flowly-ai 2.2.0

A lightweight personal AI assistant framework

Flowly is an open-source AI agent that runs on your machine, meets you on every channel you already use, and gets better the longer you use it. One shared memory, one library of skills, your own LLM keys. It remembers across conversations, maintains and improves itself over time, schedules its own work, and connects to anything that speaks MCP — from a $5 VPS, a Mac mini, or the laptop in front of you.

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Quick start

# Install — one command sets up uv, Python, and Flowly
curl -fsSL https://useflowlyapp.com/install.sh | bash
# (already manage tools with uv? `uv tool install flowly-ai`)

# First-time setup — pick an LLM provider, add any channels
flowly setup

# Start chatting (bare `flowly` opens the terminal UI)
flowly

flowly setup walks you through a provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Groq, xAI/Grok, Zhipu, or a local model) and any channels you want. Two minutes, done. Add a Telegram bot? flowly setup → Telegram → paste token. The gateway hot-reloads each channel as you save.

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What's inside

One agent, every channel	Terminal TUI · Telegram · Discord · Slack · Microsoft Teams · WhatsApp · iMessage · Email · voice. A single gateway process speaks to all of them, with one conversation memory shared across every surface. Native Mac / iOS / Android apps and a browser extension come via Flowly Cloud (optional).
40+ first-class tools	Workspace-sandboxed file I/O and an allowlisted shell with per-command approval; web search + page fetch + live X/Twitter; macOS computer-use (Accessibility control, screenshots, browser-tab + clipboard); PDF/DOCX/XLSX/PPTX, image generation, video_analyze; Linear, Trello, Home Assistant, and Google Workspace (Calendar, Contacts, Drive, Tasks).
A closed learning loop	Every fact you share becomes a governed memory with a calibrated trust score — 👍/👎 to retune it, and a background consolidation pass merges duplicates and retires stale notes. Structured facts also land in a knowledge graph. Opt in and Flowly mines your recurring procedures to write and refine its own skills, every change snapshotted and reversible. → memory · skills
135 built-in skills	Plus skill bundles (one keystroke enables a whole stack) and drop-in Markdown skills. Compatible with the open agentskills.io standard.
Delegates and parallelizes	Spawn isolated sub-agents for parallel workstreams (delegate, spawn), run a cross-channel task board sequentially or in parallel (BOARD.md), and hand heavy coding off to a local Codex session (opt-in).
MCP, both directions	Connect any MCP server (flowly mcp install …) and run Flowly itself as an MCP server (flowly mcp serve) for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Claude Code.
Scheduled & unattended	Built-in cron — schedule any natural-language prompt and deliver the result to any channel. Run the gateway as a background service that survives reboots.
Yours to extend & contain	Full Python plugins (tools, slash commands, channels, lifecycle hooks → PLUGINS.md), switchable personas, and a sandbox (macOS sandbox-exec, Linux bwrap; opt out with FLOWLY_SANDBOX=0).

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Providers — bring your own key

Adapters for OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Groq, xAI / Grok, Zhipu / GLM, any OpenAI-compatible local model (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM), and a hosted Flowly Cloud option. Sign in to xAI with your SuperGrok / X Premium+ subscription instead of an API key. Switch any time:

flowly                     # open the chat
/provider openrouter       # pick provider
/model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6

Or edit ~/.flowly/config.json. When nothing is pinned, Flowly cascades through whatever you've configured (OpenRouter → Anthropic → OpenAI → xAI → …) so it always has a working model.

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CLI vs messaging — quick reference

Two entry points: start the terminal UI with flowly, or run the gateway and talk to Flowly from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, or email. Once you're in a conversation, most slash commands work the same in both.

