OpenSquilla — Token-Efficient AI Agent

Same budget, more capability, better results.
A microkernel AI agent for your CLI, Web UI, and chat channels.

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Overview

OpenSquilla is a token-efficient, microkernel AI agent. A local model router sends each turn to the cheapest model that can handle it, while persistent memory, a layered sandbox, built-in web search, and on-device embeddings round out a single shared turn loop.

Every entry point — Web UI, CLI, and chat channels — runs through that same loop, so tool dispatch, retries, and decision logging behave identically everywhere. A pluggable provider layer speaks to OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, DeepSeek, Gemini, Qwen/DashScope, and 20+ other LLM providers with no change to your code or config schema.

OpenSquilla 0.3.1 is the current release.

For task-oriented product documentation, start with the OpenSquilla Product Guide or the documentation index.

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Installation

OpenSquilla runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Pick the path that matches your use case.

Windows portable and Quick terminal install give you a prebuilt release — no Git required. The other two — Install from source and Develop from source — build from a Git checkout (git clone + Git LFS).

Release install commands use published GitHub release assets. The Windows portable zip also has a /releases/latest/download/ alias for the current release. Python wheel installs use versioned wheel filenames because installers validate the version embedded in the wheel filename.

Path	Audience	When to use
Windows portable	Windows users	No Python toolchain; one-zip launch
Quick terminal install (recommended)	End users on any OS	Release wheel from a terminal
Install from source	Users tracking main	Run from a checkout, not edit it
Develop from source	Contributors	Edit, test, or debug the source

Prerequisites

Requirement	Windows portable	Quick terminal install	Install from source	Develop from source
Python 3.12+	bundled	via uv	via uv or system	via uv
Git + Git LFS	—	—	required	required
uv	—	installed if missing	recommended	required

The default recommended profile installs SquillaRouter — OpenSquilla's on-device model router — and its model assets; OPENSQUILLA_INSTALL_PROFILE=core omits those dependencies. The separate --router disabled onboarding flag keeps the dependencies installed but turns the router off at runtime.

On Windows, SquillaRouter's bundled ONNX runtime also needs the Visual C++ runtime. The Windows portable launcher and the from-source PowerShell installer install it automatically via winget; the Quick terminal install (uv tool install) path does not — if startup logs a DLL load failed error, install it manually (see Troubleshooting). OpenSquilla keeps running with direct single-model routing until it is installed.

Install links: Git · Git LFS · uv.

Windows portable (no Python)

The fastest path on Windows — the zip ships a bundled CPython runtime, so no separate Python install is required.

1. Download the current portable zip: https://github.com/opensquilla/opensquilla/releases/latest/download/OpenSquilla-windows-x64-portable.zip
2. Extract it to a writable folder such as Downloads or Documents, then right-click Start OpenSquilla.cmd and choose Run as administrator.
3. Complete the first-run setup, then open http://127.0.0.1:18791/control/.

Note

Preview builds are unsigned; administrator launch is the supported path. If SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway. If Smart App Control or enterprise policy blocks the unsigned app, use Quick terminal install instead.

Advanced portable usage

Provide an OpenRouter key before first start:

$env:OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-..."
Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass
.\start.ps1

If OPENROUTER_API_KEY is set and no local config exists, the launcher writes an env-reference config and starts the gateway without prompting. If unset, the onboarding wizard lets you pick any supported provider.

The portable zip does not install a global opensquilla command. For a terminal where opensquilla … works, run OpenSquilla Shell.cmd, or call the bundled launcher directly:

.\opensquilla.cmd onboard --provider openrouter --api-key-env OPENROUTER_API_KEY

Quick terminal install

The recommended path on Windows, macOS, and Linux. uv installs OpenSquilla into its own isolated environment and manages its own Python — no system Python required. This path installs published releases only; for main, development branches, or local checkouts use Install from source.

