Memory tools degraded silently and misleadingly when the mandatory
`openjarvis_rust` extension was absent from the *serving* venv:
- `POST /v1/memory/store` returned HTTP 200 `{"status":"stored","note":
"no backend available"}` and stored nothing (silent data loss).
- `POST /v1/memory/index` returned a generic "No memory backend available",
and the desktop frontend discarded the server `detail` and threw a blanket
"Failed to index path", blaming the path instead of the real cause.
- `GET /v1/memory/config` reported `backend_type: sqlite` even though no
backend could be constructed.
Root cause: `SQLiteMemory.__init__` calls `get_rust_module()` (which raises
ImportError by design — the Rust ext is mandatory, no Python fallback), and
`_get_memory_backend` swallowed that ImportError and returned `None`,
conflating "native extension missing" (a hard install error) with "memory
intentionally disabled" (benign). A chunking floor also silently dropped whole
short documents, and the installer never verified the extension imported from
the serving venv before writing its success marker.
Fix (no fake Python fallback — the Rust ext stays mandatory by design):
- Add `MemoryBackendUnavailable` + `RUST_MISSING_HINT` in tools/storage/_stubs.
`SQLiteMemory.__init__` translates the bridge ImportError into this clear,
actionable error ("run `uv run maturin develop ...`").
- `_get_memory_backend` distinguishes the two cases: a missing native ext
raises HTTP 503 with the actionable hint; a benign unconfigured backend
still returns `None` (graceful path preserved for search/stats).
- `/store` now returns 503 instead of a 200 silent no-op.
- `/config` reports `available: false` + `detail` instead of falsely claiming
a healthy `backend_type`.
- `/index` adds a `note` when `chunks_indexed == 0` so "indexed" never
silently means "stored nothing".
- chunk_text no longer drops an entire short document below `min_chunk_size`
(the floor only discards tiny *trailing* fragments now).
- Frontend `storeMemory`/`indexMemoryPath` surface the server `detail` instead
of blanket strings; `MemoryConfig` gains optional `available`/`detail`.
(Left the pre-existing `backend` vs `backend_type` mismatch untouched.)
- build-extension.sh verifies `import openjarvis_rust` succeeds in the serving
venv before writing the `extension-built` marker.
Regression tests: tests/server/test_api_routes.py::TestMemoryRustMissing mocks
`get_rust_module` to raise ImportError and asserts /store (503, not 200 no-op),
/index (actionable detail, not "Failed to index path"), and /config
(available:false) all surface the clear error; tests/memory/test_chunking.py
asserts short-only docs are kept while tiny trailing fragments are still
filtered.
Fixes #502
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Why OpenJarvis?
Personal AI agents are exploding in popularity, but nearly all of them still route intelligence through cloud APIs. Your "personal" AI continues to depend on someone else's server. At the same time, our Intelligence Per Watt research showed that local language models already handle 88.7% of single-turn chat and reasoning queries, with intelligence efficiency improving 5.3× from 2023 to 2025. The models and hardware are increasingly ready. What has been missing is the software stack to make local-first personal AI practical.
OpenJarvis is that stack. It is a framework for local-first personal AI, built around three core ideas: shared primitives for building on-device agents; evaluations that treat energy, FLOPs, latency, and dollar cost as first-class constraints alongside accuracy; and a learning loop that improves models using local trace data. The goal is simple: make it possible to build personal AI agents that run locally by default, calling the cloud only when truly necessary. OpenJarvis aims to be both a research platform and a production foundation for local AI, in the spirit of PyTorch.
Installation
Pick your platform and run one command. Each installer handles uv, the Python venv, Ollama, and a starter model — about 3 minutes on broadband.
| Platform | One-liner |
|---|---|
| macOS · Linux · WSL2 | curl -fsSL https://open-jarvis.github.io/OpenJarvis/install.sh | bash |
| Native Windows | irm https://open-jarvis.github.io/OpenJarvis/install.ps1 | iex |
| Desktop GUI | Download .exe / .dmg / .deb / .rpm / .AppImage from the latest release |
Then jarvis to start. The Rust extension and larger models continue downloading in the background; jarvis doctor shows status.
