deer-flow/README.md

🦌 DeerFlow - 2.0

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On February 28th, 2026, DeerFlow claimed the 🏆 #1 spot on GitHub Trending following the launch of version 2. Thanks a million to our incredible community — you made this happen! 💪🔥

DeerFlow (Deep Exploration and Efficient Research Flow) is an open-source super agent harness that orchestrates sub-agents, memory, and sandboxes to do almost anything — powered by extensible skills.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a8bcadc4-e040-4cf2-8fda-dd768b999c18

Note

DeerFlow 2.0 is a ground-up rewrite. It shares no code with v1. If you're looking for the original Deep Research framework, it's maintained on the 1.x branch — contributions there are still welcome. Active development has moved to 2.0.

Official Website

Learn more and see real demos on our official website.

Coding Plan from ByteDance Volcengine

• We strongly recommend using Doubao-Seed-2.0-Code, DeepSeek v3.2 and Kimi 2.5 to run DeerFlow
• Learn more
• 中国大陆地区的开发者请点击这里

InfoQuest

DeerFlow has newly integrated the intelligent search and crawling toolset independently developed by BytePlus--InfoQuest (supports free online experience)

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Table of Contents

• 🦌 DeerFlow - 2.0
  • Official Website
  • InfoQuest
  • Table of Contents
  • Quick Start
    • Configuration
    • Running the Application
      • Option 1: Docker (Recommended)
      • Option 2: Local Development
    • Advanced
      • Sandbox Mode
      • MCP Server
      • IM Channels
  • From Deep Research to Super Agent Harness
  • Core Features
    • Skills & Tools
      • Claude Code Integration
    • Sub-Agents
    • Sandbox & File System
    • Context Engineering
    • Long-Term Memory
  • Recommended Models
  • Embedded Python Client
  • Documentation
  • Contributing
  • License
  • Acknowledgments
    • Key Contributors
  • Star History

Quick Start

Configuration

1. Clone the DeerFlow repository

   git clone https://github.com/bytedance/deer-flow.git
   cd deer-flow
   

2. Generate local configuration files

   From the project root directory (deer-flow/), run:

   make config
   

   This command creates local configuration files based on the provided example templates.

3. Configure your preferred model(s)

   Edit config.yaml and define at least one model:

   models:
     - name: gpt-4                       # Internal identifier
       display_name: GPT-4               # Human-readable name
       use: langchain_openai:ChatOpenAI  # LangChain class path
       model: gpt-4                      # Model identifier for API
       api_key: $OPENAI_API_KEY          # API key (recommended: use env var)
       max_tokens: 4096                  # Maximum tokens per request
       temperature: 0.7                  # Sampling temperature
   
     - name: openrouter-gemini-2.5-flash
       display_name: Gemini 2.5 Flash (OpenRouter)
       use: langchain_openai:ChatOpenAI
       model: google/gemini-2.5-flash-preview
       api_key: $OPENAI_API_KEY          # OpenRouter still uses the OpenAI-compatible field name here
       base_url: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
   
     - name: gpt-5-responses
       display_name: GPT-5 (Responses API)
       use: langchain_openai:ChatOpenAI
       model: gpt-5
       api_key: $OPENAI_API_KEY
       use_responses_api: true
       output_version: responses/v1
   

   OpenRouter and similar OpenAI-compatible gateways should be configured with langchain_openai:ChatOpenAI plus base_url. If you prefer a provider-specific environment variable name, point api_key at that variable explicitly (for example api_key: $OPENROUTER_API_KEY).

   To route OpenAI models through /v1/responses, keep using langchain_openai:ChatOpenAI and set use_responses_api: true with output_version: responses/v1.

   CLI-backed provider examples:

   models:
     - name: gpt-5.4
       display_name: GPT-5.4 (Codex CLI)
       use: deerflow.models.openai_codex_provider:CodexChatModel
       model: gpt-5.4
       supports_thinking: true
       supports_reasoning_effort: true
   
     - name: claude-sonnet-4.6
       display_name: Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Claude Code OAuth)
       use: deerflow.models.claude_provider:ClaudeChatModel
       model: claude-sonnet-4-6
       max_tokens: 4096
       supports_thinking: true
   

   • Codex CLI reads ~/.codex/auth.json
   • The Codex Responses endpoint currently rejects max_tokens and max_output_tokens, so CodexChatModel does not expose a request-level token cap
   • Claude Code accepts CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN, ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN, CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN_FILE_DESCRIPTOR, CLAUDE_CODE_CREDENTIALS_PATH, or plaintext ~/.claude/.credentials.json
   • ACP agent entries are separate from model providers. If you configure acp_agents.codex, point it at a Codex ACP adapter such as npx -y @zed-industries/codex-acp; the standard codex CLI binary is not ACP-compatible by itself
   • On macOS, DeerFlow does not probe Keychain automatically. Export Claude Code auth explicitly if needed:

   eval "$(python3 scripts/export_claude_code_oauth.py --print-export)"
   

