HKUDS/nanobot

🐈 nanobot is an open-source, ultra-lightweight personal AI agent you can truly own. It keeps the agent core small and readable while giving you the practical pieces for real long-running work: WebUI, chat channels, tools, memory, MCP, model routing, automation, and deployment.

Start Here

You want to...	Go to
Install nanobot with no terminal/config background	Start Without Technical Background
Install quickly and get one CLI reply	Install and Quick Start
Open the bundled browser UI	WebUI
Connect Telegram, Discord, WeChat, Slack, Email, Mattermost, or another chat app	Chat Apps
Configure providers, fallback models, Langfuse, MCP, web tools, or security	Docs and Configuration
Understand or extend the internals	Architecture and Development
Deploy to the cloud in one click	Deploy to Render

Deploy to Render

Deploy nanobot's gateway and bundled WebUI as a single web service with persistent memory. Render reads render.yaml and prompts for two secrets on deploy: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and NANOBOT_WEB_TOKEN (the password that gates the public WebUI — generate a strong random value, e.g. openssl rand -hex 32).

Note: The blueprint attaches a persistent disk so sessions, memory, and WebUI history survive restarts. Persistent disks require a paid service (they are not available on Render's free tier).

What can nanobot do?

nanobot is a self-hosted personal AI agent runtime. It can:

• run in a browser WebUI or terminal
• connect to Telegram, Discord, Slack, WeChat, Email, Mattermost, and other chat apps
• use tools such as files, shell, web search, web fetch, MCP, cron, image generation, and subagents
• keep session history and long-term memory through Dream
• run long-horizon goals and scheduled automations
• expose a Python SDK and OpenAI-compatible API for integrations
• deploy as a long-running local or server-side agent gateway

Latest Release

v0.2.2 - Durability Release

Highlights:

• Segmented WebUI transcripts
• Python SDK runtime controls
• Automation management
• Search/STT provider improvements
• Gateway/session/provider reliability

See full changelog

Open Source Partners

Recent Updates

• 2026-07-12 Explicit /goal activation, safer runtime and workspace access.
• 2026-07-11 Syntax-highlighted previews and diffs, queued prompts, safer edits.
• 2026-07-10 Stable model routing, multiline CLI input, new automation guide.
• 2026-07-09 Live file-edit diffs, safer localhost setup, Matrix image fixes.
• 2026-07-08 Safer WebUI/API setup, onboard refresh, responsive prompt rail.

For older updates, see the release archive or GitHub releases.

💡 Why nanobot

• Persistent workflows: goals, memory, tools, and chat context survive long-running work.
• Chat-native reach: WebUI, API, Telegram, Feishu, Slack, Discord, Teams, email, and Mattermost.
• Model freedom: OpenAI-compatible APIs, local LLMs, image generation, search, and fallbacks.
• Small core: readable internals with MCP, memory, deployment, and automation built in.
• Own your stack: inspect, customize, self-host, and extend without a giant platform.

📦 Install

[!IMPORTANT] If you want the newest features and experiments, install from source.

If you want the most stable day-to-day experience, install from PyPI or with uv.

Pick one install method:

Prerequisites: Python 3.11 or newer. Git is only needed for a source install. Published packages already include the WebUI; a current-source install needs bun or npm to build it.

If terminals, API keys, or config files are new to you, use the guided zero-background walkthrough in Start Without Technical Background instead of this compact README path.

One-command setup

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HKUDS/nanobot/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HKUDS/nanobot/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

The default command installs or upgrades nanobot-ai from PyPI, then starts nanobot onboard --wizard. It avoids system-wide pip installs by using an active virtual environment, uv, pipx, or a managed venv under ~/.nanobot/venv. If Quick Start finishes, skip the manual initialize/configure steps below and go straight to Open the WebUI. The installer also prints the exact command it used to run nanobot; reuse that full command below if nanobot is not on PATH.

To preview the plan without changing your environment, pass --dry-run; combine it with --dev when you want to preview the main-branch install.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HKUDS/nanobot/main/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- --dry-run

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HKUDS/nanobot/main/scripts/install.ps1))) --dry-run

To install the current main branch instead, pass --dev:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HKUDS/nanobot/main/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- --dev

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HKUDS/nanobot/main/scripts/install.ps1))) --dev

If you prefer to inspect the script first, open scripts/install.sh or scripts/install.ps1.

Install with uv

uv tool install nanobot-ai

Install from PyPI with pip

python -m pip install nanobot-ai

If pip reports externally-managed-environment on macOS or Linux, use the one-command installer, uv tool install nanobot-ai, pipx install nanobot-ai, or install inside a virtual environment.

Install from source

bun or npm must be available. From an activated virtual environment:

git clone https://github.com/HKUDS/nanobot.git
cd nanobot
python -m pip install .

On Windows, if pip reports that it cannot launch npm, run cd webui, npm.cmd install --package-lock=false, npm.cmd run build, and cd .. in order, then retry the install. Contributors who need an editable checkout should follow CONTRIBUTING.md and webui/README.md.

Verify the install:

nanobot --version

If nanobot is not on PATH, invoke it through the method that installed it: reuse the recommended installer's command, use uv tool run --from nanobot-ai nanobot ... or pipx run --spec nanobot-ai nanobot ..., or use the Python executable from the environment where pip installed the package.

🚀 Quick Start

1. Initialize

Skip this step if the one-command setup already started the wizard and Quick Start finished there.

nanobot onboard

Use nanobot onboard --wizard if you prefer an interactive setup.

