Vellum Assistant AI Agent

<p align="center"> <img src="assets/banner.png" alt="Vellum Assistant" width="100%"> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://vellum.ai/docs"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Docs-vellum.ai%2Fdocs-FFD700?style=for-the-badge" alt="Documentation"></a> <a href="https://vellum.ai/community"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Discord-5865F2?style=for-the-badge&logo=discord&logoColor=white" alt="Discord"></a> <a href="https://github.com/vellum-ai/vellum-assistant/blob/main/LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-green?style=for-the-badge" alt="License: MIT"></a> <a href="https://vellum.ai"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Built%20by-Vellum-blueviolet?style=for-the-badge" alt="Built by Vellum"></a> </p> <p align="center"><b>A personal AI assistant that evolves with you.</b><br> 8 different types of memory (episodic, semantic, procedural, emotional, prospective, behavioral, narrative, shared) make it truly yours. It learns how you work, remembers what matters, and takes action across your apps.</p>

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What It Does

If you've set up a Personal AI on OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, or Claude Code, you know how long it takes, and how many times you have to hatch a new one to get it right. Vellum gets you the result you're looking for out of the box, one download away.

Area	Summary
Memory	Eight types (episodic, semantic, procedural, emotional, prospective, behavioral, narrative, shared), each with its own staleness window, hybrid dense + sparse retrieval, and per-user and per-channel isolation. Structured items (identity, preferences, projects, events) extracted from conversations with source attribution and dedup. Embeddings run locally by default. Not a SQLite + Markdown file you maintain yourself.
Identity	Behavior lives in SOUL.md. During onboarding the assistant observes how you communicate and writes its own personality files. It keeps a per-user journal of reflections and uses NOW.md as a scratchpad for current focus and active threads.
Proactivity	Every hour the assistant re-reads its notes, looks for anything unfinished or due soon, and messages you if something needs attention. Notifications go to the right channel and won't interrupt an active conversation.
Security	Actor identity (guardian, trusted, unknown) is resolved once and enforced everywhere; unknown actors can't read memory, trigger tools, or escalate. Credentials live in a separate process and never reach the model. Every tool call runs in a sandbox. The default is to deny.
Channels	macOS, Windows, iOS, Web, Voice, Email, Telegram, Slack, Twilio. One assistant, one memory, every channel.
OAuth	Slack, Notion, Google, HubSpot, Linear, Discord, Twitter, Telegram, Twilio. No hand-rolled token refresh.
Hosting	Managed runtime on Vellum Platform, or self-hosted. Same codebase, same data model.

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Get Started

1. Sign up or download the app

The desktop app is available for macOS and Windows. The Windows download is currently a dev build connected to the development environment, with x64 (Intel/AMD) and ARM64 installers. See the installation guide for setup and permissions.

2. Pick your mode

• Managed: sign in via Vellum Cloud, no local runtime required
• Local: everything runs on your machine

3. Hatch your assistant

• It's yours! Have fun with it.

_{Prefer the terminal? See <a href="#cli">CLI install</a> below.}

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Quick Demo

<p align="center"> <img src="assets/quick-demo.gif" alt="Vellum Assistant demo" width="100%"> </p>

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CLI

<details open> <summary>Install and common commands</summary> <br>

The CLI works but the desktop app is our primary focus. Available for advanced users, contributors, and terminal-based workflows. The Windows desktop app installs the bundled CLI for your user account on first launch; open a new terminal afterward to use vellum.

Install

bun install -g vellum
vellum hatch

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/vellum-ai/vellum-assistant.git
cd vellum-assistant
./setup.sh
source ~/.bashrc
vellum hatch

Common commands

vellum wake        # start services
vellum sleep       # stop services, keep data
vellum client      # interact through the terminal
vellum ps          # view running assistants
vellum terminal    # open a shell into a managed assistant container
vellum upgrade     # upgrade to latest version

All commands target the default assistant. If you have multiple, pass the assistant ID as the second argument.

Guides

• Pair a device: reach a self-hosted assistant from your phone or another computer by opening a tunnel and pairing the device.

</details>

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Infra and security

Area	Summary
Computer use	The assistant works in its own sandbox, and with your approval reaches your actual machine: reads and edits files, runs commands, drives the browser. Every action is permission-gated, and you can grant once, for ten minutes, or always.
Skills	Plugins defined by a SKILL.md and a TOOLS.json that add tools and prompt sections at runtime, sandboxed like everything else. Install them from the catalog, bundle them, or drop them in the workspace.
Channels	One assistant with one memory, reachable from the macOS or Windows app, Telegram, or Slack. Start a thought in one channel and pick it up in another.
Multi-provider support	Works with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Fireworks, OpenRouter, MiniMax, Atlas Cloud, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Local models run through Ollama. Embeddings run on local ONNX by default and fall back to cloud providers automatically.

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Foundational documents

The canonical sources for who we are and how we talk about what we're building. The docs site at vellum.ai/docs is a rendered view of these files.

Doc	What it is
Constitution	Who we are, what we believe, and what we refuse to compromise on
Glossary	The shared vocabulary we use to talk about personal intelligence

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Documentation

Section	What's covered
Architecture	Platform domains, repo structure, runtime · clients · gateway
Security & Permissions	Sandbox, credentials, trust rules, permission modes
Features & Capabilities	Integrations, dynamic skills, browser, attachments, media embeds
API & Communication	SSE event stream, event payloads, remote access
Development Workflow	Claude Code commands, parallel PRs, review loops, release pipeline

📖 Full documentation →

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Contributing

We welcome contributions from everyone.

• Development: The contributing guide will help you get started.
• Make sure to check out our Code of Conduct.

Community

• 💬 Discord
• 🐛 Issues

License

MIT. See License. Integration logos from Simple Icons, licensed CC0 1.0.

Vellum Assistant is open-source software built by Vellum AI, a for-profit company. We also offer a managed product, the Vellum Platform, which sustains the business. Free to use and modify under MIT, and we're committed to keeping it that way.

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<p align="center">Built with 💚 by <a href="https://vellum.ai">Vellum</a></p>