Deft

Where humans and agents work together.

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Deft is a self-hostable, open-source workspace where people and AI agents share chat, tasks, knowledge, calendar context, approvals, and action history.

Capture a team discussion into knowledge, ask Defty to propose a task using that context, review and approve the proposal, and keep the agreed details in the resulting task.

Alpha: for technical evaluation and controlled pilots. The walkthrough uses seeded demo data; it is not evidence of a live customer workspace or an active external agent runtime.

Watch the full walkthrough — 5:09.

Quick start with Docker

Use the prebuilt v0.3.0-preview.141 release, the latest published prerelease, for evaluation. It targets Linux amd64 and needs Docker Desktop or Docker Engine with Compose v2. An AI provider is optional. No source build, Node.js, or pnpm is needed for this path.

Download docker-compose.yml, compose.prod.yml, compose.release.yml, and default.env.example from that release into a new directory. In Bash (macOS, Linux, or Git Bash on Windows):

cp default.env.example .env
openssl rand -hex 32  # POSTGRES_PASSWORD
openssl rand -hex 32  # JWT_SECRET
openssl rand -hex 32  # JWT_REFRESH_SECRET
openssl rand -hex 32  # ENCRYPTION_KEY

Paste each independently generated secret into its corresponding .env variable. All four are required for Docker, including local evaluation. Keep the encryption key with your backups. Leave AI keys empty and OLLAMA_URL commented unless you intend to configure a provider.

Add this pinned release image to .env:

DEFT_IMAGE=ghcr.io/maneek21/deft@sha256:2239e1cee9443d2266210e0ecb6d35abf67dfb78d8347c5f60c475324f3403c8

Then run, from that directory:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml config --quiet
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml up -d postgres
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm init
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml up -d deft
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm doctor
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm smoke

Open http://localhost:3000 and create the first account, which owns the workspace. Subsequent users join by invitation. This creates an empty workspace with the platform bundle, not the video's demo records. Create a chat message and a task to try the core workspace without AI.

Use init only with a fresh database. For custom ports, public URLs, image verification, source builds, backups, and upgrades, follow the self-hosting guide. Versioned upgrades start at v0.2.0-preview.1; use the backup-first upgrade flow for existing workspaces. Historical releases through v0.2.0-preview.4 retain their shipped BSL 1.1 license; the selected release is AGPL-3.0-only.

Try Deft: install a workspace, connect your AI client, or build an internal App. See the current availability map before enabling an experimental feature.

Architecture · Current limitations · Licensing

Try one workflow

• Set up your first workspace
• Ask Defty for a task and approve it
• Connect a personal AI client
• Build a small vendor Module

The core loop

1. Capture the discussion. Save useful decisions and references in Knowledge with links back to their source conversation.
2. Ask Defty for a task. With an AI provider configured, Defty can use workspace context to propose the title, owner, dates, and description.
3. Review and approve. Defty's chat requests always wait for your approval, whatever the trust level; inspect the proposed details before approving. The workspace trust level applies only to Defty's approved plans and background work, and each agent employee has its own trust level.
4. Keep the agreed details. The task stores the approved content, and governed agent actions have approval history and receipts to inspect.

Optional video chapters: Knowledge capture — 1:09 · Defty task request and approval — 2:06 · ChatGPT connection and workspace read/write — 3:25.

Personal MCP connections use a different authority model. ChatGPT and other personal clients act as the authorizing user within their granted scopes and normal permissions. Their writes do not automatically enter Deft's agent approval queue. Defty and Agent Employees use agent identities and policy-based approval flows. See MCP access and agents.

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