2. Configure (~/.nanobot/config.json)

Skip this step if you already configured provider and model settings in the wizard.

nanobot onboard creates ~/.nanobot/config.json and ~/.nanobot/workspace/. Configure these two parts in the config file. Add or merge the following blocks into the existing file instead of replacing the whole file.

The example below uses a generic OpenAI-compatible custom provider so the compact path does not recommend one hosted service. Provider examples are recipes, not rankings or endorsements. For copyable provider-specific setup, see Provider Cookbook.

Set your API key:

{
  "providers": {
    "custom": {
      "apiKey": "your-api-key",
      "apiBase": "https://api.example.com/v1"
    }
  }
}

Set a model preset and make it active:

{
  "modelPresets": {
    "primary": {
      "label": "Primary",
      "provider": "custom",
      "model": "model-id-from-your-provider",
      "maxTokens": 8192,
      "contextWindowTokens": 200000,
      "temperature": 0.1
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "modelPreset": "primary"
    }
  }
}

Direct agents.defaults.provider and agents.defaults.model still work for existing configs, but named presets are the recommended path because they also power /model switching and fallbackModels.

For another provider, the same config shape still applies:

Replace	Where
Provider config key	providers.<provider>
API key	providers.<provider>.apiKey
Preset provider name	modelPresets.primary.provider
Model ID	modelPresets.primary.model
Endpoint URL, only when needed	providers.<provider>.apiBase

3. Open the WebUI

The stable-compatible path is:

nanobot gateway

Leave the terminal open and visit http://127.0.0.1:8765. Current source versions also provide nanobot webui, which prepares the local WebSocket channel if needed, starts the gateway, and opens the browser automatically. The first-run WebUI binds to 127.0.0.1 by default, so it is not exposed to your LAN. Prefer not to keep a terminal open? Use nanobot gateway --background, then manage it with nanobot gateway status, logs, restart, and stop.

For manual or terminal-only setup, test one CLI message:

nanobot status
nanobot agent -m "Hello!"

In nanobot status, it is normal for most providers to say not set. The active preset's provider should be configured, and Config plus Workspace should show check marks.

If that works, start an interactive chat:

nanobot agent

Need help with PATH, API keys, provider/model matching, or JSON errors? See the fuller Install and Quick Start and Troubleshooting.

• Want a pasteable provider setup? See Provider Cookbook
• Want to understand provider/model matching? See Providers and Models
• Want web search, MCP, security settings, or more config options? See Configuration
• Want to run locally? See Ollama, vLLM or another local OpenAI-compatible server, and the full provider reference.
• Want to run nanobot in chat apps like Telegram, Discord, WeChat or Feishu? See Chat Apps
• Want Docker or Linux service deployment? See Deployment

🌐 WebUI

The WebUI ships inside the published wheel — no extra build step. It is the browser workbench for chat sessions, workspace controls, Apps, Skills, Automations, and settings. For the full user guide, see docs/webui.md.

Open it

nanobot webui

On current source versions, the command enables the local WebSocket channel after confirmation, starts the gateway, and opens http://127.0.0.1:8765. If your installed stable release does not include nanobot webui, run nanobot gateway and open that address manually. To open it from another device on your LAN, see WebUI docs -> LAN access.

The WebUI is served by the WebSocket channel on port 8765 by default. The gateway's 18790 port is for the health endpoint, not the browser UI.

[!TIP] Working on the WebUI itself? Check out webui/README.md for the source-tree, Vite dev server, build, and test workflow.

🏗️ Architecture

🐈 nanobot stays lightweight by centering everything around a small agent loop: messages come in from chat apps, the LLM decides when tools are needed, and memory or skills are pulled in only as context instead of becoming a heavy orchestration layer. That keeps the core path readable and easy to extend, while still letting you add channels, tools, memory, and deployment options without turning the system into a monolith.

✨ Features

📈 24/7 Real-Time Market Analysis	🚀 Full-Stack Software Engineer	📅 Smart Daily Routine Manager	📚 Personal Knowledge Assistant
Discovery • Insights • Trends	Develop • Deploy • Scale	Schedule • Automate • Organize	Learn • Memory • Reasoning

📚 Docs

Browse the repo docs for the latest features and GitHub development version, or visit nanobot.wiki for the stable release documentation.

• Use task-oriented guides: Guides
• Start with no technical background: Start Without Technical Background
• Start from zero with developer basics: Install and Quick Start
• Understand the runtime model: Concepts
• Read the source-level map: Architecture
• Choose a provider/model: Providers and Models
• Copy provider setup recipes: Provider Cookbook
• Debug setup and runtime failures: Troubleshooting
• Talk to your nanobot with familiar chat apps: Chat App AI Agent · Chat Apps
• Schedule or trigger agent work: Automations
• Configure providers, web search, MCP, and runtime behavior: Configuration
• Integrate nanobot with local tools and automations: OpenAI-Compatible API · Python SDK
• Run nanobot with Docker or as a Linux service: Deployment

🤝 Contribute & Roadmap

PRs welcome! The codebase is intentionally small and readable. 🤗

Contribution Flow

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, review, and contribution guidelines.

Roadmap — Pick an item and open a PR!

• Multi-modal — See and hear (images, voice, video)
• Long-term memory — Never forget important context
• Better reasoning — Multi-step planning and reflection
• More integrations — Calendar and more
• Self-improvement — Learn from feedback and mistakes

Contact

Nanobot was started by Xubin Ren as a personal open-source project and is now maintained collaboratively with contributors from the open-source community. Feel free to contact xubinrencs@gmail.com for questions, ideas, or collaboration.

Contributors

Thanks for visiting ✨ nanobot!