Project David

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An open-source API for sending messages to an LLM and getting responses back, with built-in support for tools, memory, and multi-step agent behaviour — self-hosted, so you own the infrastructure and can plug in any model you want.

Why Project David?

• Any model — connect to any LLM provider or run locally with Ollama
• Own your infrastructure — self-hosted, no vendor lock-in, no data leaving your stack
• Built-in agent primitives — tools, memory, and multi-step reasoning out of the box
• Open-source — built for engineers who won't trade data sovereignty for convenience

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Quick Start

1. Install the local package.

pip install -e .

2. Build the Docker containers.

platform-api docker-manager --mode both

📦 What gets generated on first run

Running this command bootstraps two files at the repository root if they don't already exist:

File	What it contains
.env	Unique, locally-generated secrets — DB passwords, DEFAULT_SECRET_KEY, SEARXNG_SECRET_KEY, etc. Never committed to version control.
docker-compose.yml	A fully-wired Compose file referencing those secrets via ${ENV_VAR} placeholders.

Both files are created once and left untouched on subsequent runs, so your local secrets remain stable across restarts.

For the full command reference see: Docker orchestration commands

Verify the CLI is working:

platform-api --help

Expected output:

Usage: platform-api [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

 Entities API management CLI.

╭─ Commands ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ bootstrap-admin   Bootstrap the initial admin user and API key.               │
│ docker-manager    Manage Docker Compose stack: build, run, set up .env...     │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

3. Provision your admin credentials.

The command reads SPECIAL_DB_URL from your environment. Set it before running:

Linux / macOS:

export SPECIAL_DB_URL=mysql+pymysql://user:password@localhost:3307/entities_db

Windows PowerShell:

Get-Content .env | ForEach-Object {
    if ($_ -match '^\s*([^#][^=]+)=(.*)$') {
        [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($matches[1].Trim(), $matches[2].Trim())
    }
}

Then run:

platform-api bootstrap-admin

This will walk you through the options step by step. To pass all options explicitly:

platform-api bootstrap-admin \
  --db-url "mysql+pymysql://user:password@localhost:3307/entities_db" \
  --email "admin@example.com" \
  --name "Default Admin"

Expected output on first run:

================================================================
  ✓  Admin API Key Generated
================================================================
  Email   : admin@example.com
  User ID : user_abc123...
  Prefix  : ad_abc12
----------------------------------------------------------------
  API KEY : ad_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------------------
  This key will NOT be shown again.
  Set it in your environment:
    export ADMIN_API_KEY=ad_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
================================================================

⚠️ Store this key immediately. It is shown exactly once and cannot be recovered. If lost, delete the ApiKey row from the database and re-run the command.

4. Provision your first user.

Install the SDK:

pip install projectdavid

Create a user:

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()
from projectdavid import Entity

client = Entity(api_key=os.getenv("ADMIN_API_KEY"))

new_user = client.users.create_user(
    full_name="Kevin Flynn",
    email="flynn@encom.com",
    is_admin=False,
)

print(new_user)

Expected output:

id='user_h5YYXC9b200Xv3QYT0Bv12' email='flynn@encom.com' full_name='Kevin Flynn' ...

Users require an API key to access the platform endpoints:

create_api_key = client.keys.create_key_for_user(
    target_user_id="the_user_id_here", key_name="The Grid"
)

print(create_api_key.plain_key)

Expected output:

ea_z_5YV4zGly50UHKlenc9BgTCQXtE....

The user can now make API calls using their key:

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()
from projectdavid import Entity

client = Entity(api_key=os.getenv("USER_API_KEY"))

⚠️ Do not use the admin key for general API calls.

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Next Steps

• Inference Quick Start
• Full Python SDK documentation

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License

Distributed under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. Commercial licensing available upon request.