ORBIT

Open Retrieval-Based Inference Toolkit

A self-hosted, OpenAI-compatible AI gateway for private RAG, natural-language data access, and tool-calling agents — run it in your own environment across 37+ model providers.

What is ORBIT?

ORBIT is a self-hosted AI gateway that lets you chat with private data through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Put it in front of local or cloud models, connect files, SQL, NoSQL, vector stores, APIs, and tools, then operate everything from an admin panel with keys, quotas, prompts, metrics, and audit logs.

Reach for ORBIT when you need to:

• 💬 Query SQL, NoSQL, vector stores, REST/GraphQL APIs, Elasticsearch, and files in plain English
• 🔀 Route one API contract across local (Ollama, llama.cpp, vLLM) and cloud models
• 🛠️ Give models scoped access to MCP tools and multi-step agent workflows
• 🔒 Ship private RAG with auth, quotas, moderation, metrics, and admin controls
• 📨 Drive inference asynchronously over a message queue for decoupled, batch-style workloads
• 🧪 Prototype locally, then keep the same architecture in production

Comparisons: ORBIT vs. Open WebUI · ORBIT vs. LiteLLM

🎬 See It Work

[!NOTE] Real-world example: dialoga.ca is a Canadian AI chat tool built on ORBIT. It is currently available only from Canadian IP addresses; use a Canadian VPN endpoint if you are outside Canada.

🚀 Quick Start

Install the latest stable release, then start ORBIT locally.

curl -LO https://github.com/schmitech/orbit/releases/download/v2.9.4/orbit-2.9.4.tar.gz
tar -xzf orbit-2.9.4.tar.gz && cd orbit-2.9.4
./install/setup.sh        # add --wizard for interactive setup
./bin/orbit.sh start

Open the admin panel:

Verify the gateway. default-key is a pre-seeded example key (mapped to the simple-chat adapter) shipped in the release/Docker database for evaluation — create your own keys via /admin or the orbit key create CLI command before going further than local testing:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/v1/chat \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'X-API-Key: default-key' \
  -H 'X-Session-ID: local-test' \
  -d '{"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize ORBIT in one sentence."}], "stream": false}'

Install orbitchat:

npm install -g orbitchat@latest

Open a browser chat client:

ORBIT_ADAPTER_KEYS='{"simple-chat":"default-key"}' orbitchat --open

What you should see: the server responds through the OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat endpoint, the admin panel shows live health and adapters, and OrbitChat opens a local chat UI.

For a Docker-based local demo with Ollama, use the development compose stack:

git clone https://github.com/schmitech/orbit.git
cd orbit/docker
docker compose up -d

The first Docker run can take a few minutes while the local model is downloaded.

[!WARNING] Docker from main is for local evaluation and development. For production installs, use the latest stable release tarball from GitHub Releases.

More setup paths: Docker Guide · Tutorial · Windows native install

If ORBIT saves you setup time, a GitHub star helps other developers find it.

🎯 Demos

Pick the path closest to what you want to build.

🏗️ Architecture

✨ Features