from its docs and its published lead follow-up flow; each rival cell comes from that rival’s own page.
| Product | What it is | Open source | What you get | What you still build | The approval gate | Where the rules live | How it is priced | The record of a run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kortix | Open-source AI Operating System that runs a sales agent you own | Yes | Agent files, permissions, connectors and triggers; any provider with your own keys | Nothing before the first run; the repo is the agent | A permission list and tool rules in your repo | Files a change request reviews | Credits pay for the agent computer, billed per second while it runs | Every action is recorded; reading the audit log depends on the plan |
| SalesGPT | Open-source sales-conversation agent for voice, email and messaging | Yes | Conversation stages, product-catalog tools, 50+ models through LiteLLM | The service around the library: hosting, schedules, storage, approvals | Your own code decides; the library steps only when called | The application you build around it | No price on the repo; you bring model keys and hosting | Whatever logging your service adds |
| AiSDR | Managed AI SDR that runs your outbound for you | No | Campaigns, lead lists, sequences and a unified inbox; Ami runs them | Nothing to build; you buy the outbound motion | In AiSDR: you can pause outbound at any time | Inside AiSDR’s platform, set per client | $1.50 per person contacted; built for 1,000+ a month | Contact activity logged in the CRM |
Rival cells come from each project’s own README or pricing page, checked October 2026. Kortix cells come from its docs and its lead follow-up flow. The Kortix vs AiSDR page takes the per-contact trade-off further.
Short answers on what exists, and on the price of each.
Yes. Kortix is one, an open-source AI Operating System where the agent, its skills, its memory and its permissions are files in a repo you own. SalesGPT is another: a sales-conversation library you embed in your own service.
Yes. AiSDR sells an agent that runs outbound for you, and Kortix runs a sales agent you own, which researches a lead and drafts the follow-up; its lead follow-up flow holds the send for a person. The managed tools send the sequence themselves.
AiSDR bills $1.50 per person contacted, and its pricing page describes the plan as built for teams contacting 1,000 or more people a month. Credits pay for the agent computer, billed per second while it runs and nothing while it is stopped, and self-host is free.
Point a trigger at new leads, keep a person on the send, then read what the run changed.