Title: LocalRuntime — Browser, Jupyter, VSCode, and served-app tabs in a self-hosted OpenHands 0.44 deployment Hi all, looking for guidance on getting all four runtime tabs (Browser, Jupyter, VSCode, Served Apps) fully functional in a self-hosted setup. Environment - OpenHands 0.44 (ghcr.io/all-hands-ai/openhands:0.44) - Two deployment shapes side by side: a. Admin server: vanilla compose, uses DockerRuntime spinning up ghcr.io/all-hands-ai/runtime:0.44-nikolaik per conversation. All four tabs work out of the box here. b. Per-developer sandbox: container built FROM ghcr.io/all-hands-ai/openhands:0.44, runs LocalRuntime (RUNTIME=local, LOCAL_RUNTIME_MODE=1, OPENHANDS_REPO_PATH=/app) so we avoid nested docker. This is the one I have questions about. - LiteLLM in front of vLLM serving Qwen3-Coder-30B for the LLM. Sandbox image extras already installed for LocalRuntime to come up cleanly # poetry "runtime" group deps OH server image doesn't bundle RUN /app/.venv/bin/pip install --no-cache-dir \ jupyterlab notebook jupyter_kernel_gateway memory-profiler flake8 # bash sessions RUN apt-get install -y tmux # browser plugin RUN /app/.venv/bin/playwright install --with-deps chromium # real openvscode-server (98 MB), multi-staged in from the official runtime image FROM ghcr.io/all-hands-ai/runtime:0.44-nikolaik AS oh-runtime # ... COPY --from=oh-runtime /openhands/.openvscode-server /openhands/.openvscode-server Without each of these, agent_session start either errors (tmux not on path, No module named memory_profiler, BrowserType.launch: Executable doesn't exist) or hangs (VSCode plugin's stdout-wait loop, until the wait_all plugin timeout fires). What now works in the sandbox - execute_bash via tmux ✓ - browser plugin: browser_env.py: Successfully called env.reset and Browser env started. in logs ✓ - execute_ipython_cell: jupyter-kernelgateway process spawns, ipykernel_launcher is a child ✓ - str_replace_editor: writes files to /workspace ✓ - VSCode: tab loads in the UI, GET /vscode/connection_token returns 200 (just installed the real binary, untested end-to-end) - Served-Apps tab: file_viewer_server starts at localhost:<port> per startup log Specific questions I'd love help on 1. Is there a canonical list of dependencies LocalRuntime requires? I peeled them off one stack trace at a time (tmux → memory_profiler → playwright → jupyter group → openvscode-server). A reference list would be great for anyone else building a custom sandbox image off the OH server image. 2. VSCode plugin under LocalRuntime: is copying /openhands/.openvscode-server/ from the nikolaik image the supported approach, or is there an official install path? My current Dockerfile uses a multi-stage COPY --from=ghcr.io/all-hands-ai/runtime:0.44-nikolaik. Works, but feels brittle. 3. Jupyter plugin in LocalRuntime mode specifically needs LOCAL_RUNTIME_MODE=1 and OPENHANDS_REPO_PATH=/app env vars to look in the local .venv instead of nikolaik's /openhands/poetry/... path. Is that documented anywhere, or did I figure that out by reading source? 4. Served-Apps tab discovery: how does the UI know which ports inside the runtime container are "apps the agent has served"? I see file_viewer_server listening on a random high port; does the UI pick up any listener, or does the agent need to call a specific tool to register the app? 5. MCP tools create_pr and create_mr appear in every conversation's tool list unconditionally (loaded from openhands/server/routes/mcp.py). They fail when no GitHub token is set (LocalProtocolError: Illegal header value b'Bearer '). What's the supported way to disable them at server-config time without forking? I haven't found a config flag. 6. Microagent reload semantics: when I edit a file in the mounted microagents folder, current conversations don't pick it up. I believe agent_session.start() caches the prompt at init and only new conversations see edits. Is that correct? Is there a hot-reload endpoint or pattern others use during microagent development?

Hey--this is a very old version of OpenHands! We're on 1.7.0 (vs 0.44.0) and have retired the

runtime

image entirely

Separately, would love to understand your use case for OpenHands 🙂 Are you looking to deploy it as a self-hosted personal AI coding agent? Or are you looking to customize the UI or agent behavior to meet a specific use case? Let us know and we'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

Can it be both? I was looking to create a personalized experience using openhands to meet different use cases where I could get any task done just by giving it a prompt

Absolutely!

Wow that sounds awesome. It's my first time really tackling all this so I’m really excited to learn more about the opportunities. I’ve even been using Claude code to help with development.