OpenCrust

The secure, lightweight open-source AI agent framework.

Quick Start · Why OpenCrust? · Features · Security · Architecture · Migrate from OpenClaw · Contributing

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A single 16 MB binary that runs your AI agents across Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, and iMessage - with encrypted credential storage, config hot-reload, and 13 MB of RAM at idle. Built in Rust for the security and reliability that AI agents demand.

Quick Start

# Install (Linux, macOS)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opencrust-org/opencrust/main/install.sh | sh

# Interactive setup - pick your LLM provider and channels
opencrust init

# Start - on first message, the agent will introduce itself and learn your preferences
opencrust start

Build from source

# Requires Rust 1.85+
cargo build --release
./target/release/opencrust init
./target/release/opencrust start

# Optional: include WASM plugin support
cargo build --release --features plugins

Pre-compiled binaries for Linux (x86_64, aarch64), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon), and Windows (x86_64) are available on GitHub Releases.

Why OpenCrust?

vs OpenClaw, ZeroClaw, and other AI agent frameworks

	OpenCrust	OpenClaw (Node.js)	ZeroClaw (Rust)
Binary size	16 MB	~1.2 GB (with node_modules)	~25 MB
Memory at idle	13 MB	~388 MB	~20 MB
Cold start	3 ms	13.9 s	~50 ms
Credential storage	AES-256-GCM encrypted vault	Plaintext config file	Plaintext config file
Auth default	Enabled (WebSocket pairing)	Disabled by default	Disabled by default
Scheduling	Cron, interval, one-shot	Yes	No
Multi-agent routing	Planned (#108)	Yes (agentId)	No
Session orchestration	Planned (#108)	Yes	No
MCP support	Stdio	Stdio + HTTP	Stdio
Channels	5	6+	4
LLM providers	14	10+	22+
Pre-compiled binaries	Yes	N/A (Node.js)	Build from source
Config hot-reload	Yes	No	No
WASM plugin system	Optional (sandboxed)	No	No
Self-update	Yes (opencrust update)	npm	Build from source

Benchmarks measured on a 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM DigitalOcean droplet. Reproduce them yourself.

Security

OpenCrust is built for the security requirements of always-on AI agents that access private data and communicate externally.

• Encrypted credential vault - API keys and tokens stored with AES-256-GCM encryption at ~/.opencrust/credentials/vault.json. Never plaintext on disk.
• Authentication by default - WebSocket gateway requires pairing codes. No unauthenticated access out of the box.
• User allowlists - per-channel allowlists control who can interact with the agent. Unauthorized messages are silently dropped.
• Prompt injection detection - input validation and sanitization before content reaches the LLM.
• WASM sandboxing - optional plugin sandbox via WebAssembly runtime with controlled host access (compile with --features plugins).
• Localhost-only binding - gateway binds to 127.0.0.1 by default, not 0.0.0.0.

Features

LLM Providers

Native providers:

• Anthropic Claude - streaming (SSE), tool use
• OpenAI - GPT-4o, Azure, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint via base_url
• Ollama - local models with streaming

OpenAI-compatible providers:

• Sansa - regional LLM via sansaml.com
• DeepSeek - DeepSeek Chat
• Mistral - Mistral Large
• Gemini - Google Gemini via OpenAI-compatible API
• Falcon - TII Falcon 180B (AI71)
• Jais - Core42 Jais 70B
• Qwen - Alibaba Qwen Plus
• Yi - 01.AI Yi Large
• Cohere - Command R Plus
• MiniMax - MiniMax Text 01
• Moonshot - Kimi K2

Channels

• Telegram - streaming responses, MarkdownV2, bot commands, typing indicators, user allowlist with pairing codes, photo/vision support, voice messages (Whisper STT), document/file handling
• Discord - slash commands, event-driven message handling, session management
• Slack - Socket Mode, streaming responses, allowlist/pairing
• WhatsApp - Meta Cloud API webhooks, allowlist/pairing
• iMessage - macOS native via chat.db polling, group chats, AppleScript sending (setup guide)

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

• Connect any MCP-compatible server (filesystem, GitHub, databases, web search)
• Tools appear as native agent tools with namespaced names (server.tool)
• Configure in config.yml or ~/.opencrust/mcp.json (Claude Desktop compatible)
• CLI: opencrust mcp list, opencrust mcp inspect <name>

Personality (DNA)

• On first message, the agent introduces itself and asks a few questions to learn your preferences
• Writes ~/.opencrust/dna.md with your name, communication style, guidelines, and the bot's own identity
• No config files to edit, no wizard sections to fill out - just a conversation
• Hot-reloads on edit - change dna.md and the agent adapts immediately
• Migrating from OpenClaw? opencrust migrate openclaw imports your existing SOUL.md

