OpenKrab — Personal AI Assistant (Rust Edition)

OpenKrab is a personal AI assistant designed for self-hosted use across your own devices. The project is implemented in Rust to provide strong performance, predictable resource usage, and memory safety.

OpenKrab integrates with familiar messaging channels (Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage/BlueBubbles, Matrix, Google Chat, IRC, Microsoft Teams, WebChat) and provides:

• Native Rust performance with low startup overhead
• Efficient memory profile for long-running workloads
• Single-binary deployment across supported platforms
• Compile-time memory safety guarantees

OpenKrab is a Rust implementation inspired by OpenKrab (TypeScript/Node.js), extended with additional runtime capabilities.

Features · Quick Start · Architecture · Channels · Providers

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📊 Benchmark Snapshot (OpenKrab vs Others)

Metric	OpenKrab	NanoBot	PicoClaw	OpenKrab	ZeroClaw
Language	TypeScript	Python	Go	Rust	Rust
RAM	>1GB	>100MB	<10MB	~50MB	<5MB
Binary Size	~28MB	N/A	~8MB	~16MB	~8.8MB
Startup	>500s	>30s	<1s	~46ms	<10ms
Cost	Mac Mini $599	~$50	$10	$10	$10

Notes: OpenKrab measured on Windows x86_64, Feb 2026. Binary size is release build. Startup time is CLI --version. RAM is typical runtime memory.

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✨ Features

🤖 AI Capabilities

• Multi-agent system — Route different channels to different AI personalities
• Tool use — AI can execute shell commands, browse web, process media
• Streaming responses — Real-time token streaming for natural feel
• Context management — Intelligent conversation history handling
• Memory system — AI remembers facts across conversations (vector + text search)

🧠 Advanced Memory & Search

• Hybrid search — Combine vector similarity + full-text search
• MMR reranking — Maximal Marginal Relevance for diverse results
• Temporal decay — Older memories fade naturally
• Query expansion — Automatic keyword extraction (EN/ZH)
• Embeddings — OpenAI, Gemini, Voyage, Ollama providers

🔒 Enterprise Security

• DM pairing — Unknown senders get pairing codes
• Allowlists — allow_from controls who can interact
• Rate limiting — Per-user and global rate limits
• Input sanitization — XSS prevention, content filtering
• Sandbox mode — Docker isolation for non-main sessions
• Audit logging — Comprehensive security event logging
• MFA/OAuth2 — Enterprise authentication support

🎛️ Mission Control

• Web Dashboard — Beautiful, responsive UI for monitoring agents
• Live Tracking — View active sessions, stats, and AI memory in real-time
• Configuration Management — Easy visual editor for system config

🎙️ Voice System

• Voice wake mode — "Hey openkrab" activation
• Talk mode — Continuous conversation with auto-sleep
• VAD — Voice Activity Detection
• Spectral analysis — FFT, spectral features
• Beep generation — Audio feedback
• Microphone capture — Real-time audio input

🔌 Plugin System

• WASM runtime — Cross-platform plugin execution via Wasmtime
• Hot reload — Development workflow with auto-reload
• Sandboxing — Security isolation (4 levels)
• Dynamic loading — Native libraries + WASM
• Hook system — Event-driven plugin architecture

🌐 Browser Automation

• CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) — Full browser control
• Connection pooling — Efficient session management
• Multi-tab support — Handle multiple browser tabs
• Screenshots & snapshots — Visual testing and debugging
• Network interception — Monitor and modify requests

🎨 Canvas/A2UI

• Agent-to-UI protocol — Render dynamic interfaces
• Surface management — Multiple canvas surfaces
• Component system — Reusable UI components
• Theme support — Customizable appearance

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🚀 Why Rust?

Feature	TypeScript (Node.js)	Rust (OpenKrab)
Performance	V8 JIT limitations	Native compiled, 5x faster
Memory Safety	Runtime errors possible	Compile-time guarantees
Startup Time	~1-2 seconds	Instant (<100ms)
Memory Usage	200-500MB+	<100MB typical
Concurrency	Single-threaded event loop	True async with Tokio
Deployment	Requires Node.js runtime	Single static binary
Security	Best-effort	Memory-safe by design

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📦 Installation

From Source (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/openkrab/openkrab.git
cd openkrab

# Build optimized release binary
cargo build --release

# Binary location: target/release/openkrab
./target/release/openkrab --help

Pre-built Binaries

Download from GitHub Releases for your platform:

• Linux (x64, ARM64)
• macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)
• Windows (x64)

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⚡ Quick Start

# Start the gateway server
openkrab gateway --port 18789

# Configure your AI provider
openkrab config set providers.openai.api_key "sk-..."

# Send messages
openkrab telegram --to @username --text "Hello from OpenKrab!"
openkrab discord --to 123456789 --text "Hello from OpenKrab!"
openkrab whatsapp --to +1234567890 --text "Hello from OpenKrab!"

