[opensourcedex]

astron-rpa is a free, open source automation project written in Python and released under Apache-2.0. It has 5,564 GitHub stars, 598 forks and 55 open issues, and was last pushed yesterday. On this registry it ranks #27 of 54 tracked projects in Automation, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 8 stars over the last 3 tracked days.

What is astron-rpa?

What it is

AstronRPA is an open-source, enterprise-grade Robotic Process Automation desktop application written in Java and released under the Apache-2.0 license. It provides a visual designer for low-code and no-code development, letting users build automation workflows through drag-and-drop rather than hand-written scripts. The project lives in the iflytek/astron-rpa repository and sits in the broader iFlytek Astron ecosystem, alongside Astron Agent, which serves as its native agent platform. Topics attached to the repository — agent, ai, llm, mcp, low-code, no-code, enterprise, data-privacy, and on-premise — describe that ecosystem positioning.

The concrete problem it solves is the gap between isolated task automation and intelligent decision-making. AstronRPA automates Windows desktop applications and web pages, including office suites such as WPS and Office, financial and ERP systems such as Kingdee and YonYou, and browsers such as IE, Edge, and Chrome. Because it integrates bidirectionally with Astron Agent, RPA workflow nodes can be called from agent workflows, and agent workflows can be used inside AstronRPA. That connection links task reasoning and decision-making to automated execution, instead of leaving them as separate systems that a human must bridge.

Key capabilities

  • Visual low-code and no-code process design with an integrated debugging environment.
  • More than 300 pre-built atomic capabilities covering UI operations, data processing, and system interactions.
  • Cross-application automation spanning Windows desktop software and web pages in IE, Edge, and Chrome.
  • Native bidirectional integration with the Astron Agent platform, allowing RPA nodes to be invoked as agent tools and agent workflows to be invoked from RPA.
  • Multiple trigger channels: direct execution, scheduled tasks, scheduling modes, API calls, and MCP services.
  • Enterprise collaboration features including an excellence center, a team marketplace, terminal monitoring, robot team sharing, and permission control.
  • Custom component extension on top of the visual orchestration model.

Who uses it and how

  • Enterprises automating workflows that cross office software, ERP systems, and browsers in one process.
  • Teams sharing robots through the team marketplace and assigning scheduled or API-triggered runs.
  • Developers extending the component library with custom atomic capabilities.
  • Agent builders exposing RPA workflow nodes as callable tools inside Astron Agent.
  • Business users participating in automation creation through the drag-and-drop designer.

Getting started

Server deployment uses Docker: clone the repository, copy docker/.env.example to docker/.env, configure the public HTTPS names and Casdoor endpoint, place a TLS certificate and private key at docker/certs/tls.crt and docker/certs/tls.key, then run docker compose up -d. The desktop client requires Windows 10 or 11 and at least 8 GiB of RAM.

When to use it — and when not to

Choose AstronRPA when automation must reach legacy Windows desktop applications and browsers that lack clean APIs, and when agent-driven reasoning needs to trigger real UI actions. A self-hoster must operate the full Docker Compose stack, including the Casdoor authentication service, valid TLS certificates covering both the RPA and auth hostnames, and the reverse-proxy configuration in the environment file — this is not a single-container install. The clearest limitation in the available facts is platform scope: the client targets Windows 10 and 11 as primary support, so macOS and Linux desktops are not covered.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

AstronRPA

AstronRPA Logo

🤖 Pioneering Open-Source Enterprise RPA Desktop Application

iflytek%2Fastron-rpa | Trendshift

Astron RPA Official Site · Deployment Guide · User Documentation · FAQ

License Version Python GitHub Stars

English | 简体中文

📋 Overview

AstronRPA is an enterprise-grade Robotic Process Automation (RPA) desktop application. Through a visual designer, it supports low-code/no-code development, enabling users to rapidly build workflows and automate desktop software and web pages.

Astron Agent is the native Agent platform supported by this project. Users can directly call RPA workflow nodes in Astron Agent, and also use Agent workflows in AstronRPA, achieving efficient collaboration between automation processes and intelligent agent systems, empowering broader business automation scenarios.

🎯 Why Choose AstronRPA?

  • 🛠️ Comprehensive Automation Support: Comprehensive coverage of Windows desktop applications and web page automation. Supports common office software like WPS and Office, financial and ERP systems like Kingdee and YonYou, and various browsers like IE, Edge, and Chrome, enabling end-to-end cross-application automation.
  • 🧩 Highly Component-based: 300+ pre-built atomic capabilities covering UI operations, data processing, and system interactions. Supports visual orchestration and custom component extensions with high flexibility and maintainability.
  • 🏭 Enterprise-grade Security & Collaboration: Built-in excellence center and team marketplace with enterprise modules. Provides terminal monitoring, scheduling modes, robot team sharing and collaborative functions. Build a complete enterprise automation management ecosystem with process security, permission control, and cross-team collaboration.
  • 👨‍💻 Developer-friendly Experience: Low-code, visual process design and debugging environment. Quickly build automation workflows through intuitive drag-and-drop methods, reducing development barriers, improving development efficiency, and enabling business users to participate in automation creation.
  • 🤖 Native Agent Empowerment: Deep integration with Astron Agent platform supporting bi-directional calls between automation processes and AI agents with capability fusion. Achieve seamless connection between task reasoning, decision making, and automated execution, expanding automation boundaries.
  • 🌐 Multi-channel Trigger Integration: Supports direct execution, scheduled tasks, scheduling modes, API calls, and MCP services. Flexible integration capabilities to quickly respond to third-party system integration needs and easily embed in complex business scenarios.