1. Install uv — skip if uv --version already works.

Linux / macOS:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
. "$HOME/.local/bin/env"

Windows PowerShell:

powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
$env:Path = "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin;" + $env:Path

2. Install OpenSquilla — the same command on every platform.

uv tool install --python 3.12 "opensquilla[recommended] @ https://github.com/opensquilla/opensquilla/releases/download/v0.3.1/opensquilla-0.3.1-py3-none-any.whl"

This installs the OpenSquilla wheel from the release URL, then lets uv download the dependencies declared by the selected extras. The default recommended extra includes SquillaRouter runtime dependencies such as ONNX Runtime, LightGBM, NumPy, and tokenizers, so a first install needs network access unless those wheels are already cached.

3. Configure and run.

opensquilla onboard
opensquilla gateway run

Note

If opensquilla is not found right after a fresh uv install, open a new terminal, or re-run the PATH line from step 1.

For a fully pinned install, use the versioned wheel URL: https://github.com/opensquilla/opensquilla/releases/download/v0.3.1/opensquilla-0.3.1-py3-none-any.whl.

Install from source

Use this path to run OpenSquilla from a checkout without editing it. The clone is only the package source for the installer; after install, use the opensquilla command — do not run uv run. Choose Develop from source instead if you intend to modify the code.

1. Clone with LFS assets

   git lfs install
   git clone https://github.com/opensquilla/opensquilla.git
   cd opensquilla
   git lfs pull --include="src/opensquilla/squilla_router/models/**"

2. Run the installer

   macOS / Linux

   bash scripts/install_source.sh

   Windows PowerShell

   powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./scripts/install_source.ps1

   The script installs .[recommended] (SquillaRouter + memory + local models) into a dedicated user environment via uv tool install, falling back to python -m pip install --user when uv is unavailable. Open a new terminal if opensquilla is not on PATH after install.

3. (optional) Install advanced extras. Most channels — Feishu, Telegram, DingTalk, QQ, WeCom, Slack, and Discord — work from the base install. The opt-in extras are:

   • matrix — Matrix channel (pulls in matrix-nio)
   • matrix-e2e — Matrix channel with end-to-end encryption (requires libolm)
   • document-extras — PDF generation via WeasyPrint

   OPENSQUILLA_INSTALL_EXTRAS=matrix bash scripts/install_source.sh        # macOS / Linux

   powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./scripts/install_source.ps1 -Extras matrix   # Windows

4. Configure and run — see Configuration.

Install from source — terminal prerequisites and installer options

Install prerequisites (Git, Git LFS, uv) from a terminal

Windows PowerShell:

winget install --id Git.Git -e
winget install --id GitHub.GitLFS -e
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
git lfs install

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install git git-lfs uv
git lfs install

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git git-lfs
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
git lfs install

On Fedora use sudo dnf install -y git git-lfs; on Arch use sudo pacman -S --needed git git-lfs; then install uv with the curl command above. PATH changes from these installers apply to new terminal sessions.

Installer environment variables and PATH checks

OPENSQUILLA_INSTALL_PROFILE=core   bash scripts/install_source.sh   # minimal runtime, no SquillaRouter
OPENSQUILLA_INSTALL_DRY_RUN=1      bash scripts/install_source.sh   # print the plan only

Verify which opensquilla your shell runs with command -v opensquilla (macOS/Linux) or where.exe opensquilla (Windows). If it is not on PATH, run uv tool update-shell. After reinstalling from a local checkout, restart the gateway so it loads the updated package.

Develop from source

Use this path when you are working on OpenSquilla's source code: making changes, running tests, or debugging behavior against this checkout. It is not the normal install path. Unlike Install from source, this path requires uv: uv sync creates a repository-local .venv, and uv run executes commands against the files in this checkout.

uv sync --extra recommended --extra dev
uv run opensquilla --help

The recommended extra includes SquillaRouter for development too; the dev extra installs the test, lint, and typecheck tools. Install additional extras into the same environment you run:

uv sync --extra recommended --extra dev --extra matrix
uv run opensquilla channels status matrix --json

In this mode, prefix every opensquilla command in Configuration with uv run. Do not debug a development checkout through a user-local opensquilla command — that command runs in a different Python environment.