# Talk to your AI assistant
openkrab ask "What's on my calendar today?"
openkrab ask "Summarize my recent emails"

# Voice commands
openkrab voice wake
openkrab voice speak "Hello World"
openkrab voice status

# Plugin management
openkrab plugin list
openkrab plugin load ./plugins/my-plugin

# Check system status
openkrab status
openkrab doctor

# Interactive configuration
openkrab configure

# Memory operations (AI knowledge base)
openkrab memory sync --path ./docs
openkrab memory search "machine learning concepts"
openkrab memory index --recursive ./knowledge-base

# Browser automation
openkrab browser open https://example.com
openkrab browser screenshot

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🏗️ Architecture

The system is organized around a gateway control plane that receives channel events, routes sessions, and coordinates AI/runtime services.

flowchart TB
    subgraph Clients["Messaging Channels"]
        Telegram["Telegram"]
        Slack["Slack"]
        Discord["Discord"]
        WhatsApp["WhatsApp"]
        Signal["Signal"]
        iMessage["iMessage"]
        WebChat["WebChat"]
    end

    subgraph GatewayPlane["Gateway (Rust/Tokio)"]
        GatewayCore["WebSocket and HTTP Server"]
        Sessions["Sessions Manager"]
        Channels["Channels Registry"]
        Auth["Authentication & Rate Control"]
    end

    subgraph Runtime["Core Runtime"]
        Agents["AI Agents"]
        Memory["Memory - Vector + Full-text Search"]
        Providers["Model Providers"]
        Tools["Tools - Shell, Web, Media, Browser"]
        Voice["Voice - Wake/VAD/TTS"]
    end

    subgraph Plugins["Plugin System (WASM)"]
        WASM["Wasmtime Runtime"]
        HotReload["Hot Reload"]
        Sandbox["Sandbox Security"]
    end

    Telegram --> GatewayCore
    Slack --> GatewayCore
    Discord --> GatewayCore
    WhatsApp --> GatewayCore
    Signal --> GatewayCore
    iMessage --> GatewayCore
    WebChat --> GatewayCore

    GatewayCore --> Agents
    GatewayCore --> Memory
    GatewayCore --> Providers
    GatewayCore --> Tools
    GatewayCore --> Voice

    Agents --> Plugins

Loading

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📱 Supported Channels (18 Platforms)

Channel	Status	Features	Lines
Telegram	✅ Complete	Bot API, polling, webhooks, media	~1,200
Discord	✅ Complete	Gateway, threads, reactions, moderation	~2,500
Slack	✅ Complete	Bolt events, blocks, threading	~1,800
WhatsApp	✅ Complete	Cloud API, Business API	~1,500
Signal	✅ Complete	signal-cli integration	~800
iMessage	✅ Complete	BlueBubbles bridge	~1,200
Matrix	✅ Complete	Matrix.org protocol	~900
Google Chat	✅ Complete	Chat API	~600
IRC	✅ Complete	IRC protocol	~500
Microsoft Teams	✅ Complete	Bot Framework	~700
Mattermost	✅ Complete	Webhooks	~400
Twitch	✅ Complete	IRC + API	~600
Zalo	✅ Complete	Zalo API	~500
Feishu/Lark	✅ Complete	Lark API	~450
Nextcloud Talk	✅ Complete	Talk API	~400
Nostr	✅ Complete	Nostr protocol	~550
LINE	✅ Complete	LINE API	~600
WebChat	✅ Complete	WebSocket/HTTP	~800

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🤖 AI Providers (7+ Providers)

Provider	Status	Auth	Models
OpenAI	✅	API Key	GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-3.5
Anthropic	✅	API Key	Claude 3.5/3 Opus/Sonnet/Haiku
Gemini	✅	API Key / OAuth	Gemini 1.5 Pro/Flash
Ollama	✅	Local	Llama, Mistral, CodeLlama, etc.
GitHub Copilot	✅	OAuth	GPT-4 powered
MiniMax	✅	OAuth	MiniMax models
Qwen	✅	OAuth	Qwen models

