Build and deploy AI agent workflows in minutes.

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

1. Open VS Code with the Remote - Containers extension
2. Open the project and click "Reopen in Container" when prompted
3. 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

1. Clone and install:

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

2. 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.

3. 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"

4. Run migrations:

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

5. 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

Troubleshooting

Ollama models not showing in dropdown (Docker)

If you're running Ollama on your host machine and Sim in Docker, change OLLAMA_URL from localhost to host.docker.internal:

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

See Using an External Ollama Instance for details.

Database connection issues

Ensure PostgreSQL has the pgvector extension installed. When using Docker, wait for the database to be healthy before running migrations.

Port conflicts

If ports 3000, 3002, or 5432 are in use, configure alternatives:

# Custom ports
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=http://localhost:3100 POSTGRES_PORT=5433 docker compose up -d

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