4. Set API keys for your configured model(s)

   Choose one of the following methods:

• Option A: Edit the .env file in the project root (Recommended)

  TAVILY_API_KEY=your-tavily-api-key
  OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
  # OpenRouter also uses OPENAI_API_KEY when your config uses langchain_openai:ChatOpenAI + base_url.
  # Add other provider keys as needed
  INFOQUEST_API_KEY=your-infoquest-api-key
  

• Option B: Export environment variables in your shell

  export OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
  

  For CLI-backed providers:

  • Codex CLI: ~/.codex/auth.json
  • Claude Code OAuth: explicit env/file handoff or ~/.claude/.credentials.json

• Option C: Edit config.yaml directly (Not recommended for production)

  models:
    - name: gpt-4
      api_key: your-actual-api-key-here  # Replace placeholder
  

Running the Application

Option 1: Docker (Recommended)

Development (hot-reload, source mounts):

make docker-init    # Pull sandbox image (only once or when image updates)
make docker-start   # Start services (auto-detects sandbox mode from config.yaml)

make docker-start starts provisioner only when config.yaml uses provisioner mode (sandbox.use: deerflow.community.aio_sandbox:AioSandboxProvider with provisioner_url).

Backend processes automatically pick up config.yaml changes on the next config access, so model metadata updates do not require a manual restart during development.

Tip

On Linux, if Docker-based commands fail with permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket at unix:///var/run/docker.sock, add your user to the docker group and re-login before retrying. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full fix.

Production (builds images locally, mounts runtime config and data):

make up     # Build images and start all production services
make down   # Stop and remove containers

Note

The LangGraph agent server currently runs via langgraph dev (the open-source CLI server).

Access: http://localhost:2026

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed Docker development guide.

Option 2: Local Development

If you prefer running services locally:

Prerequisite: complete the "Configuration" steps above first (make config and model API keys). make dev requires a valid configuration file (defaults to config.yaml in the project root; can be overridden via DEER_FLOW_CONFIG_PATH).

1. Check prerequisites:

   make check  # Verifies Node.js 22+, pnpm, uv, nginx
   

2. Install dependencies:

   make install  # Install backend + frontend dependencies
   

3. (Optional) Pre-pull sandbox image:

   # Recommended if using Docker/Container-based sandbox
   make setup-sandbox
   

4. Start services:

   make dev
   

5. Access: http://localhost:2026

Advanced

Sandbox Mode

DeerFlow supports multiple sandbox execution modes:

• Local Execution (runs sandbox code directly on the host machine)
• Docker Execution (runs sandbox code in isolated Docker containers)
• Docker Execution with Kubernetes (runs sandbox code in Kubernetes pods via provisioner service)

For Docker development, service startup follows config.yaml sandbox mode. In Local/Docker modes, provisioner is not started.

See the Sandbox Configuration Guide to configure your preferred mode.

MCP Server

DeerFlow supports configurable MCP servers and skills to extend its capabilities. For HTTP/SSE MCP servers, OAuth token flows are supported (client_credentials, refresh_token). See the MCP Server Guide for detailed instructions.

IM Channels

DeerFlow supports receiving tasks from messaging apps. Channels auto-start when configured — no public IP required for any of them.

Channel	Transport	Difficulty
Telegram	Bot API (long-polling)	Easy
Slack	Socket Mode	Moderate
Feishu / Lark	WebSocket	Moderate

Configuration in config.yaml:

channels:
  # LangGraph Server URL (default: http://localhost:2024)
  langgraph_url: http://localhost:2024
  # Gateway API URL (default: http://localhost:8001)
  gateway_url: http://localhost:8001

  # Optional: global session defaults for all mobile channels
  session:
    assistant_id: lead_agent
    config:
      recursion_limit: 100
    context:
      thinking_enabled: true
      is_plan_mode: false
      subagent_enabled: false

  feishu:
    enabled: true
    app_id: $FEISHU_APP_ID
    app_secret: $FEISHU_APP_SECRET

  slack:
    enabled: true
    bot_token: $SLACK_BOT_TOKEN     # xoxb-...
    app_token: $SLACK_APP_TOKEN     # xapp-... (Socket Mode)
    allowed_users: []               # empty = allow all

  telegram:
    enabled: true
    bot_token: $TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
    allowed_users: []               # empty = allow all

    # Optional: per-channel / per-user session settings
    session:
      assistant_id: mobile_agent
      context:
        thinking_enabled: false
      users:
        "123456789":
          assistant_id: vip_agent
          config:
            recursion_limit: 150
          context:
            thinking_enabled: true
            subagent_enabled: true

Set the corresponding API keys in your .env file:

# Telegram
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ

# Slack
SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-...
SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-...