Agent Runtime

• Tool execution loop - bash, file_read, file_write, web_fetch, web_search, schedule_heartbeat (up to 10 iterations)
• SQLite-backed conversation memory with vector search (sqlite-vec + Cohere embeddings)
• Context window management - rolling conversation summarization at 75% context window
• Scheduled tasks - cron, interval, and one-shot scheduling

Skills

• Define agent skills as Markdown files (SKILL.md) with YAML frontmatter
• Auto-discovery from ~/.opencrust/skills/ - injected into the system prompt
• CLI: opencrust skill list, opencrust skill install <url>, opencrust skill remove <name>

Infrastructure

• Config hot-reload - edit config.yml, changes apply without restart
• Daemonization - opencrust start --daemon with PID management
• Self-update - opencrust update downloads the latest release with SHA-256 verification, opencrust rollback to revert
• Restart - opencrust restart gracefully stops and starts the daemon
• Runtime provider switching - add or switch LLM providers via the webchat UI or REST API without restarting
• Migration tool - opencrust migrate openclaw imports skills, channels, and credentials
• Conversation summarization - rolling summary at 75% context window, session summaries persisted across restarts
• Interactive setup - opencrust init wizard for provider and channel configuration

Migrating from OpenClaw?

One command imports your skills, channel configs, credentials (encrypted into the vault), and personality (SOUL.md as dna.md):

opencrust migrate openclaw

Use --dry-run to preview changes before committing. Use --source /path/to/openclaw to specify a custom OpenClaw config directory.

Configuration

OpenCrust looks for config at ~/.opencrust/config.yml:

gateway:
  host: "127.0.0.1"
  port: 3888

llm:
  claude:
    provider: anthropic
    model: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929
    # api_key resolved from: vault > config > ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var

  ollama-local:
    provider: ollama
    model: llama3.1
    base_url: "http://localhost:11434"

channels:
  telegram:
    type: telegram
    enabled: true
    bot_token: "your-bot-token"  # or TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN env var

agent:
  # Personality is configured via ~/.opencrust/dna.md (auto-created on first message)
  max_tokens: 4096
  max_context_tokens: 100000

memory:
  enabled: true

# MCP servers for external tools
mcp:
  filesystem:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/tmp"]

See the full configuration reference for all options including Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, embeddings, and MCP server setup.

Architecture

crates/
  opencrust-cli/        # CLI, init wizard, daemon management
  opencrust-gateway/    # WebSocket gateway, HTTP API, sessions
  opencrust-config/     # YAML/TOML loading, hot-reload, MCP config
  opencrust-channels/   # Discord, Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage
  opencrust-agents/     # LLM providers, tools, MCP client, agent runtime
  opencrust-db/         # SQLite memory, vector search (sqlite-vec)
  opencrust-plugins/    # WASM plugin sandbox (wasmtime)
  opencrust-media/      # Media processing (scaffolded)
  opencrust-security/   # Credential vault, allowlists, pairing, validation
  opencrust-skills/     # SKILL.md parser, scanner, installer
  opencrust-common/     # Shared types, errors, utilities

Component	Status
Gateway (WebSocket, HTTP, sessions)	Working
Telegram (streaming, commands, pairing, photos, voice, documents)	Working
Discord (slash commands, sessions)	Working
Slack (Socket Mode, streaming)	Working
WhatsApp (webhooks)	Working
iMessage (macOS, group chats)	Working
LLM providers (14: Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama + 11 OpenAI-compatible)	Working
Agent tools (bash, file_read, file_write, web_fetch, web_search, schedule_heartbeat)	Working
MCP client (stdio, tool bridging)	Working
Skills (SKILL.md, auto-discovery)	Working
Config (YAML/TOML, hot-reload)	Working
Personality (DNA bootstrap, hot-reload)	Working
Memory (SQLite, vector search, summarization)	Working
Security (vault, allowlist, pairing)	Working
Scheduling (cron, interval, one-shot)	Working
CLI (init, start/stop/restart, update, migrate, mcp, skills)	Working
Plugin system (WASM sandbox)	Scaffolded
Media processing	Scaffolded

Contributing

OpenCrust is open source under the MIT license. Join the Discord to chat with contributors, ask questions, or share what you're building. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions, code guidelines, and the crate overview.

Current priorities

Priority	Issue	Description
P0	#103	README and positioning
P0	#104	Website: opencrust.org
P0	#105	Discord community
P1	#106	Built-in starter skills
P1	#107	Scheduling hardening
P1	#108	Multi-agent routing
P1	#109	Install script
P1	#110	Linux aarch64 + Windows releases
P1	#80	MCP: HTTP transport, resources, prompts

Browse all open issues or filter by good-first-issue to find a place to start.

License

MIT