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Configuration

First-run setup

opensquilla onboard is the interactive first-run wizard. It writes the active config file and keeps provider secrets in environment variables when you pass --api-key-env. The router defaults to recommended (SquillaRouter on supported providers); pass --router disabled for direct single-model routing.

opensquilla onboard                # full interactive wizard
opensquilla onboard --if-needed    # idempotent: safe for scripts and re-installs
opensquilla onboard --minimal      # provider only; skip channels and search
opensquilla onboard status         # inspect every setup section without writing

In SSH, CI, or any environment without a TTY, use the non-interactive form — keep the secret in the environment and pass its name, not its value:

Linux / macOS

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-..."
opensquilla onboard --provider openrouter --api-key-env OPENROUTER_API_KEY

Windows PowerShell

$env:OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-..."
opensquilla onboard --provider openrouter --api-key-env OPENROUTER_API_KEY

OpenRouter is only an example — substitute any supported provider and its API-key variable.

Re-configure one section later without redoing the whole wizard (these examples assume the relevant API key is already in the environment):

opensquilla configure provider --provider openai --model gpt-4o --api-key-env OPENAI_API_KEY
opensquilla configure router --router recommended
opensquilla configure search   --search-provider brave --api-key-env BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY
opensquilla configure channels

Sections: provider, router, channels, search, image-generation, memory-embedding. The Web UI exposes the same catalog and status model at /control/setup: Provider and Router are the fast path, while Channels, Search, Image generation, and Memory embedding sit in the Capability Center and can be configured later. Empty channels are treated as an opt-out, not a failed setup.

Config load order: OPENSQUILLA_GATEWAY_CONFIG_PATH → ./opensquilla.toml → ~/.opensquilla/config.toml → built-in defaults. Environment values for individual secrets always win over file values.

Migrate from OpenClaw or Hermes Agent

If you already have state under ~/.openclaw or ~/.hermes, run a dry run first to inspect the migration report, then apply it explicitly:

opensquilla migrate openclaw --json
opensquilla migrate openclaw --apply

opensquilla migrate hermes --json
opensquilla migrate hermes --apply

Use opensquilla migrate --source openclaw,hermes --apply to import both default homes. Add --migrate-secrets only after reviewing the dry-run report. See MIGRATION.md for custom paths and conflict handling.

Run

opensquilla gateway run                # foreground, 127.0.0.1:18791
opensquilla gateway start --json       # background + health wait
opensquilla chat                       # interactive REPL
opensquilla agent -m "your prompt"     # one-shot, automation-friendly

Open the Web UI at http://127.0.0.1:18791/control/. The Health view shows whether OpenSquilla is ready, what is not ready, and the next recovery steps. From the CLI, run:

opensquilla doctor
opensquilla doctor --json
opensquilla doctor --config ./opensquilla.toml --json

/health and /healthz are lightweight liveness endpoints for process checks. opensquilla doctor and the Web UI Health view are the readiness surfaces for provider config, memory, logs, search, channels, sandbox posture, router, image generation, and recovery guidance. Press Ctrl+C to stop a foreground gateway.

Other command groups include sessions, skills, memory, migrate, cron, channels, providers, models, and cost. Run opensquilla --help or opensquilla <group> --help for details.

Advanced configuration — verify a channel, public network binding, Docker

Connect and verify a messaging channel

Channel saves are config changes, not runtime-connectivity proof. Restart the gateway after channel edits, then verify the live channel:

opensquilla gateway restart
opensquilla channels status <name> --json

Treat a channel as connected only when the status payload reports enabled=true, configured=true, and connected=true. Feishu defaults to websocket mode, Telegram to polling, and Slack can use Socket Mode — none of those modes needs a public URL. Feishu webhook mode, Telegram webhook mode, Slack webhook mode, and WeCom require a public, provider-reachable URL.

Public network binding

To reach the Web UI from another machine, bind the gateway to all interfaces and use the host's public IP:

opensquilla gateway run --listen 0.0.0.0 --port 18791

Public access also requires the host firewall or cloud security group to allow inbound TCP on that port. Do not expose the gateway with [auth] mode = "none" — configure token auth before binding to 0.0.0.0.

