Astrbot
AI Agent Assistant & development framework that integrates lots of IM platforms, LLMs, plugins and AI feature, and can be your openclaw alternative. ✨
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What is Astrbot?
AstrBot is an open‑source, cross‑platform AI assistant framework that runs directly inside mainstream chat apps such as QQ, WeCom, Flybook (Lark), DingTalk, Telegram, Discord, and Slack, enabling both personal and group chat automation. It acts as an agentic AI layer over your existing messaging workflows, letting you orchestrate tasks, build custom bots, and plug in large language models from multiple providers without leaving your favorite chat environment. The system is designed for individuals, developers, and teams who want to deploy AI companions, customer service bots, or knowledge‑based assistants inside IM groups or private chats, with a lightweight built‑in ChatUI similar to OpenWebUI for direct interaction and configuration.
Key features include built‑in support for many messaging platforms and the ability to run multiple bot instances per platform, plus flexible model routing across OpenAI‑style APIs, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, and many third‑party backends such as Kimi, Deepseek, GLM, Minimax, Ollama, and LMStudio. AstrBot also offers native RAG‑style knowledge bases that accept PDF, DOCX, and Markdown files, using a mixed dense plus BM25 retrieval scheme so chats can pull facts from your documents; a single conversation can reference several different knowledge bases at once. In addition, the platform exposes an HTTP API from the WebUI for programmatic control, lets you install community plugins (over a thousand available), and provides a visual dashboard for managing plugins, logs, and configuration without editing files by hand.
The tool targets three main groups: hobbyists who want a simple AI bot in their QQ or Telegram groups, developers who need a modular, extensible framework for building custom agents and chatbots, and teams or small businesses that want low‑code AI services such as internal knowledge assistants or automated customer‑service workflows. Because it is open‑source and non‑profit (under AGPL‑v3), AstrBot is especially suited for organizations that care about self‑hosting, data locality, and avoiding vendor lock‑in while still getting access to modern LLM capabilities inside their existing chat tools.
Astrbot pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
AstrBot itself is open‑source and free to download and run, with no direct license fee for the software. The project is maintained as a non‑profit, community‑driven effort, so you only pay for external resources such as your chosen LLM provider’s API usage (OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, etc.), any hosting infrastructure, and optional third‑party services you plug in. There is no tiered AstrBot‑branded subscription plan listed on the site; instead, you build your own cost model around your provider keys and deployment environment.
Astrbot pros
- Runs inside many chat apps (QQ, WeCom, Telegram, Discord, etc.)
- Supports multiple messaging platforms in one instance
- Open‑source under AGPL‑v3 license
- Non‑profit, community‑driven project
- Can be self‑hosted on your own server or local machine
- Connects to OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, and many other providers
- Supports multiple LLM backends in parallel
- Plays well with local models like Ollama and LMStudio
- Offers native RAG knowledge base with multiple file formats
- Supports mixed dense and BM25 retrieval for better answers
- Allows one chat to reference multiple knowledge bases
- Provides an HTTP API for external automation scripts
- Includes a lightweight WebUI like OpenWebUI for direct chat
- Visual configuration dashboard instead of raw config files
- Over 1000 community plugins available
- Modular plugin system for custom skills and integrations
- Suitable for personal, group, and team‑level deployments
- Good fit for internal knowledge bases and customer‑service bots
- Keeps AI workflows inside familiar chat environments
- Reduces need to move conversation to separate web panels
Astrbot cons
- Self‑hosting and initial setup can be technical for non‑developers
- Requires your own API keys and costs from LLM providers
- Limited official enterprise support compared to commercial SaaS
- WebUI defaults run locally (extra work for public access)
- Knowledge base features demand some storage and compute
- Plugin quality varies because many are community‑authored
- No official hosted Astro‑brand cloud service on the site
- API and documentation may be harder to navigate for beginners
Frequently asked questions about Astrbot
What is AstrBot and what does it do?
AstrBot is an open‑source, cross‑platform AI assistant framework that lets you run an AI bot inside popular chat apps like QQ, WeCom, Telegram, Discord, and Slack. It connects to multiple large language model providers and lets you orchestrate agents, build personal companions, or automate tasks directly inside your group or private chats, with a built‑in WebUI for configuration and direct chat.
Which messaging platforms does AstrBot support?
AstrBot supports QQ, WeCom (enterprise WeChat), WeChat customer service and official accounts, Flybook (Lark), DingTalk, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Misskey, Satori, and more. You can deploy multiple bot instances on some platforms at the same time, allowing different behavior or models per chat or group.
What LLM providers can I use with AstrBot?
AstrBot natively supports OpenAI‑style APIs, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude, and can connect to many other providers such as Kimi, Deepseek, GLM, Minimax, Ollama, LMStudio, and OneAPI‑style middlewares. It also supports voice‑to‑text and text‑to‑speech models like Whisper and MinimaxTTS, plus ingestion of documents into a built‑in knowledge base.
Does AstrBot support knowledge bases or RAG?
Yes, AstrBot has a built‑in RAG knowledge base that supports PDF, DOCX, and Markdown uploads, using mixed dense retrieval and BM25 sparse retrieval to surface relevant information. A single chat session can reference multiple different knowledge bases at once, so you can keep various topics or domains separated while still having them available in the same conversation.
How do I install and start AstrBot?
You can deploy AstrBot via Docker or Windows one‑click installers mentioned in the documentation, or by running the binary on your server or local machine. After starting the service, you access the WebUI dashboard at the configured address (usually http://localhost:6185) to configure platforms, models, and plugins without editing config files directly.
Is there an HTTP API for controlling AstrBot programmatically?
Starting from version 4.18.0, AstrBot exposes an HTTP API that accepts an API key in the headers and lets you send chat messages, list sessions, upload files, manage bots, and trigger proactive messages. The API supports streaming responses and can be used to integrate AstrBot into scripts, web services, or other automation tools.
Can I extend AstrBot with plugins?
Yes, AstrBot has a modular plugin system that lets you install and configure hundreds of community‑authored plugins for things like utility commands, integrations, moderation tools, or custom workflows. The WebUI includes a plugin manager so you can browse, install, enable, or disable plugins visually.
Is AstrBot self‑hosted or is there a hosted cloud version?
AstrBot is primarily designed as a self‑hosted, open‑source framework that you run on your own machine or server. The project’s website and documentation focus on local and private deployments, and there is no branded AstrBot cloud service listed as a turnkey SaaS product.
What license is AstrBot under and what are the implications?
AstrBot is released under the AGPL‑v3 license as a non‑profit project. If you modify AstrBot and use it to provide commercial network services, you are required to open‑source your changes under the same license; typical personal or internal team use does not require revealing your own code beyond the framework itself.
Is AstrBot suitable for enterprise or team use cases?
AstrBot is suitable for teams and small enterprises that want to self‑host AI assistants for internal knowledge bases, customer service, or community‑style bots, as long as they are comfortable managing their own infrastructure and API keys. It is less geared toward organizations that expect fully managed support SLAs and more toward tech‑savvy teams who value flexibility, open source, and integration into existing chat platforms.