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AI/TLDR

Huginn

Self-hosted agents that watch the web and act for you — a hackable IFTTT on your own server

github.com/huginn/huginn★ 49.5k

Overview

Huginn is a system for building agents that perform automated tasks for you online. Agents read the web, watch for events, and take actions on your behalf. Each agent creates and consumes events, which propagate along a directed graph, so you can chain simple steps into larger workflows.

Think of it as a hackable version of IFTTT or Zapier that runs on your own server. Because you host it yourself, your data stays with you. It fits the low-code workflow-automation space: you configure agents through a web UI rather than writing a full application, but you can still drop in custom JavaScript or your own agent code.

It suits developers and self-hosters who want web monitoring, scraping, alerting, and integrations without sending their data to a third-party SaaS. It connects to services like Slack, RSS, IMAP, MQTT, Twilio, Twitter, and many more, and supports sending and receiving WebHooks.

What it does

  • Event-driven agents that create and consume events along a directed graph, letting you chain steps into workflows
  • Scrape websites and get notified by email when they change, or track feeds, weather, and travel/shopping deals
  • Built-in connectors for Slack, RSS, IMAP, Jabber, JIRA, MQTT, Pushbullet, Pushover, Twilio, Twitter, and more
  • Send and receive WebHooks, and run custom JavaScript functions inside agents
  • Detect spikes in high-frequency events (for example a search term) and send an SMS or digest alert
  • Extensible: write new agents, or add external agents via the ADDITIONAL_GEMS environment variable

Getting started

The quickest way to try Huginn is the official Docker image; for development you can run it locally with Ruby, Bundler, and MySQL or PostgreSQL.

Try it with Docker

The official Docker image is the fastest way to check out Huginn. See the Docker install documentation in the repo for the full command and configuration options.

Set up a local development copy

Fork the repository, add the upstream remote, then copy the example environment file and set APP_SECRET_TOKEN in .env.

bashbash
git remote add upstream https://github.com/huginn/huginn.git
cp .env.example .env

Install dependencies and create the database

Make sure MySQL or PostgreSQL is installed, then install gems and set up a development database seeded with example agents. Prepend DATABASE_ADAPTER=postgresql to the rake commands if you use PostgreSQL.

bashbash
bundle
bundle exec rake db:create
bundle exec rake db:migrate
bundle exec rake db:seed

Start Huginn and log in

Run the app, open http://localhost:3000/, and log in with username 'admin' and password 'password'. Then set up some agents.

bashbash
bundle exec foreman start

Commands and code are distilled from the project's own documentation — always check the official repo for the latest.

When to use it

  • Monitor websites or RSS feeds and get an email or Slack message when something changes
  • Track a term across Twitter or other sources and alert you (email/SMS) when discussion spikes
  • Glue services together with incoming and outgoing WebHooks instead of using a hosted IFTTT/Zapier
  • Send a scheduled digest email collecting weather, deals, or project mentions you care about

How Huginn compares

Huginn alongside other open-source workflow automation tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.

ToolStarsWhat it does
n8n★ 193kA self-hostable workflow automation tool with a visual node editor that connects 400+ apps and APIs and adds native AI steps, letting technical teams build automations without writing most of the glue code.
Huginn★ 49.5kSelf-hosted agents that watch the web and act for you — a hackable IFTTT on your own server
Kestra★ 27.1kAn event-driven orchestration platform that defines data, AI, and infrastructure pipelines as declarative YAML and runs them through a web UI.
Activepieces★ 22.8kAn open-source Zapier alternative where you build automations from reusable TypeScript "pieces", with support for AI agents and self-hosting.
Automatisch★ 13.9kA self-hosted, open-source alternative to Zapier for connecting services and building no-code workflow automations with no execution limits.
StackStorm★ 6.5kAn event-driven automation platform for DevOps and SRE teams that runs rules and workflows to handle auto-remediation, incident response, and deployments.
Zapier—No-code automation platform that connects 8,000+ apps and lets you build AI agents and multi-step workflows across them.
Make—Visual automation platform for building workflows and AI agents across 3,000+ apps with a drag-and-drop scenario builder.