What is OpenViking

OpenViking is an open-source context database for AI agents. It gives agents a place to store knowledge, remember users, and reuse experience across sessions.

OpenViking organizes context as a virtual filesystem under viking://. Agents can operate on it like files: use ls, tree, read, and write to browse directories, read, create, and edit content, or search within a directory. Directory summaries support on-demand loading.

Try OpenViking Studio in your browser, no installation required. Self-host Web Studio.

Why OpenViking

viking://
├── resources/              # Resources: project docs, repos, web pages, etc.
│   └── my_project/
│       ├── docs/
│       │   ├── api/
│       │   └── tutorials/
│       └── src/
└── user/
    └── {user_id}/
        ├── memories/
        │   └── preferences/
        │       ├── writing_style
        │       └── coding_habits
        ├── resources/
        │   └── private_project/
        ├── skills/
        │   ├── search_code
        │   └── analyze_data
        └── peers/
            └── web-visitor-alice/

The three loading tiers:

viking://resources/my_project/
├── .abstract.md           # L0: quick relevance check
├── .overview.md           # L1: structure and key points
└── docs/
    ├── .abstract.md
    ├── .overview.md
    └── api/
        ├── auth.md         # L2: full content, loaded on demand
        └── endpoints.md

Proof it works

OpenViking 0.3.22 has been evaluated on long-conversation user memory (LoCoMo) and multi-turn agent tasks (tau2-bench). Full results and setup details, including knowledge-base QA, are in the benchmark report; reproduction scripts live in ./benchmark.

The memory evaluation used Doubao 2.0 Pro as the VLM and Doubao-embedding-vision-251215 as the embedding model.

Quick start

Requires Python 3.10+ and access to an embedding model and a VLM (cloud or local).

pip install openviking --upgrade
openviking-server init      # configure providers and models
openviking-server doctor    # check configuration and connectivity
openviking-server           # start the server

init writes ~/.openviking/ov.conf. Supported options include Volcengine, OpenAI, Codex OAuth, Kimi, GLM, and local Ollama. See the configuration guide for provider setup and the quick start docs for platform instructions.

The package includes the ov CLI. In another terminal, import a repository and search it:

ov status
ov add-resource https://github.com/volcengine/OpenViking
Replace TASK_ID with the returned task_id; repeat until status is completed
ov task status TASK_ID
ov ls viking://resources/
ov tree viking://resources/volcengine -L 2
ov find "what is openviking"
ov grep "openviking" --uri viking://resources/volcengine/OpenViking/docs/en

ov find returns matching context with URIs you can inspect. For client configuration (ov config), standalone CLI installs, and index maintenance, see CLI setup.

Build your own integration with the Python, Go, or TypeScript SDK, or the HTTP API.

Use it with your agent

Connect your agent to OpenViking for cross-session memory. Choose a native integration for automatic recall and session capture, or use MCP to give your agent memory and context tools.

Claude Hooks + MCP	Codex Hooks + MCP	Cursor Hooks + MCP	TRAE Hooks + MCP	OpenClaw Context engine	Hermes Built-in
OpenCode Plugin + MCP	pi Native extension	DeerFlow Plugin + MCP	DSH Plugin + MCP	Doubao Work Connector	LangChain Tools + store

Agent Plugins 1.0

MCP clients

For setup instructions and integration details, see Integrations.

Desktop App (Beta)

The desktop app is a console for macOS and Windows x64 (beta). It configures supported local agent integrations, inspects recall and capture events in sessions, and syncs local memories and skills to OpenViking.

Download:

• macOS Apple Silicon (arm64)
• macOS Intel (x64)
• Windows (x64)

VikingBot

VikingBot is an AI agent framework built on top of OpenViking:

pip install "openviking[bot]"
openviking-server --with-bot
ov chat   # in another terminal

The official Docker image bundles VikingBot and starts it by default alongside the server and console UI. Details: VikingBot guide.

Deploy in production

Run the open-source server in your own environment under AGPLv3. It requires no activation key. Start with server setup or the Docker and deployment guide.

The server supports accounts and user isolation and opt-in resource ACLs. Configure authentication before exposing it beyond localhost.

Commercial editions

☁️ Managed SaaS Volcano Engine hosts and operates OpenViking. Personal and Enterprise plans cover individual and team use, with migration tooling for open-source deployments. See the service documentation for plans and limits. Hosting outside China is planned on BytePlus.

🏢 Self-Managed Deploy in your own cloud account / VPC (BYOC) or an offline environment. This edition adds distributed deployment and official support, activated by a license key. Contact the team.

Research

Jiajie Fu, Junwen Chen, Mengzhao Wang, Aoxiang He, Maojia Sheng, Xiangyu Ke, Yifan Zhu, and Yunjun Gao.

arXiv:2605.29640, 2026. Presented at VLDB 2026 in September.

📄 Read the paper on arXiv · Read PDF

Mengzhao Wang, Zheng Gong, Jingpei Hu, Jiajie Fu, Maojia Sheng, Junwen Chen, and Yifan Zhu.

arXiv:2606.16903, 2026. Accepted by ICDE.

📄 Read the paper on arXiv · Read PDF

Peiyuan Gao, Gaoyuan Zhang, Haojie Qin, Yahui Sun, Qianyi Zhang, Yunhao Zhang, Zeyu Wang, and Wei Lu.

arXiv:2609.11390, 2026. Submitted.

📄 Read the paper on arXiv · Read PDF

Partner Projects

• deer-flow - Open-source long-horizon SuperAgent harness
• NoKV - AI native distributed file system
• loopx - Lightweight loop engineering state kernel
• Hermes Agent - The agent that grows with you

Community & Contributing

Security and privacy

For vulnerability reporting and supported versions, see SECURITY.md

License

The OpenViking project uses different licenses for different components: