Lobe Chat is an open-source, modern AI chat framework designed for individuals and developers seeking a flexible and extensible platform for building AI applications. It supports multiple AI providers, knowledge base integration, multi-modal capabilities, and a plugin system, offering a user-friendly interface for private ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Ollama applications.

How It Works

Lobe Chat leverages a component-based architecture, enabling features like Chain of Thought visualization for AI reasoning transparency and Branching Conversations for dynamic discussion flows. It integrates with various AI models and services, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and Ollama, via a unified API layer. The framework supports multi-modal inputs (images, files) and outputs (SVG, HTML, documents) through its Artifacts feature and extensible plugin system, allowing for custom function calls and third-party integrations.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Deployment: One-click deployment via Vercel, Zeabur, Sealos, Alibaba Cloud, or Docker.
• Prerequisites: OpenAI API Key is required for deployment. Optional ACCESS_CODE for security.
• Local Development: pnpm install and pnpm dev.
• Documentation: [Official Site][official-site], [Documents][docs]

Highlighted Details

• Supports over 40 AI model providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, Groq, and Mistral.
• Features a plugin system with 45+ plugins for web search, data analysis, and more, plus an Agent Marketplace with 488+ agents.
• Offers multi-user management via next-auth or Clerk and supports both local (CRDT) and server-side (PostgreSQL) databases.
• Includes TTS/STT voice conversation, text-to-image generation (DALL-E 3, MidJourney), and PWA capabilities for native-like experiences.

Maintenance & Community

• Active development with regular updates and a growing community.
• Join the Discord community for discussions and feedback.
• [Changelog][changelog], [Blog][blog], [Feedback][github-issues-link]

Licensing & Compatibility

• Apache 2.0 License.
• Permissive license suitable for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects.

Limitations & Caveats

The plugin system is under major development, with ongoing work on security, stability, and advanced customization. Some features like local database synchronization are experimental.