Busabase

Busabase

Database & Workspace for AI Agents
Give Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, and your own agents one place for structured data, durable knowledge, reusable skills, runnable apps, and a reviewable history of every change.

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Quick Start  ·  Building Blocks  ·  Screenshots  ·  Connect an Agent  ·  Editions

Busabase is an open-source database and workspace for AI agents — agents and people share the same structured data, docs, skills, and apps, and writes that matter become reviewed, trusted records.

AI agents can write code and generate output, but their useful work usually ends up scattered across chats, files, databases, and SaaS tools. On the next run, the agent has to rediscover the context. When it writes back, humans often cannot see what changed or why.

Busabase gives agents an operational workspace, not another chat window.

• Database for agents — typed Bases, records, relations, views, forms, and assets.
• Knowledge base for agents — Docs, Files, Drives, search, history, and provenance.
• Workspace for agents — Skills, AirApps, Whiteboards, Workflows, Agents, and shared activity.
• Trust layer for agent work — Change Requests, field-level diffs, comments, approvals, commits, and audit trails.

Agents can read the same workspace you see, use its knowledge and skills, build apps on its data, and write improvements back into it. Every write travels as a Change Request, so it carries a message, a diff, an author, and a full history — and your workspace permissions decide whether it merges on the spot or waits in the Inbox for review.

Free and open source. Local-first. Agent-native. Every change accounted for.

Quick Start

Run it now

npx busabase server

Open http://localhost:15419/dashboard/local. No external database, account, or setup is required. Busabase starts with an embedded PGlite database, local file storage, and demo workspace content.

npm i -g busabase       # install once, then run: busabase server
npx busabase-cli --help # API client for any Busabase server

Docker

docker run --rm -p 15419:15419 -v ~/.busabase/data:/data busabase/busabase

Images are published to Docker Hub (busabase/busabase) and GHCR (ghcr.io/busabase/busabase).

Desktop

Download the native app for macOS, Windows, or Linux at busabase.com/download. Personal Desktop runs locally and works offline; your workspace data does not need to leave your machine.

From source

pnpm install
cp apps/busabase/.env.example apps/busabase/.env
pnpm --filter busabase dev

The local-start check reports missing dependencies or storage configuration before the dashboard opens. The default development setup stores PGlite data under .data/busabase and files under .data/busabase-storage.

Where local data lives

The CLI server and Desktop share one default data root:

~/.busabase/data/
├── pgdata/   # embedded PGlite database
└── storage/  # files and attachments

Set BUSABASE_DATA_DIR, PG_DATABASE_URL, or STORAGE_URL to use another location, external Postgres, or S3-compatible storage. Only one process can hold the same PGlite database at a time.

One Workspace, Many Building Blocks

Busabase is not a database with a few AI buttons. Every building block is a first-class node in the same workspace, addressable by humans, agents, MCP, and OpenAPI.

Current node types include Folder, Base, Doc, File, Drive, Skill, AirApp, Form, HTML, Whiteboard, and Workflow. See Node Types for the detailed model.

Start from a template

A template installs a whole workspace app at once — its Bases, views, Docs, sample rows, AirApps, and the Skill manual that tells an agent how the app is meant to be used.

busabase-cli install https://github.com/busabase/templates/tree/main/templates/busa-crm

Browse the catalog at busabase.com/templates, or install any Busabase package from a GitHub URL or a local directory. --dry-run prints the plan first, and --require-review leaves the package's records and docs as change requests instead of merging them.

Inside the Workspace

Database — typed, related, queryable records	Knowledge base — durable docs with version history
Skills — reusable instructions and supporting files	Apps — focused interfaces built on workspace data
Whiteboards — visual context shared with agents	Workflows — processes kept beside their data and knowledge
Review — see exactly what an agent changed	Provenance — see the source, reviewer, commit, and history

On mobile

Review agent Change Requests and open trusted records from the Busabase mobile app.