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🎙️ Voice Commands

# Voice control
openkrab voice wake                    # Force wake
openkrab voice sleep                   # Force sleep
openkrab voice status                  # Show voice status
openkrab voice speak "Hello"           # TTS output
openkrab voice beep wake               # Play wake beep

# Audio analysis
openkrab voice analyze_audio file.wav  # Analyze audio file
openkrab voice detect "hey openkrab"   # Detect wake phrase
openkrab voice vad file.wav            # Voice activity detection
openkrab voice spectral file.wav       # Spectral analysis

# Microphone
openkrab voice mic_list                # List microphones
openkrab voice mic_start [device]      # Start capture
openkrab voice mic_stop                # Stop capture
openkrab voice mic_read                # Read audio buffer
openkrab voice mic_status              # Check mic status

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🔌 Plugin System

Loading Plugins

# List loaded plugins
openkrab plugin list

# Load a plugin
openkrab plugin load ./plugins/my-plugin

# Unload a plugin
openkrab plugin unload my-plugin

# Enable hot reload (development)
openkrab plugin watch ./plugins

Creating Plugins

Create plugin.json:

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "My custom plugin",
  "author": "Your Name",
  "kind": "extension",
  "sandbox": {
    "level": "medium",
    "resources": {
      "max_memory": 67108864
    }
  },
  "tools": [
    {
      "name": "my_tool",
      "description": "Does something useful"
    }
  ],
  "hooks": [
    {
      "event": "message.received",
      "handler": "on_message"
    }
  ]
}

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🌐 Browser Automation

# Browser control
openkrab browser open https://example.com
openkrab browser tabs
openkrab browser navigate https://example.com
openkrab browser click "#button"
openkrab browser type "#input" "Hello World"
openkrab browser screenshot
openkrab browser snapshot

# Profile management
openkrab browser profiles
openkrab browser create-profile --name my-profile

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📊 Codebase Statistics

Metric	Value
Total Lines	~60,000+ lines of Rust
Test Coverage	450+ tests, 0 failures
Porting Parity	100% Feature Parity with OpenKrab
Channels	18 messaging platforms
AI Providers	7+ LLM providers
Core Modules	62 Rust modules

Module Breakdown

Module	Lines	Description
Browser	2,708	CDP automation with pooling
Canvas/A2UI	452	Agent-to-UI protocol
Hooks	177	Event system
Voice	~5,000	Wake/VAD/TTS pipeline
Memory	~10,000	Vector + text search
Plugins	~6,000	WASM runtime
Gateway	~12,000	WebSocket/HTTP server
Agents	~8,000	AI runtime + tools

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🛠️ Development

Build & Test

# Debug build
cargo build

# Optimized release build
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test                    # All tests
cargo test --lib             # Library tests only
cargo test --release         # Release mode tests

# Code quality
cargo clippy                 # Linting
cargo fmt                    # Formatting
cargo doc --open             # Generate docs

# Run CLI
cargo run -- --help
cargo run -- gateway --port 18789
cargo run -- ask "Hello world"

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🔄 Migration from OpenKrab

1. Config format: JSON → TOML (better for humans)
2. Config location: ~/.openkrab/ → ~/.config/openkrab/
3. Binary name: OpenKrab → openkrab
4. Most connectors: Compatible with same tokens/webhooks

Migration tool:

openkrab migrate --from-OpenKrab ~/.openkrab/config.json

See Migration Guide for detailed instructions.

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📚 Documentation

• Migration Guide — Migrating from OpenKrab
• PORTING.md — Detailed porting status
• AGENT.md — Agent development guide
• CONTRIBUTING.md — Contribution guidelines
• SECURITY.md — Security practices
• CHANGELOG.md — Release history

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⭐ Star History

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🤝 Community

• Contributing Guidelines
• Code of Conduct
• Security Policy

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🦞 About

OpenKrab was built for Molty, a space lobster AI assistant.

This is a complete Rust port of OpenKrab, originally created by Peter Steinberger and the community.

• Website: OpenKrab.ai
• Twitter: @OpenKrab
• Original: github.com/OpenKrab/OpenKrab

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📄 License

MIT License — see LICENSE

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Built with Rust