Does honcho use paid AI services?

Can use OpenAI. Its settings have keys for this paid API. Its README says whether one is required.

Is honcho still maintained?

Yes, active. Last change today. Latest release v3.6.1, 2 days ago.

How widely used is honcho?

Widely used. 8.1k stars, 3 years old, by an organization. As with any download, get it from the official repo.

gitmanual

Reading the repo

Opening the box…

How to set up honcho (plastic-labs/honcho) · gitmanual

Assembly instructions

plastic-labs/honcho

Memory library for building stateful agents

Python#agent-memory#agentic-rag#ai#ai-agents

Before you start

Is it free?: YesOpen source (AGPL-3.0).
Paid AI services?: Can use OpenAIIts settings have keys for this paid API. Its README says whether one is required.
Still maintained?: Yes, activeLast change today. Latest release v3.6.1, 2 days ago.
How widely used?: Widely used8.1k stars, 3 years old, by an organization. As with any download, get it from the official repo.

Difficulty: Involved
Time: 30 min or more
Stars: ★ 8,115
Activity: Updated this month

Saved setup from 7 h ago

Will it work on macOS?

Yes, it installs on your macOS

The README gives a pip install for macOS.

Your system

macOS Windows Linux

Start here

Website ↗honcho.devThe project's own site.

Also: Docs ↗

Heads-upBuilding it yourself? It also needs PostgreSQL, Redis and 7 settings in .env (1 secret).

Install with a package manager

Choose one way. Most people should use the recommended one; the rest are other options.

Recommended: pipx / uvNeeds pipx or uv

uv tool install honcho-cli

Alternative: pipx / uvNeeds pipx or uv

uv tool install honcho-cli && honcho init

Optional add-on: honcho-aiNeeds Python 3.13 or newer

A separate package that adds a feature on top. Install it in the same environment, after the main install. It may need its own setup or keys, explained in its README.

pip install honcho-ai

From the README, exactly as the maintainers wrote it.

Did you get it running?

No reports for macOS yet.

Still stuck? Get a written guide

GitManual AI Agent reads the 12 key files and writes a step-by-step guide for macOS. Once written, it's saved for everyone.

Parts list

1×Python 3.13runtime
1×Node.js tool
1×uv package manager
1×PostgreSQL service
1×Redis service

7× settings in .env

LOG_LEVEL
PERFORMANCE_LOG_FORMAT
DB_CONNECTION_URI
AUTH_USE_AUTH
LLM_OPENAI_API_KEYsecret
VECTOR_STORE_TYPE
VECTOR_STORE_MIGRATED

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Good to know

Dockerfile available (base image: python:3.13-slim-bookworm).
Has CLAUDE.md — instructions for coding agents. You can open Claude Code (or another agent) in the cloned folder and ask it to do the setup for you.
Nested projects: docs/package.json, examples/crewai/python/pyproject.toml, examples/langgraph/python/pyproject.toml, examples/langgraph/typescript/package.json and 10 more

Details

License: AGPL-3.0
Open issues: 190
Branch: main

Files we read (12)

.env.template

.github/workflows/docker-build.yml

.github/workflows/hermes-plugin-tests.yml

.github/workflows/honcho-cli-tests.yml

.github/workflows/live-llm-tests.yml

.github/workflows/unified-tests.yml

.github/workflows/unittest.yml

.python-version

CONTRIBUTING.md

Dockerfile

README.md

pyproject.toml

1,281 files in the repo

Contact

plastic-labs/honcho

Before you start

Your setup manual for honcho

What's inside

Handy for

Yes, it installs on your macOS

Start here

Install with a package manager

Did you get it running?

Still stuck? Get a written guide

Yes, it installs on your macOS

Start here

Install with a package manager

Did you get it running?

Still stuck? Get a written guide

More like honcho that run on macOS