# Feishu / Lark
FEISHU_APP_ID=cli_xxxx
FEISHU_APP_SECRET=your_app_secret

Telegram Setup

1. Chat with @BotFather, send /newbot, and copy the HTTP API token.
2. Set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN in .env and enable the channel in config.yaml.

Slack Setup

1. Create a Slack App at api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch.
2. Under OAuth & Permissions, add Bot Token Scopes: app_mentions:read, chat:write, im:history, im:read, im:write, files:write.
3. Enable Socket Mode → generate an App-Level Token (xapp-…) with connections:write scope.
4. Under Event Subscriptions, subscribe to bot events: app_mention, message.im.
5. Set SLACK_BOT_TOKEN and SLACK_APP_TOKEN in .env and enable the channel in config.yaml.

Feishu / Lark Setup

1. Create an app on Feishu Open Platform → enable Bot capability.
2. Add permissions: im:message, im:message.p2p_msg:readonly, im:resource.
3. Under Events, subscribe to im.message.receive_v1 and select Long Connection mode.
4. Copy the App ID and App Secret. Set FEISHU_APP_ID and FEISHU_APP_SECRET in .env and enable the channel in config.yaml.

Commands

Once a channel is connected, you can interact with DeerFlow directly from the chat:

Command	Description
/new	Start a new conversation
/status	Show current thread info
/models	List available models
/memory	View memory
/help	Show help

Messages without a command prefix are treated as regular chat — DeerFlow creates a thread and responds conversationally.

From Deep Research to Super Agent Harness

DeerFlow started as a Deep Research framework — and the community ran with it. Since launch, developers have pushed it far beyond research: building data pipelines, generating slide decks, spinning up dashboards, automating content workflows. Things we never anticipated.

That told us something important: DeerFlow wasn't just a research tool. It was a harness — a runtime that gives agents the infrastructure to actually get work done.

So we rebuilt it from scratch.

DeerFlow 2.0 is no longer a framework you wire together. It's a super agent harness — batteries included, fully extensible. Built on LangGraph and LangChain, it ships with everything an agent needs out of the box: a filesystem, memory, skills, sandboxed execution, and the ability to plan and spawn sub-agents for complex, multi-step tasks.

Use it as-is. Or tear it apart and make it yours.

Core Features

Skills & Tools

Skills are what make DeerFlow do almost anything.

A standard Agent Skill is a structured capability module — a Markdown file that defines a workflow, best practices, and references to supporting resources. DeerFlow ships with built-in skills for research, report generation, slide creation, web pages, image and video generation, and more. But the real power is extensibility: add your own skills, replace the built-in ones, or combine them into compound workflows.

Skills are loaded progressively — only when the task needs them, not all at once. This keeps the context window lean and makes DeerFlow work well even with token-sensitive models.

When you install .skill archives through the Gateway, DeerFlow accepts standard optional frontmatter metadata such as version, author, and compatibility instead of rejecting otherwise valid external skills.

Tools follow the same philosophy. DeerFlow comes with a core toolset — web search, web fetch, file operations, bash execution — and supports custom tools via MCP servers and Python functions. Swap anything. Add anything.

Gateway-generated follow-up suggestions now normalize both plain-string model output and block/list-style rich content before parsing the JSON array response, so provider-specific content wrappers do not silently drop suggestions.

# Paths inside the sandbox container
/mnt/skills/public
├── research/SKILL.md
├── report-generation/SKILL.md
├── slide-creation/SKILL.md
├── web-page/SKILL.md
└── image-generation/SKILL.md

/mnt/skills/custom
└── your-custom-skill/SKILL.md      ← yours

Claude Code Integration

The claude-to-deerflow skill lets you interact with a running DeerFlow instance directly from Claude Code. Send research tasks, check status, manage threads — all without leaving the terminal.

Install the skill:

npx skills add https://github.com/bytedance/deer-flow --skill claude-to-deerflow

Then make sure DeerFlow is running (default at http://localhost:2026) and use the /claude-to-deerflow command in Claude Code.

What you can do:

• Send messages to DeerFlow and get streaming responses
• Choose execution modes: flash (fast), standard, pro (planning), ultra (sub-agents)
• Check DeerFlow health, list models/skills/agents
• Manage threads and conversation history
• Upload files for analysis

Environment variables (optional, for custom endpoints):

DEERFLOW_URL=http://localhost:2026            # Unified proxy base URL
DEERFLOW_GATEWAY_URL=http://localhost:2026    # Gateway API
DEERFLOW_LANGGRAPH_URL=http://localhost:2026/api/langgraph  # LangGraph API

See skills/public/claude-to-deerflow/SKILL.md for the full API reference.

Sub-Agents

Complex tasks rarely fit in a single pass. DeerFlow decomposes them.

