[opensourcedex]

Octop is a free, open source ai development platforms project written in Python and released under MIT. It has 3,743 GitHub stars, 394 forks and 234 open issues, and was last pushed 4 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #105 of 139 tracked projects in AI Development Platforms, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

What is Octop?

Octop is an MIT-licensed, self-hosted AI assistant platform in Python that gives households and small teams a multi-user, multi-agent environment running entirely on their own machine.

What it is

Octop is an open-source AI assistant platform built around a multi-user, multi-agent architecture. It runs as a single process that serves a web dashboard, a CLI, IM channels, and cron automation at once, all sharing one control-plane database under ~/.octop/ — SQLite with WAL by default, PostgreSQL optional. The agent runtime is harness-agent, the gateway is harness-gateway, and the stack is Python 3.12+, FastAPI with uvicorn, and a React 18 + TypeScript + Vite frontend.

The concrete problem it solves is the trade between capability and data ownership. Hosted assistant products centralise conversations, workspaces, and credentials on vendor infrastructure. Octop moves all of that to the operator's machine: the design goal is to keep every conversation, workspace, and credential local while still giving each user a personal team of specialized agents they can switch between per task. It replaces the hosted assistant service a small team or household would otherwise rent, and it replaces scattered single-purpose bots with one control plane that spans chat channels, terminal, browser, and desktop.

Key capabilities

  • Multi-user isolation enforced with JWT, plus tool approval, shell command guardrails, and PII redaction.
  • Expert library of switchable specialists, with 16 MBTI persona templates and an interactive quiz.
  • Chat through the Web Dashboard, Feishu, DingTalk, QQ, Discord, and WeCom, or programmatically over HTTP, SSE, and WebSocket.
  • Connectors using OAuth and an MCP gateway, including the Tencent suite for Docs, Weibo trends, and News.
  • Pluggable storage backends: local disk, Docker containers, PostgreSQL, or COS/S3, so agents operate inside isolated boundaries.
  • Portable memory powered by harness-memory, migrating with the workspace, plus a RAG knowledge base for semantic retrieval over private documents.
  • octop acp for bidirectional ACP in IDE and terminal workflows, delegating to OpenCode or Claude Code behind permission gates.
  • Terminal AI+ interactive shell in the browser, Browser AI+ headless Chromium sessions for automation and screenshots, and remote desktop with live screen and input on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Who uses it and how

  • Individuals run a dedicated agent for weekly reports, notes, and scheduling, with memory persisting alongside the workspace.
  • Families deploy one admin account for the whole household and assign different agents and experts per member.
  • Small teams run multiple agents in parallel and bridge Feishu, DingTalk, or WeCom to route tasks into group chats.
  • Developers delegate coding to OpenCode or Claude Code over ACP, or troubleshoot from the terminal with AI assistance.
  • Scheduled jobs are configured in natural language as cron, so the agent pushes or runs daily work on time.

Getting started

Start the whole stack with octop run, which brings up the dashboard, CLI, IM channels, and cron as one process; all data lands under ~/.octop/. The hosted option is at https://octop.cloud.

How it compares

No list of paid products it replaces is supplied in the facts, and no comparable tools are named either. On the evidence available, Octop stands alone in this registry.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster operates the control-plane database, choosing between SQLite and PostgreSQL, along with whichever storage backend and connector credentials the deployment needs. The repository carries 234 open issues and the README excerpt is a feature overview rather than an operations guide, so expect to work out deployment and hardening details yourself. Anyone unwilling to run and patch their own service, or who needs a managed SLA, should pick a hosted assistant instead.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

A smarter, self-hosted AI assistant — multi-user, multi-agent.

TencentCloud/Octop | Trendshift

Python 3.12+ License: MIT Version PyPI Code Style: Ruff GitHub stars GitHub forks Discord

Highlights · Overview · Core Technology · Features · Roadmap · Quick Start · Contents

English · 中文

Octop is an open-source, self-hosted AI assistant. It's not just a tool — it's a digital life form that can operate in parallel. Through its multi-agent architecture, it builds an intelligent environment that is both independent and collaborative for teams, families, and individuals. Best of all, it runs entirely on your machine — the fully self-hosted design means privacy is never a compromise, while single-process startup makes the powerful web console, CLI, and IM integrations readily accessible.

Chat through the Web Dashboard, Feishu, DingTalk, QQ, Discord, WeCom, or programmatic HTTP/SSE/WebSocket. Extend capabilities with the expert library, Connectors (OAuth + MCP), and ACP integration for IDE workflows.

