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This guide walks you through setting up OpenBunny in fully local mode with SQLite. You’ll have a working task extraction system connected to at least one messaging channel.

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Prerequisites

  • Node.js 22 or later
  • An OpenRouter API key
  • Credentials for at least one messaging channel (Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Gmail)

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Setup

1
Clone the repository
2
git clone https://github.com/openbunny/openbunny.git
cd openbunny
3
Install dependencies
4
cd service
npm install
5
Configure environment
6
Copy the example environment file and add your API key:
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cp .env.example .env
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BACKEND=local
SQLITE_PATH=./data/openbunny.db
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-your-key-here
OPENROUTER_MODEL=anthropic/claude-sonnet-4
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Connect a channel
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Run the interactive setup to configure your first channel:
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npm run setup
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This walks you through connecting Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Gmail. See the Channels docs for detailed setup instructions per channel.
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Start the service
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npm run dev
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The service starts on http://localhost:3100. It begins listening to your configured channels immediately.
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Start the client (optional)
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In a new terminal:
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cd ../client
npm install
npm run dev
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Open http://localhost:3000 to see the Kanban board UI.

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Verify it’s working

Check the service health endpoint: 
curl http://localhost:3100/health
Send a message in your connected channel that contains an actionable task. Within a few minutes (after the debounce window), OpenBunny will process the conversation and create a task. View your tasks: 
curl http://localhost:3100/tasks | jq

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Next steps

Architecture

Understand how the components fit together

Configuration

Fine-tune the service behavior

Deploy to cloud

Set up multi-tenant cloud deployment

LLM agent

Learn how the agent processes conversations