Odysseus – self-hosted AI workspace

─────────────────────────────────────────────── ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ૮( ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ )っ Odysseus vers. 1.0 ───────────────────────────────────────────────

A self-hosted AI workspace -- meant to be the self-hosted version of the UI experience you get from ChatGPT and Claude. But with more jank and fun. Running on your own hardware, with your own data -- local-first, privacy-first, and no trojan.

• Chat -- chat with any local model or API; adding them is super simple.
• Agent -- hand it tools and let it run the whole task itself.
• Cookbook -- Scans your hardware, recommends models, click to download and serve.. easy!
• Deep Research -- multi-step runs that gather, read, and synthesize sources into a nice visual report.
• Compare -- a fun tool to compare models side by side. Test completely blind, no bias!
• Documents -- YOU write the text, AI is there to assist, not the opposite.
• Memory / Skills -- Persistent memory and skills, your agent evolves over time as it better understands you and your tasks!
• Email -- IMAP/SMTP inbox with AI triage built in: urgency reminders, auto-tag, auto-summary, auto-reply drafts, auto-spam.
• Notes & Tasks -- Quick notes with reminders, a todo list, and scheduled tasks the agent can act on.
• Calendar -- Local-first calendar with CalDAV sync to Radicale / Nextcloud / Apple / Fastmail.
• Works on mobile -- looks and runs great on your phone, not just desktop.
• Extras -- more to explore, happy if you give it a go!

A full, hover-to-play tour lives on the landing page (docs/index.html). A few looks:

Defaults work out of the box — clone, run, configure inside the app. Open the Settings panel after first login to point Odysseus at your LLM server, search provider, email account, etc. Only touch .env if you need to override deployment-level things like AUTH_ENABLED, DATABASE_URL, or pre-seed ODYSSEUS_ADMIN_PASSWORD (otherwise an initial password is generated and printed on first boot).

git clone <your-odysseus-repo-url>
cd odysseus
cp .env.example .env       # optional, but recommended for explicit defaults
docker compose up -d --build

Compose starts Odysseus, ChromaDB, SearXNG, and ntfy. First run does a full image build. Open http://localhost:7000 after the containers are healthy.

Cookbook remote servers use an Odysseus-owned SSH key from ./data/ssh inside Docker. In Cookbook -> Settings -> Servers, generate/copy the public key and add it to the remote server's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. After generating the key, you can also install it from the host with:

ssh-copy-id -i data/ssh/id_ed25519.pub user@server

Cookbook local downloads are stored in ./data/huggingface, mounted as ~/.cache/huggingface inside the Odysseus container.

Useful checks:

docker compose ps
docker compose logs --tail=120 odysseus
docker compose logs odysseus | grep -E 'ChromaDB|MemoryVectorStore|DEGRADED'
docker compose exec odysseus python -c "from services.hwfit.models import get_models; print(len(get_models()))"

Expected vector-memory startup lines in Docker:

ChromaDB connected: chromadb:8000
MemoryVectorStore initialized

The Cookbook model catalog check should print a non-zero count. If it prints 0, rebuild the Odysseus image with docker compose build --no-cache odysseus.

Requirements: Python 3.11+. On Linux/Termux, Cookbook also requires tmux for background model downloads and serves.

Install system packages first:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install tmux

# Arch
sudo pacman -S tmux

# Fedora
sudo dnf install tmux

Then install Odysseus:

git clone <your-odysseus-repo-url>
cd odysseus
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python setup.py            # creates data dirs and prints an initial admin password
uvicorn app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 7000

git clone <your-odysseus-repo-url>
cd odysseus
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt
python setup.py
uvicorn app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 7000

Open http://localhost:7000, log in with the generated admin password, and configure everything else inside Settings.

Odysseus is a self-hosted workspace with powerful local tools: shell access, file uploads, model downloads, web research, email/calendar integrations, and API tokens. Treat it like an admin console.

• Keep AUTH_ENABLED=true for any network-accessible deployment.
• Do not expose it directly to the public internet without HTTPS and a trusted reverse proxy.
• Keep data/, .env, logs, databases, and uploaded/generated media out of Git. They are ignored by default.
• Review data/auth.json after first boot: disable open signup unless you intentionally want it, make only your own account admin, and keep demo/test accounts non-admin.
• Non-admin users do not get shell/Python/file read/write by default, and admin-only routes/tools such as MCP management, API tokens, webhooks, model/cookbook serving, backup/vault, and app settings are admin-gated. Other features are controlled by per-user privileges, so review each user's privileges before exposing a deployment.
• Rotate any API keys or tokens that were ever pasted into a shared chat, demo, screenshot, or log.
• If you enable API tokens or webhooks, create separate tokens per integration and delete unused ones.
• Prefer binding manual development runs to 127.0.0.1; bind to 0.0.0.0 only when you intentionally want LAN/reverse-proxy access.
• Before publishing a fork, run git status --short and confirm no private files from .env, data/, logs/, uploads, backups, or local databases are staged.

Odysseus serves plain HTTP on its port. That's fine for localhost and trusted LAN/VPN use, but browsers will warn ("Password fields present on an insecure page") and the login + API tokens travel in cleartext. For anything reachable outside your machine — including a Tailscale IP shared with other devices — put a TLS-terminating reverse proxy in front.

Shortest path with Caddy (auto-renews Let's Encrypt certs):

odysseus.example.com {
  reverse_proxy localhost:7000
}

For a LAN-only Tailscale deployment, Caddy + tailscale-cert or the built-in MagicDNS HTTPS feature both work. nginx/Traefik configs are similar — proxy localhost:7000, terminate TLS at the proxy. Once that's in place, the browser warning goes away and your login is encrypted.

Help is welcome. The best entry points are fresh-install testing, provider setup bugs, mobile/editor polish, docs, and small focused refactors. See ROADMAP.md for the current help-wanted list.

Most setup is done inside the app with /setup or Settings. Use .env for deployment-level defaults and secrets you want present before first boot. Key settings:

Docker Compose includes these by default:

• ChromaDB → vector store for semantic memory. In Docker, Odysseus connects to chromadb:8000; from the host it is exposed as localhost:8100.
• SearXNG → meta search for web search. In Docker, Odysseus connects to searxng:8080; from the host it is exposed only on 127.0.0.1:8080.
• ntfy → local notification service, exposed as localhost:8091.

• Ollama → local LLM server -- ollama.ai

app.py                   # FastAPI entry point
core/      auth, database, middleware, constants
src/       llm_core, agent_loop, agent_tools, chat_processor, search/
routes/    chat, session, document, memory, model … endpoints
services/  docs, memory, search, hwfit (Cookbook) …
static/    index.html + app.js + style.css + js/ (modular front-end)
docs/      landing page (index.html) + preview clips

All user data lives in data/ (gitignored): app.db (sessions, messages, documents), memory.json, presets.json, uploads/, personal_docs/, chroma/, settings.json.

MIT -- see LICENSE and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md.

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