sim by simstudioai - RepoMind Architecture & Analysis

<a href="https://sim.ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> <img src="apps/sim/public/logo/reverse/text/large.png" alt="Sim Logo" width="500"/> </a> Build and deploy AI agent workflows in minutes. <a href="https://sim.ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/sim.ai-6F3DFA" alt="Sim.ai"></a> <a href="https://discord.gg/Hr4UWYEcTT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Discord-Join%20Server-5865F2?logo=discord&logoColor=white" alt="Discord"></a> <a href="https://x.com/simdotai" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://img.shields.io/twitter/follow/simdotai?style=social" alt="Twitter"></a> <a href="https://docs.sim.ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Docs-6F3DFA.svg" alt="Documentation"></a> <a href="https://deepwiki.com/simstudioai/sim" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://deepwiki.com/badge.svg" alt="Ask DeepWiki"></a> <a href="https://cursor.com/link/prompt?text=Help%20me%20set%20up%20Sim%20locally.%20Follow%20these%20steps%3A%0A%0A1.%20First%2C%20verify%20Docker%20is%20installed%20and%20running%3A%0A%20%20%20docker%20--version%0A%20%20%20docker%20info%0A%0A2.%20Clone%20the%20repository%3A%0A%20%20%20git%20clone%20https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fsimstudioai%2Fsim.git%0A%20%20%20cd%20sim%0A%0A3.%20Start%20the%20services%20with%20Docker%20Compose%3A%0A%20%20%20docker%20compose%20-f%20docker-compose.prod.yml%20up%20-d%0A%0A4.%20Wait%20for%20all%20containers%20to%20be%20healthy%20(this%20may%20take%201-2%20minutes)%3A%0A%20%20%20docker%20compose%20-f%20docker-compose.prod.yml%20ps%0A%0A5.%20Verify%20the%20app%20is%20accessible%20at%20http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A3000%0A%0AIf%20there%20are%20any%20errors%2C%20help%20me%20troubleshoot%20them.%20Common%20issues%3A%0A-%20Port%203000%2C%203002%2C%20or%205432%20already%20in%20use%0A-%20Docker%20not%20running%0A-%20Insufficient%20memory%20(needs%2012GB%2B%20RAM)%0A%0AFor%20local%20AI%20models%20with%20Ollama%2C%20use%20this%20instead%20of%20step%203%3A%0A%20%20%20docker%20compose%20-f%20docker-compose.ollama.yml%20--profile%20setup%20up%20-d"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Set%20Up%20with-Cursor-000000?logo=cursor&logoColor=white" alt="Set Up with Cursor"></a>

Build Workflows with Ease

Design agent workflows visually on a canvas—connect agents, tools, and blocks, then run them instantly.

Supercharge with Copilot

Leverage Copilot to generate nodes, fix errors, and iterate on flows directly from natural language.

Integrate Vector Databases

Upload documents to a vector store and let agents answer questions grounded in your specific content.

Quickstart

Cloud-hosted: sim.ai

Self-hosted: NPM Package

npx simstudio

→ http://localhost:3000

Note

Docker must be installed and running on your machine.

Options

Flag	Description
`-p, --port <port>`	Port to run Sim on (default `3000`)
`--no-pull`	Skip pulling latest Docker images

Self-hosted: Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/simstudioai/sim.git && cd sim
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

Open http://localhost:3000

Using Local Models with Ollama

Run Sim with local AI models using Ollama - no external APIs required:

# Start with GPU support (automatically downloads gemma3:4b model)
docker compose -f docker-compose.ollama.yml --profile setup up -d

# For CPU-only systems:
docker compose -f docker-compose.ollama.yml --profile cpu --profile setup up -d

Wait for the model to download, then visit http://localhost:3000. Add more models with:

docker compose -f docker-compose.ollama.yml exec ollama ollama pull llama3.1:8b

Using an External Ollama Instance

If Ollama is running on your host machine, use host.docker.internal instead of localhost:

OLLAMA_URL=http://host.docker.internal:11434 docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

On Linux, use your host's IP address or add extra_hosts: ["host.docker.internal:host-gateway"] to the compose file.

Using vLLM

Sim supports vLLM for self-hosted models. Set VLLM_BASE_URL and optionally VLLM_API_KEY in your environment.

Self-hosted: Dev Containers

Open VS Code with the Remote - Containers extension
Open the project and click "Reopen in Container" when prompted
Run bun run dev:full in the terminal or use the sim-start alias
- This starts both the main application and the realtime socket server

Self-hosted: Manual Setup

Requirements: Bun, Node.js v20+, PostgreSQL 12+ with pgvector

Clone and install:

git clone https://github.com/simstudioai/sim.git
cd sim
bun install

Set up PostgreSQL with pgvector:

docker run --name simstudio-db -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your_password -e POSTGRES_DB=simstudio -p 5432:5432 -d pgvector/pgvector:pg17

Or install manually via the pgvector guide.

Configure environment:

cp apps/sim/.env.example apps/sim/.env
cp packages/db/.env.example packages/db/.env
# Edit both .env files to set DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:your_password@localhost:5432/simstudio"

Run migrations:

cd packages/db && bunx drizzle-kit migrate --config=./drizzle.config.ts

Start development servers:

bun run dev:full  # Starts both Next.js app and realtime socket server

Or run separately: bun run dev (Next.js) and cd apps/sim && bun run dev:sockets (realtime).

Copilot API Keys

Copilot is a Sim-managed service. To use Copilot on a self-hosted instance:

Go to https://sim.ai → Settings → Copilot and generate a Copilot API key
Set COPILOT_API_KEY environment variable in your self-hosted apps/sim/.env file to that value

Environment Variables

Key environment variables for self-hosted deployments. See .env.example for defaults or env.ts for the full list.

Variable	Required	Description
`DATABASE_URL`	Yes	PostgreSQL connection string with pgvector
`BETTER_AUTH_SECRET`	Yes	Auth secret (`openssl rand -hex 32`)
`BETTER_AUTH_URL`	Yes	Your app URL (e.g., `http://localhost:3000`)
`NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL`	Yes	Public app URL (same as above)
`ENCRYPTION_KEY`	Yes	Encrypts environment variables (`openssl rand -hex 32`)
`INTERNAL_API_SECRET`	Yes	Encrypts internal API routes (`openssl rand -hex 32`)
`API_ENCRYPTION_KEY`	Yes	Encrypts API keys (`openssl rand -hex 32`)
`COPILOT_API_KEY`	No	API key from sim.ai for Copilot features

Tech Stack

Framework: Next.js (App Router)
Runtime: Bun
Database: PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM
Authentication: Better Auth
UI: Shadcn, Tailwind CSS
State Management: Zustand
Flow Editor: ReactFlow
Docs: Fumadocs
Monorepo: Turborepo
Realtime: Socket.io
Background Jobs: Trigger.dev
Remote Code Execution: E2B

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Made with ❤️ by the Sim Team

simstudioai / sim

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