✨ Highlights

Feature Description
👥 Multi-user expert team One admin, shared household; built-in expert library — switch specialists per scenario
🎭 MBTI personas 16 personality templates plus an interactive quiz — give each agent a distinct character
🔒 Security built-in JWT multi-user isolation, tool approval, shell command guardrails, and PII redaction — data stays local
🔌 Connector ecosystem Tencent suite (Docs, Weibo trends, News, …); OAuth and MCP gateway extend resource boundaries
💾 Pluggable backends Local disk, Docker containers, PostgreSQL, or COS/S3 — AI operates inside isolated boundaries
🧠 Portable memory Powered by harness-memory; memory migrates with the workspace
📚 Knowledge base RAG over your documents; semantic retrieval grounds agent answers in your private corpus
🧩 Plugins Extend Octop with third-party plugins; bundled plugins are seeded and toggled on demand
↔️ ACP bidirectional octop acp for IDE/terminal AI; delegate to OpenCode / Claude Code with permission gates
💻 Terminal AI+ Interactive shell in the browser — AI-assisted command execution and troubleshooting
🌐 Browser AI+ Headless Chromium sessions for web automation, screenshots, and remote browsing
🖥️ Remote desktop Live screen and input from the dashboard on Linux, Windows, and macOS — remote office work and GUI apps; one-click isolated desktop on headless Linux
🏠 Self-hosted Dashboard, CLI, IM channels, and cron in one octop run — all data under ~/.octop/

📌 Overview

Octop is a self-hosted AI assistant platform for households and small teams. It runs a single process that serves a web dashboard, a CLI, IM channels (Feishu, DingTalk, QQ, Discord, WeCom, and more), and cron automation — all sharing one control-plane database under ~/.octop/ (SQLite by default; PostgreSQL optional).

Octop's design goal: keep every conversation, workspace, and credential on your own machine, while giving each user a personal team of specialized agents they can switch between per task.

🐾 What can you do with Octop
  • Personal assistant — let a dedicated agent write weekly reports, organize notes, and manage your schedule; memory persists with the workspace.
  • Family sharing — one admin account, the whole household; assign different agents and experts per member.
  • Team helper — multiple agents collaborate in parallel, bridging Feishu / DingTalk / WeCom to route tasks into group chats.
  • Developer boost — delegate coding tasks to OpenCode / Claude Code via ACP, or troubleshoot from the terminal with AI assistance.
  • Web automation — use Browser AI+ to fill forms, capture screenshots, and gather public info.
  • Scheduled tasks — configure cron in natural language so the agent pushes or runs jobs on time every day.

🧠 Core Technology

Layer Technology
Language Python 3.12+
Web framework FastAPI + uvicorn
Agent runtime harness-agent
Gateway harness-gateway
Control plane DB SQLite (WAL, default) or PostgreSQL (optional)
Frontend React 18 + TypeScript + Vite + Ant Design
Scheduling APScheduler
ACP agent-client-protocol
Build / quality hatchling · ruff · mypy · pytest

Octop is built on the Harness stack — a set of focused runtimes that Octop composes into one process:

  • harness-agent — Agent runtime: model routing, tools, skills, and conversation checkpointing.
  • harness-gateway — multi-platform IM channel bridge that normalizes incoming messages into a single processing pipeline.
  • harness-memory — hierarchical recall with full-text search, so an agent's memory travels with its workspace.
  • harness-browser — CDP-based browser automation with persistent profiles for web tasks.

Instead of an external queue or message broker, Octop routes every surface — Web UI, IM, and cron — through one in-process HarnessProcessor. The result is a single, restart-safe process whose entire state is rebuilt from the control-plane database on boot (local SQLite by default; PostgreSQL optional).

🤔 Features

Server & auth

  • Multi-user JWT authentication with admin role
  • First-run setup wizard (octop init)
  • Interactive API docs at /api/docs (off by default — set "enable_api_docs": true in config.json to enable)

Agents

  • Multiple agents per user; each has its own workspace, providers, channels, and cron
  • 16 MBTI persona templates + custom system prompt
  • Expert library scanned at boot (infra/agents/experts/library/)
  • Workspace backends: local disk, COS, S3, and other remote stores

Channels & automation

  • IM channels: Feishu, DingTalk, QQ, Discord, WeCom, and more
  • Proactive cron jobs with natural-language and slash-command triggers
  • Unified message processing across Web UI, IM, and cron surfaces

Surfaces

  • Web dashboard — chat, agents, connectors, channels, cron, settings
  • CLI — octop run, octop chat, octop acp, admin commands
  • HTTP/SSE/WebSocket API — full programmatic access

Knowledge & plugins

  • Knowledge base — RAG over your documents; upload files and let semantic retrieval ground agent answers in your private corpus
  • Plugins — install and manage third-party plugins (octop plugin); bundled plugins are seeded and toggled on demand from the dashboard

ACP (Agent Client Protocol)

Octop supports ACP in two directions:

  1. Inbound — external tools use your Octop agent

    octop acp --agent main   # stdio ACP server for Zed, OpenCode, …

  2. Outbound — Octop delegates to external coding agents

    • Dashboard → ACP (/acp): configure runners (global per user)
    • Enable acp_runner per agent, then delegate in chat

Built-in outbound runners include OpenCode, CodeBuddy, Claude Code, and Codex.

Full setup: **[docs/acp.

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is Octop free to use?

Octop is open source under the MIT 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 Octop do?

A smarter, self-hosted AI assistant — multi-user, multi-agent.

What is Octop written in?

Octop is primarily written in Python. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/TencentCloud/Octop, and it has 3,743 GitHub stars.