Quick Start

Introduction

ByteChef is an open-source platform for building and running workflow automations and AI agents across the applications, APIs, and databases you already use.

The core is licensed under Apache 2.0 and runs anywhere Docker runs, or as a managed service on ByteChef Cloud. You build workflows in a visual editor, from a library of more than 270 connectors and flow controls, and add code steps in JavaScript, Python or Java where a connector is not enough. AI agents are first-class workflow steps: give an agent a model, tools drawn from the same connectors, memory and guardrails, and let it act inside a workflow that you can pause for a human approval and resume. The same engine can be embedded in your own product, so your customers connect their accounts and run integrations without leaving your app.

These docs are organized by what you want to do. Platform explains how to use ByteChef, from your first workflow to enterprise settings. The Reference documents every component, its actions and triggers, and the expression syntax used to pass data between steps. The Developer Guide covers running ByteChef from source and building your own connectors, and the API reference describes the public REST APIs for automation, embedded integrations and custom components. Agents can read any page as markdown by requesting it with Accept: text/markdown, and start from llms.txt.

Choose how to use ByteChef

Cloud

Run ByteChef on our managed, hosted deployment - no infrastructure to manage.

Self-Hosted

Deploy and operate ByteChef on your own infrastructure - Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or DigitalOcean.

Pick your path

Automation

Easily build and run smart workflows that connect your apps, automate routine tasks, and include AI-driven decisions-no heavy coding needed.

Embedded

Bring the power of ByteChef directly into your product-embed the workflow builder, run automations behind the scenes, and let your users create workflows inside your app.

Explore more

Developer Guide

Build a component by hand or generate one from an OpenAPI specification, and learn the DSL for actions, triggers, connections, and properties.

Reference

Every component and flow control, plus the expression syntax and its built-in functions.

Community support

For help, you can use one of these channels to ask a question:

Discord - Discussions with the community and the team.
GitHub - For bug reports and feature requests.
X/Twitter - Get the product updates easily.

Roadmap

Check out our roadmap to get informed of the latest features released and the upcoming ones.

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute, kindly read our Contributing Guide to learn and understand about our development process, how to propose bug fixes and improvements, and how to build and test your changes to ByteChef.