Summary

nao is an open-source framework for building and deploying analytics agents. It enables data teams to create context-rich agents via a flexible, file-system-like structure and allows business users to query data through a natural language chat interface. The core benefit is democratizing data access and insights via a self-hostable, secure, and customizable solution.

How It Works

The "Open Context Builder" allows agents to incorporate unlimited data, metadata, docs, and tools into a file-system-like context. Its "Data Stack Agnostic" design ensures compatibility with any data warehouse, stack, context type, or LLM. This architecture facilitates the creation of reliable, versionable, and performant analytics agents.

Quick Start & Requirements

Install via pip install nao-core. Initialize projects with nao init, which prompts for project name, optional database/LLM/Slack connections (configurable later in nao_config.yaml). Verify with nao debug, sync context with nao sync, and launch chat UI with nao chat (at http://localhost:5005). Docker images (getnao/nao:latest) are also available.

Highlighted Details

• Open Context Builder: Unlimited data, metadata, docs, and tools in a file-system-like context.
• Data Stack Agnostic: Integrates with any data warehouse, stack, context type, or LLM.
• Agent Reliability Visibility: Unit test agent performance before deployment, with versioning and feedback tracking.
• Self-hosted & Secure: Full data control via self-hosting and private LLM keys.
• Natural Language to Insights: Query data using plain English.
• Native Data Visualization: Generate custom visualizations directly in the chat interface.

Maintenance & Community

nao is a Y Combinator company. Community engagement is supported via Slack and LinkedIn. Development guidelines are in CONTRIBUTING.md. Users can subscribe to releases and contribute.

Licensing & Compatibility

Licensed under the permissive Apache 2.0 License, allowing commercial use and integration into closed-source applications.

Limitations & Caveats

The README does not explicitly list limitations, alpha status, or known bugs. The "1-minute quickstart" may vary based on user environment complexity and data sources.