Docker

The compose path runs an opensquilla:local image you build yourself. Build it from a source checkout with the Git LFS router assets pulled (see Install from source for the clone and git lfs pull):

docker build -t opensquilla:local .

./start.sh (or start.ps1 on Windows) then runs docker compose up -d and tails the gateway logs. Docker avoids a host Python toolchain — not the local image build.

Provider tiers, sandbox tuning, image generation, and concurrency settings live in opensquilla.toml.example.

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What's New in 0.3.1

OpenSquilla 0.3.1 is a maintenance release for the 0.3 line. It updates the stable install metadata and brings selected channel, chat, provider, and workflow fixes from the integration branch onto the stable release line:

• Channel setup and replies — Slack Socket Mode, app mentions, signing secrets, and threaded replies preserve the channel context needed for setup and replies.
• Media and voice workflow handoffs — short-drama/video helper workflows remain bundled, generated media flows have clearer review pauses, and voice/audio handoffs are usable end to end.
• Chat formatting — user message bubbles preserve multiline text and read like authored messages instead of compressed UI labels.
• Provider request hardening — malformed tool-call history is kept away from providers before it becomes invalid request state.
• Install and release checks — installer URLs, release metadata, version consistency tests, and CI impact gates are updated for 0.3.1.

Full notes: CHANGELOG.md · docs/releases/0.3.1.md.

What's New in 0.2.1

OpenSquilla 0.2.1 is a maintenance release focused on release-package startup and long-running agent reliability:

• Windows portable startup — the portable launcher better detects and bootstraps the Visual C++ runtime needed by the bundled ONNX router.
• Long-running agent turns — tool-heavy WebUI sessions recover more cleanly from oversized tool results, malformed tool calls, artifact delivery handoffs, and degraded final responses.
• Cleaner WebUI output — generated artifact markers are kept out of normal chat replay while delivered files remain visible.
• Memory recall scoring — local and OpenAI-compatible embedding vectors are normalized before semantic search, and strong keyword matches remain usable when vector scores are low.

Full notes: CHANGELOG.md · release notes.

What's New in 0.2.0

This release expands OpenSquilla across migration, CLI chat, channels, scheduling, and long-running tool work:

• Migration path from existing agent homes — opensquilla migrate previews and applies imports from existing OpenClaw/Hermes homes, including memory, persona files, skills, MCP/channel config, conflict handling, and migration reports.
• Usable chat CLI — opensquilla chat now has a persistent terminal UI, streaming output, queued input, slash-mode discovery, tool/status strips, and more deterministic live prompt behavior.
• Cross-surface cron automation — cron jobs now cover structured schedules, timezone-aware exact/every/cron runs, channel or webhook delivery, failure destinations, manual runs, and WebUI/CLI/RPC parity.
• Better Feishu and Discord channels — channel adapters expose clearer capability metadata, safer DM/group handling, native file and artifact paths, and improved attachment/thread behavior while privileged actions stay scoped.
• Sturdier long-running turns — failed turns are kept out of provider replay, malformed tool calls are handled more safely, and approval-gated retries wait for operator decisions.
• Smarter context and tool budgeting — provider-budget compaction, prompt cache preservation, bounded tool results, and side-effect-aware concurrency make large tool-heavy sessions more predictable.
• Web UI and release polish — recency ordering, table layout, mobile controls, duplicate notifications, setup forms, release URLs, and install paths are tightened for 0.2.0.

Full notes: CHANGELOG.md · release notes.