Connect Your Agent

Busabase has no built-in model. Connect the agent you already use: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw, Hermes, Buda AI, n8n, or your own process.

Read and follow the Busabase Agent Skill — it is the single source of truth:
http://localhost:15419/SETUP_SKILL.md

Follow its onboarding to connect to this workspace. Don't choose a merge policy yourself unless I ask for one — submit the change and let Busabase apply my permissions to decide whether it merges now or waits for review. Reply to me in English.

Claude Code guide explains the local skill and Cloud plugin. DeepSeek Harness guide covers the @busabase/dsh-plugin local integration. Bring Your Own Agent covers the agent-neutral flow and permanent skill installation.

Agents can connect in four ways:

Open Agent Skills in the sidebar to get the current setup instructions, MCP endpoint, and OpenAPI specification for your running instance.

Busabase's MCP server is also listed on Glama's MCP connector directory, including its live connector score.

The Trust Loop

Agents need write access to be useful. They also make mistakes. Busabase's answer is not to make every write wait for a human — it is to make every write accountable:

Agent reads workspace context
        ↓
Agent writes data, docs, skills, or app changes — always as a Change Request
        ↓
The Change Request carries the diff, the message, the author, and the impact
        ↓
Your permissions decide: it merges on the spot, or it waits in the Inbox
        ↓
Either way the change stays inspectable, attributable, and reversible

Review is a capability, not a toll booth. A credential capped at changeRequest level can only ever propose; a single call can opt in with autoMerge: false; busabase-cli install … --require-review holds a package's content back for approval. Anything else that is allowed to write, writes — and still leaves a diff and a history behind.

This path applies across the workspace. A record update, Doc edit, Skill file, schema change, or AirApp package all carry the same message, diff, merge, and audit history.

What Agents Can Build Here

See all use cases for complete examples and demo datasets.

A Different Category

Busabase overlaps with databases and knowledge tools, but it is designed around a different primary operator: the agent.

Change Requests are not the category; they are the mechanism that makes an agent workspace dependable.

Personal Desktop and Cloud

Both editions use the same Busabase core and change model.

Cloud Connect can link a local workspace to Busabase Cloud through an authenticated tunnel. The local machine keeps the data and can run local agents; Cloud and mobile become controlled windows onto that workspace.

API Surface

Busabase exposes the workspace through MCP, OpenAPI, and busabase-cli. Agents can discover nodes, search content, read file trees, work with records, and create reviewable changes without scraping the UI.

Typical resources include:

• nodes, folders, and search
• Bases, fields, views, records, and forms
• Docs, files, assets, Drives, and Skills
• AirApps, Whiteboards, Workflows, and HTML nodes
• Change Requests, operations, reviews, comments, and commits
• activity, audit events, webhooks, and agent tasks

Open the machine-readable API documentation at:

http://localhost:15419/api/v1/doc

Architecture

apps/busabase is the local, single-workspace Next.js shell. The workspace engine lives in packages/busabase-core: nodes, records, file trees, rich node types, review primitives, search, agents, and API contracts. Busabase Cloud runs the same engine with multi-tenant identity, permissions, hosted storage, and collaboration.

The local edition is login-free by construction. It uses a fixed local actor and Space, embedded PGlite by default, and local storage. Cloud supplies real actor and Space context to the shared engine.

Security

The open-source server is designed for a trusted local machine or private network. Do not expose write endpoints directly to the public internet without authentication and a properly configured reverse proxy. Use scoped credentials and Cloud Connect when remote access is required.

Contributing

pnpm install
pnpm --filter busabase dev
pnpm --filter busabase typecheck
pnpm --filter busabase lint:err

Bug reports, feature ideas, docs, and pull requests are welcome in Issues and Discussions.

Community

• Busabase website
• Documentation
• Community Forum
• GitHub Discussions

Star History

License

MIT © Busabase