The lead agent can spawn sub-agents on the fly — each with its own scoped context, tools, and termination conditions. Sub-agents run in parallel when possible, report back structured results, and the lead agent synthesizes everything into a coherent output.

This is how DeerFlow handles tasks that take minutes to hours: a research task might fan out into a dozen sub-agents, each exploring a different angle, then converge into a single report — or a website — or a slide deck with generated visuals. One harness, many hands.

Sandbox & File System

DeerFlow doesn't just talk about doing things. It has its own computer.

Each task runs inside an isolated Docker container with a full filesystem — skills, workspace, uploads, outputs. The agent reads, writes, and edits files. It executes bash commands and codes. It views images. All sandboxed, all auditable, zero contamination between sessions.

This is the difference between a chatbot with tool access and an agent with an actual execution environment.

# Paths inside the sandbox container
/mnt/user-data/
├── uploads/          ← your files
├── workspace/        ← agents' working directory
└── outputs/          ← final deliverables

Context Engineering

Isolated Sub-Agent Context: Each sub-agent runs in its own isolated context. This means that the sub-agent will not be able to see the context of the main agent or other sub-agents. This is important to ensure that the sub-agent is able to focus on the task at hand and not be distracted by the context of the main agent or other sub-agents.

Summarization: Within a session, DeerFlow manages context aggressively — summarizing completed sub-tasks, offloading intermediate results to the filesystem, compressing what's no longer immediately relevant. This lets it stay sharp across long, multi-step tasks without blowing the context window.

Long-Term Memory

Most agents forget everything the moment a conversation ends. DeerFlow remembers.

Across sessions, DeerFlow builds a persistent memory of your profile, preferences, and accumulated knowledge. The more you use it, the better it knows you — your writing style, your technical stack, your recurring workflows. Memory is stored locally and stays under your control.

Memory updates now skip duplicate fact entries at apply time, so repeated preferences and context do not accumulate endlessly across sessions.

Recommended Models

DeerFlow is model-agnostic — it works with any LLM that implements the OpenAI-compatible API. That said, it performs best with models that support:

• Long context windows (100k+ tokens) for deep research and multi-step tasks
• Reasoning capabilities for adaptive planning and complex decomposition
• Multimodal inputs for image understanding and video comprehension
• Strong tool-use for reliable function calling and structured outputs

Embedded Python Client

DeerFlow can be used as an embedded Python library without running the full HTTP services. The DeerFlowClient provides direct in-process access to all agent and Gateway capabilities, returning the same response schemas as the HTTP Gateway API. The HTTP Gateway also exposes DELETE /api/threads/{thread_id} to remove DeerFlow-managed local thread data after the LangGraph thread itself has been deleted:

from deerflow.client import DeerFlowClient

client = DeerFlowClient()

# Chat
response = client.chat("Analyze this paper for me", thread_id="my-thread")

# Streaming (LangGraph SSE protocol: values, messages-tuple, end)
for event in client.stream("hello"):
    if event.type == "messages-tuple" and event.data.get("type") == "ai":
        print(event.data["content"])

# Configuration & management — returns Gateway-aligned dicts
models = client.list_models()        # {"models": [...]}
skills = client.list_skills()        # {"skills": [...]}
client.update_skill("web-search", enabled=True)
client.upload_files("thread-1", ["./report.pdf"])  # {"success": True, "files": [...]}

All dict-returning methods are validated against Gateway Pydantic response models in CI (TestGatewayConformance), ensuring the embedded client stays in sync with the HTTP API schemas. See backend/packages/harness/deerflow/client.py for full API documentation.

Documentation

• Contributing Guide - Development environment setup and workflow
• Configuration Guide - Setup and configuration instructions
• Architecture Overview - Technical architecture details
• Backend Architecture - Backend architecture and API reference

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, workflow, and guidelines.

Regression coverage includes Docker sandbox mode detection and provisioner kubeconfig-path handling tests in backend/tests/.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

Acknowledgments

DeerFlow is built upon the incredible work of the open-source community. We are deeply grateful to all the projects and contributors whose efforts have made DeerFlow possible. Truly, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the following projects for their invaluable contributions:

• LangChain: Their exceptional framework powers our LLM interactions and chains, enabling seamless integration and functionality.
• LangGraph: Their innovative approach to multi-agent orchestration has been instrumental in enabling DeerFlow's sophisticated workflows.

These projects exemplify the transformative power of open-source collaboration, and we are proud to build upon their foundations.

Key Contributors

A heartfelt thank you goes out to the core authors of DeerFlow, whose vision, passion, and dedication have brought this project to life:

• Daniel Walnut
• Henry Li

Your unwavering commitment and expertise have been the driving force behind DeerFlow's success. We are honored to have you at the helm of this journey.

Star History