Platform-specific notes (WSL2 setup, native-Windows scheduled-task service, desktop prerequisites, manual / contributor install): see the installation docs.
Quick Start
jarvis # start chatting (default: chat-simple)
jarvis init --preset <name> # switch to a starter config
Prefix
jarvis ...withuv run, orsource .venv/bin/activatefirst.
| Preset | What it does |
|---|---|
morning-digest-mac / morning-digest-linux / morning-digest-minimal |
Spoken daily briefing from email, calendar, health, news |
deep-research |
Multi-hop research across indexed docs with citations |
code-assistant |
Agent with code execution, file I/O, and shell access |
scheduled-monitor |
Stateful agent on a schedule with memory |
chat-simple |
Lightweight conversation, no tools |
Example:
jarvis init --preset morning-digest-mac
jarvis connect gdrive # one OAuth covers Gmail / Calendar / Tasks
jarvis digest --fresh # generate and play your first briefing
Per-preset deep dives: morning digest · deep research · code assistant · scheduled monitor · chat simple · or the full quickstart guide.
Skills
Skills teach agents how to better use tools and improve their reasoning. Every skill is a tool — agents discover them from a catalog and invoke them on demand.
# Install skills from public sources
jarvis skill install hermes:arxiv
jarvis skill sync hermes --category research
# Use skills with any agent
jarvis ask "Use the code-explainer skill to explain this Python code: for i in range(5): print(i*2)"
# Optimize skills from your trace history
jarvis optimize skills --policy dspy
# Benchmark the impact
jarvis bench skills --max-samples 5 --seeds 42
Import from Hermes Agent (~150 skills), OpenClaw (~13,700 community skills), or any GitHub repo. Skills follow the agentskills.io open standard.
See the Skills User Guide and Skills Tutorial for details.
Built-in Agents
OpenJarvis ships with eight built-in agents across three execution modes (on-demand, scheduled, continuous):
| Agent | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
morning_digest |
Scheduled | Daily briefing from email, calendar, health, news — with TTS audio |
deep_research |
On-demand | Multi-hop research with citations across web and local docs |
monitor_operative |
Continuous | Long-horizon monitoring with memory, compression, and retrieval |
orchestrator |
On-demand | Multi-turn reasoning with automatic tool selection |
native_react |
On-demand | ReAct (Thought-Action-Observation) loop agent |
operative |
Continuous | Persistent autonomous agent with state management |
native_openhands |
On-demand | CodeAct — generates and executes Python code |
simple |
On-demand | Single-turn chat, no tools |
See the User Guide and Tutorials for detailed setup instructions.
Full documentation — including Docker deployment, cloud engines, development setup, and tutorials — at open-jarvis.github.io/OpenJarvis.
Community
- GitHub: github.com/open-jarvis/OpenJarvis
- Discord: discord.gg/CMVBmDQ5Fj
- X / Twitter: @OpenJarvisAI
- Docs: open-jarvis.github.io/OpenJarvis
Contributing
We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for incentives, contribution types, and the PR process.
Quick start for contributors:
git clone https://github.com/open-jarvis/OpenJarvis.git
cd OpenJarvis
uv sync --extra dev
uv run pre-commit install
uv run pytest tests/ -v
Browse the Roadmap for areas where help is needed. Comment "take" on any issue to get auto-assigned.
About
OpenJarvis is part of Intelligence Per Watt, a research initiative studying the intelligence efficiency of AI systems. The project is developed at Hazy Research and the Scaling Intelligence Lab at Stanford SAIL.
Sponsors
Laude Institute • Stanford Marlowe • Google Cloud Platform • Lambda Labs • Ollama • IBM Research • Stanford HAI
Citation
@misc{saadfalcon2026openjarvispersonalaipersonal,
title={OpenJarvis: Personal AI, On Personal Devices},
author={Jon Saad-Falcon and Avanika Narayan and Robby Manihani and Tanvir Bhathal and Herumb Shandilya and Hakki Orhun Akengin and Gabriel Bo and Andrew Park and Matthew Hart and Caia Costello and Chuan Li and Christopher Ré and Azalia Mirhoseini},
year={2026},
eprint={2605.17172},
archivePrefix={arXiv},
primaryClass={cs.LG},
url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.17172},
}