Action	Terminal (TUI)	Messaging channels
Start chatting	flowly	flowly setup → add channel, then message the bot
New / reset conversation	/new	/new
Change model / provider	/model, /provider	/model, /provider
Switch persona	/persona [name]	/persona [name]
Browse & run skills	/skills or /<skill>	/<skill>
Inspect / correct memory	/memory, flowly memory list	/memory
Sessions & history	/sessions	/sessions
Interrupt current work	Ctrl+C or send a message	/stop or send a message

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Self-host or cloud

Flowly's agent core is Apache 2.0. Self-host on your laptop, a VPS, or a Mac mini — your keys, your data, your machine. Everything in this repo works with no Flowly account. → self-hosting guide · open source vs. Desktop/Cloud

Optional Flowly Cloud adds the native Mac/iOS/Android apps, cross-device sync, hosted LLM access, and a managed relay that keeps your bot reachable when your laptop sleeps. Sign-in is opt-in (flowly login) and only affects the cloud features; the agent is unchanged.

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Common commands

flowly                         # terminal chat (TUI)
flowly setup                   # interactive wizard (LLM, channels, integrations)
flowly agent -m "..."          # one-shot prompt
flowly service install --start # run the gateway as a background service
flowly restart                 # smart restart (launchd / systemd / Task Scheduler)
flowly doctor                  # diagnose config + runtime health
flowly memory list             # inspect / correct long-term memory
flowly skill mine --dry-run    # preview self-improved skills (opt-in subsystem)
flowly mcp install <name>      # add an MCP server from the catalog
flowly mcp serve               # expose Flowly as an MCP server
flowly login / logout          # Flowly Cloud account (optional)

Other command groups: flowly channels · cron · plugins · skills · bundles · persona · codex · xai · sessions · approvals · pairing. Full reference: flowly --help.

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Architecture

The gateway runs as a local daemon, and the whole process runs inside the OS sandbox (sandbox-exec on macOS, bwrap on Linux). Channels route through an in-process message bus; the TUI, desktop, and mobile apps connect as clients over one WebSocket protocol (ws://127.0.0.1:18790) — desktop and mobile can also reach it remotely via the Flowly Cloud relay. Config lives at ~/.flowly/config.json, shared by every client. → internal RPC protocol

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Installation paths

Method	Command	When
Install script	curl -fsSL https://useflowlyapp.com/install.sh | bash	Recommended — sets up uv, Python, Flowly, PATH
uv tool	uv tool install flowly-ai	If you already manage tools with uv
Source	git clone … && pip install -e ".[dev]"	Contributors

After install, run flowly setup. To run without a terminal session open:

flowly service install --start    # launchd (macOS) / systemd (Linux) / Task Scheduler (Windows)

It survives reboots and terminal close.

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Documentation

• MCP.md — connect external MCP servers + run Flowly as an MCP server
• PLUGINS.md — extend Flowly with custom tools, hooks, commands, skills
• BOARD.md — the cross-channel task board (sequential + parallel agents)
• SECURITY.md — trust model + vulnerability reporting
• SELF_HOSTING.md — run Flowly on your own machine or a VPS
• DESKTOP_VS_OSS.md — what's open source vs. Desktop & Cloud
• CONTRIBUTING.md — dev setup, project layout, PR process
• Engineering deep-dives: memory governance · skill self-improvement · internal gateway RPC

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Community

• 🐛 Issues — bugs and feature requests
• 🌐 useflowlyapp.com — apps, hosted cloud, and docs
• 📚 agentskills.io — the open skills standard Flowly speaks

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Status

Flowly was open-source in v1.x, closed during the v2 rewrite, and is back open under Apache 2.0. The agent, 40+ tools, 135 skills, and every channel adapter in this repo are the same code that ships inside the Flowly Desktop app — there is no separate "lite" build.

Active development. Issues and PRs welcome.

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License

Apache 2.0. Fork it, ship it, embed it. Self-hosted use with your own LLM keys is unrestricted. Commercial use of Flowly Cloud credentials (account / relay / gateway tokens) is governed by our Acceptable Use Policy — broadly: use them via official Flowly clients, not custom harnesses that proxy our subscription.

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Acknowledgments

Inspired by Claude Code (Anthropic) and the broader open-source agent community. Built by Nocetic Limited.