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Key Features

Capability	What it does
Token-efficient routing	SquillaRouter — a local LightGBM + ONNX classifier in the recommended extra — scores each turn on length, language, code, keywords, and semantic embeddings, then routes it across four tiers (T0–T3) to the cheapest capable model. Classification runs on-device; your prompt never leaves the machine to make that decision.
Adaptive reasoning and prompts	OpenSquilla requests extended reasoning only for turns the router scores as complex, and the system prompt scales with task complexity — lightweight for trivial turns, full instructions for complex ones.
20+ LLM providers	The provider registry targets 20+ LLM backends — OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, DeepSeek, Gemini, DashScope/Qwen, Moonshot, Mistral, Groq, Zhipu, SiliconFlow, vLLM, LM Studio, and more, with primary-plus-fallback selection; first-run onboarding exposes the verified subset.
On-demand skills and MCP	15 bundled skills (coding, GitHub, cron, pptx/docx/xlsx/pdf, summarization, tmux, weather, and more) load only when the task needs them. OpenSquilla is an MCP client, and can also run as an MCP server — opensquilla mcp-server run needs the mcp extra (install opensquilla[recommended,mcp]). Skills can be authored, installed, and published from the CLI.
Persistent local memory	A curated MEMORY.md plus dated Markdown notes, searched with SQLite full-text keyword search and sqlite-vec semantic recall. Embeddings run on-device via bundled ONNX, or swap to OpenAI/Ollama. Optional exponential decay and opt-in "dream" consolidation are available.
Layered security sandbox	Three policy tiers (Standard / Strict / Locked) on a permission matrix. Bubblewrap isolates code execution on Linux; the macOS Seatbelt backend currently renders profiles only (execution pending), and there is no sandbox backend on Windows yet. A denial ledger auto-pauses autonomous runs after repeated denials, rejected outputs are purged, and skill metadata and tool results are XML-escaped against prompt injection.
Built-in tools	File read/write/edit, shell and background processes, git, web search (Brave or DuckDuckGo) and fetch behind an SSRF guard, spreadsheet/PPTX/PDF authoring, image generation, and text-to-speech.
Unified gateway	A Starlette ASGI server on 127.0.0.1:18791 with WebSocket RPC and an embedded control console (/control/). Web UI, CLI, and channels for Terminal, WebSocket, Slack, Telegram, Discord, Feishu, DingTalk, WeCom, Matrix, and QQ all share one TurnRunner.
Durable sessions, subagents, and scheduling	SQLite-backed session, transcript, and replay storage with per-agent workspaces. Agents spawn depth-bounded subagents, and a SchedulerEngine with an in-tree cron parser runs recurring jobs via opensquilla cron.
Operator controls	Human-in-the-loop approvals can pause sensitive tool calls for a decision; per-turn and per-session token and cost rollups (opensquilla cost) and diagnostics are available from the CLI and Web UI.

MetaSkill docs: docs/features/meta-skills.md, docs/features/meta-skill-user-guide.md, and docs/authoring/meta-skills.md.

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Benchmark Results

PinchBench 1.2.1 average results across 25 tasks:

Agent	Base Model	Avg. score	Total input tokens	Total output tokens	Total cost
OpenSquilla	Model router (Opus4.7, GLM5.1, DS4 Flash)	0.9251	1,721,328	61,475	$0.688
OpenClaw	Claude Opus 4.7	0.9255	3,066,243	50,890	$6.233

Score is the mean across the 25 tasks; token counts and cost are totals for the full run.

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Troubleshooting

Windows: DLL load failed / Visual C++ runtime

If startup logs DLL load failed while importing onnxruntime_pybind11_state, OpenSquilla keeps running with direct single-model routing, but the bundled SquillaRouter runtime stays inactive until the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015–2022 (x64) is installed.

The Windows portable launcher and the from-source PowerShell installer attempt to install the redistributable via winget. If you used Quick terminal install, or winget is unavailable, install it manually and restart PowerShell: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe. Then restore the recommended router:

opensquilla onboard --provider openrouter --api-key-env OPENROUTER_API_KEY --router recommended
opensquilla gateway restart

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Credits

OpenSquilla is inspired by OpenClaw. Bundled third-party content is attributed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Community contributors are acknowledged in CONTRIBUTORS.md, including release-specific attribution notes for squash-merged or replayed work.

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Contributing

Contributions of every kind are welcome — bug reports, feature ideas, documentation, new provider or channel adapters, skills, and core runtime work. See CONTRIBUTING.md, then open an issue or pull request on GitHub.

Code of Conduct · Security · Support · License (Apache-2.0)