ATOM Platform

Open-Source AI Agent Platform for Self-Hosted Automation

Developer Note: For technical setup and architecture, see docs/development/overview.md.

Automate your workflows by talking to an AI — and let it remember, search, and handle tasks like a real assistant.

What is Atom?

Atom is an open-source, self-hosted AI agent platform that combines visual workflow builders with intelligent LLM-based agents.

Just speak or type your request, and Atom's specialty agents will plan, verify, and execute complex workflows across your entire tech stack.

Key Difference: Atom is self-hosted — your workflow data, agent state, and memory stay on your infrastructure. LLM inference uses your own API keys (BYOK) with cloud providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek); local model support (Ollama, Llama.cpp) is available for fully private deployments.

Comparing alternatives? See Atom vs OpenClaw for a detailed feature comparison.

Atom vs OpenClaw: Quick Comparison

Full Comparison →

Atom vs Hermes Agent: Quick Comparison

Hermes (Nous Research) is an open-source personal agent known for its memory-provider architecture. Atom adopted its strongest ideas (per-turn fact extraction, pre-compression hooks, circuit breaker, FTS5 search) and deliberately avoided its weakest (custom LLM-summarizing compressor — Hermes' own has 3 documented production bugs).

Full Comparison → · Context Memory Design →

Architecture

Single-Tenant Deployment

Atom is designed for self-hosted deployment:

• Simpler Setup: No tenant isolation, no subdomain routing
• Better Performance: Direct database access without overhead
• Self-Hosted: Agent state, memory, and workflow data stay on your infrastructure. LLM prompts are sent to your configured API provider (BYOK). Use local models (Ollama/Llama.cpp) for fully private setups.
• Unlimited Usage: No subscription fees or quota limits

Key Features:

• Uses user_id for user identification
• No billing system or quota enforcement
• Fleet recruitment limited by system resources only
• All governance, routing, and graduation features work identically

Full Architecture Guide →

Data Flow & Privacy

Understanding where your data goes:

For maximum privacy: Set ATOM_LOCAL_ONLY=true (blocks cloud integrations) AND configure local LLM models (Ollama/Llama.cpp) instead of cloud API keys.

Meta-Agent Routing ✨

Intelligent CHAT/WORKFLOW/TASK routing with governance checks and dynamic fleet recruitment

Meta-Agent Guide →

Quick Start

The fastest path to a running local server (verified working June 2026):

git clone https://github.com/rush86999/atom.git
cd atom

# Backend deps in a venv
cd backend
python3.11 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

# Frontend deps
cd ../frontend-nextjs
npm install --legacy-peer-deps
cd ..

# Configure (DATABASE_URL, SECRET_KEY, at least one LLM key)
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
# Edit backend/.env — generate SECRET_KEY with: openssl rand -base64 48

# Launch backend (FROM REPO ROOT — main.py uses backend.* imports)
PYTHONPATH=$PWD:$PWD/backend ./backend/venv/bin/python -m uvicorn main:app --reload --port 8000

# In a second terminal: frontend
cd frontend-nextjs && npm run dev

• Frontend (UI): http://localhost:3000
• Backend API: http://localhost:8000
• API docs (Swagger): http://localhost:8000/docs
• Admin password: auto-generated at backend/logs/bootstrap_admin_password.txt (mode 0600)

That's it! 🚀

Choose your edition:

• Personal Edition (default) — Free, single-user, SQLite, zero external services
• Enterprise Edition — Multi-user, PostgreSQL, monitoring (set DATABASE_URL to a Postgres DSN)

For alternative paths (Docker, DigitalOcean 1-click) and the full walkthrough, see:

• Quick Start (verified) ⭐ — step-by-step with troubleshooting
• First Steps after install — what to do once the server is running
• Troubleshooting — common errors and fixes
• Full Installation Guide — all installation variants
• Development Setup — for contributors

Key Features

🎙️ Voice Interface

• Build complex workflows using just your voice
• Natural language understanding — no proprietary syntax
• Real-time feedback as Atom visualizes its reasoning

🤖 Specialty Agents & Orchestration ✨ Enhanced 2026

• Sales, Marketing, Engineering: CRM pipelines, campaigns, deployments, incidents
• Hive Orchestration: Queen Agent (structured workflows) and FleetAdmiral (dynamic recruitment)
• Conductor Agent: 5 execution strategies (SEQUENTIAL, PARALLEL, HYBRID, ADAPTIVE, ROLLBACK_SAFE)
• Workflow State Machine: Validated transitions with automatic rollback
• Event Bus: Event-driven workflow triggering with pub/sub
• Self-Evolving Capabilities: Memento Skills learns from failures, AlphaEvolver optimizes via mutation

Queen Agent → | Auto-Dev →

🎨 Canvas Presentations & Real-Time Guidance ✨

Rich interactive presentations (charts, forms, markdown) with live operation visibility, multi-view orchestration, smart error resolution, and AI accessibility (canvas state exposed to agents)

Canvas Guide →

💼 Office Automation & Document Co-Editing ✨

• Real-Time Collaboration: Co-edit Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations directly on the interactive Canvas.
• AI-Driven Office Workflows: Automate document generation, spreadsheet analysis, formatting, and reporting through voice or chat.
• Agent Integration: Full synchronization between agent actions and document state for autonomous office task execution.

Office Automation Guide →

🧠 Autonomous Self-Evolution & Graduation ✨

Experience-based learning with recursive self-evolution, dual-trigger graduation (SUPERVISED → AUTONOMOUS), and hybrid PostgreSQL + LanceDB storage

Agent Graduation Guide →

💾 Memory & Context (Hermes-style) ✨ New 2026

Durable-fact extraction layer that survives context compression — the