🚀 Quick Start

System Requirements

  • 💻 Client Operating System: Windows 10/11 (primary support)
  • 🧠 RAM >= 8 GiB

Server: Deploy with Docker

Recommended for quick deployment:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/iflytek/astron-rpa.git
cd astron-rpa

# Enter docker directory
cd docker

# Copy .env
cp .env.example .env

# Configure the public HTTPS names in .env
RPA_SERVER_NAME="rpa.example.com"
CASDOOR_SERVER_NAME="auth.example.com"
RPA_HTTPS_REDIRECT_AUTHORITY="rpa.example.com"
CASDOOR_HTTPS_REDIRECT_AUTHORITY="auth.example.com:8443"
CASDOOR_EXTERNAL_ENDPOINT="https://auth.example.com:8443"

# Copy a certificate covering both names and its private key
# to docker/certs/tls.crt and docker/certs/tls.key

# 🚀 Start all services
docker compose up -d

# 📊 Check service status
docker compose ps
  • After all services have started, open your browser and go to: https://rpa.example.com/api/rpa-auth/user/login-check.
  • If you see {"code":"900001","data":null,"message":"unauthorized"}, it means the deployment is correct and the connection is working properly.
  • Open your browser and go to: https://auth.example.com:8443.
  • If you see the Casdoor login page, it means Casdoor is deployed correctly.
  • For production deployment and security hardening, refer to the Deployment Guide.

Client: Source Deployment/Binary Deployment

Environment Dependencies
Tool Version Description
Node.js >= 22 JavaScript runtime
Python 3.13.x RPA engine core
Java JDK 8+ Backend runtime
pnpm >= 9 Node.js package manager
UV 0.8+ Python package management tool
7-Zip - Create deployment archives
SWIG - Connect Python with C/C++

For specific installation instructions and common issues, refer to Build Guide.

Direct Download (Recommended)

Download the latest Release Package

One-Click Build

  1. Prepare Python Environment

    # Prepare a Python 3.13.x installation directory (can be a local folder or system installation path)
# The script will copy this directory to create python_core

  2. Run Build Script

    # Full build (engine + frontend + desktop app) from project root directory
./build.bat --python-exe "C:\Program Files\Python313\python.exe"

# Or use default configuration (if Python is in default path)
./build.bat

# Wait for completion
# Build successful when console displays "Full Build Complete!"

    Note: Please ensure the specified Python interpreter is a clean installation without additional third-party packages to minimize package size.

    Build process includes:

    1. ✅ Detect/copy Python environment to build/python_core
    2. ✅ Install RPA engine dependencies
    3. ✅ Compress Python core to resources/python_core.7z
    4. ✅ Install frontend dependencies
    5. ✅ Build frontend web application
    6. ✅ Build desktop application

  3. 📦 Install the packaged client

⚙️ After installation, modify the server address in resources/conf.yaml in the installation directory:
```yaml
remote_addr: https://rpa.example.com/
skip_engine_start: false
```

🏗️ Architecture Overview

The project adopts a frontend-backend separation architecture. The frontend is built with Vue 3 + TypeScript and Electron for desktop applications; the backend uses Java Spring Boot and Python FastAPI to build microservices supporting business and AI capabilities. The engine layer is based on Python, integrating 20+ RPA components with support for image recognition and UI automation. The entire system is deployed via Docker with high observability and scalability, designed for complex RPA scenarios.

Architecture Overview

📦 Component Ecosystem

Core Component Packages

  • astronverse.system: System operations, process management, screenshots
  • astronverse.browser: Browser automation, web page operations
  • astronverse.gui: GUI automation, mouse and keyboard operations
  • astronverse.excel: Excel spreadsheet operations, data processing
  • astronverse.vision: Computer vision, image recognition
  • astronverse.ai: AI intelligent service integration
  • astronverse.network: Network requests, API calls
  • astronverse.email: Email sending and receiving
  • astronverse.docx: Word document processing
  • astronverse.pdf: PDF document operations
  • astronverse.encrypt: Encryption and decryption functions

Execution Framework

  • astronverse.actionlib: Atomic operation definition and execution
  • astronverse.executor: Workflow execution engine
  • astronverse.picker: Workflow element picker engine
  • astronverse.scheduler: Engine scheduler
  • astronverse.trigger: Engine trigger

Shared Libraries

  • astronverse.baseline: RPA framework core
  • astronverse.websocketserver: WebSocket communication
  • astronverse.websocketclient: WebSocket communication
  • astronverse.locator: Element locating technology

📚 Documentation

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is astron-rpa free to use?

astron-rpa is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does astron-rpa do?

Agent-ready RPA suite with out-of-the-box automation tools. Built for individuals and enterprises.

What is astron-rpa written in?

astron-rpa is primarily written in Python. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/iflytek/astron-rpa, and it has 5,564 GitHub stars.