Show HN: Sim Studio – Open-Source Agent Workflow GUI

2 months ago 3

Sim Studio is a powerful, user-friendly platform for building, testing, and optimizing agentic workflows.

Run on our cloud-hosted version
Self-host

There are several ways to self-host Sim Studio:

Option 1: Docker Environment (Recommended)

# Clone your forked repository git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/sim.git cd sim # Create environment file and update with required environment variables (BETTER_AUTH_SECRET) cp sim/.env.example sim/.env # Start Sim Studio using the provided script docker compose up -d --build or ./start_simstudio_docker.sh

After running these commands:

Access the Application:
- Open http://localhost:3000/w/ in your browser
- The /w/ path is where the main workspace interface is located
Useful Docker Commands:

# View application logs docker compose logs -f simstudio # Access PostgreSQL database docker compose exec db psql -U postgres -d simstudio # Stop the environment docker compose down # Rebuild and restart (after code changes) docker compose up -d --build

Working with Local Models

To use local models with Sim Studio, follow these steps:

Pull Local Models

# Run the ollama_docker.sh script to pull the required models ./sim/scripts/ollama_docker.sh pull <model_name>
Start Sim Studio with Local Models

#Start Sim Studio with local model support ./start_simstudio_docker.sh --local # or # Start Sim Studio with local model support if you have nvidia GPU docker compose up --profile local-gpu -d --build # or # Start Sim Studio with local model support if you don't have nvidia GPU docker compose up --profile local-cpu -d --build

The application will now be configured to use your local models. You can access it at http://localhost:3000/w/.

Open VS Code or your favorite VS Code fork (Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
Install the Remote - Containers extension
Open the project in your editor
Click "Reopen in Container" when prompted
The environment will automatically be set up in the sim directory
Run npm run dev in the terminal or use the sim-start alias

Install Dependencies

# Clone the repository git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/sim.git cd sim/sim # Install dependencies npm install

Set Up Environment

# Copy .env.example to .env cp .env.example .env # Configure your .env file with the required environment variables: # - Database connection (PostgreSQL) # - Authentication settings (Better-Auth Secret)

⚠️ Important Notes:

If RESEND_API_KEY is not set, verification codes for login/signup will be logged to the console.
You can use these logged codes for testing authentication locally.
For production environments, you should set up a proper email provider.