Yao is an open-source runtime for building AI agents and web applications — shipped as a single binary.
🏠 Homepage: https://yaoagents.com
📚 Docs: https://yaoagents.com/docs
🖥️ Yao Desktop: https://yaoagents.com/download
Think of Yao Agent as a cage, not an animal. What you put inside determines the behavior; the cage keeps it controlled.
Every request flows through the same pipeline:
Create Hook runs before the executor — inject context, enforce constraints, route requests.
Next Hook runs after — validate output, trigger downstream actions, drive multi-step loops.
The AI does the heavy lifting. You define the boundaries.
| Mode | Executor | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| LLM | OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. | Conversational assistants, Q&A, content generation |
| CLI Agent | OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex in a container | Computer use, sandbox isolation, SKILL ecosystem |
| Pure Hook | Your own TypeScript code | Deterministic logic, routing, menu flows — no AI needed |
All three share the same Hook interface. You can mix them freely — route some requests through the LLM, handle others with pure code, all inside a single Create Hook.
- TypeScript Hooks —
CreateandNexthooks intercept every request; built-in V8 engine - Native MCP Support — Connect tools via process, SSE, or STDIO transport
- Memory API — Four scopes: request-level, session, user, team
- Multi-Agent — Delegate to specialist agents or call agents in parallel
- CLI Agent / Sandbox — Run Claude Code (or other CLI runners) in an isolated container with VNC desktop support
- Skills Ecosystem — Drop reusable capability packs (
SKILL.md) into any CLI Agent
Everything in a single executable:
- Data Models — Define database tables and relations in JSON/YAML
- REST APIs — Map routes to model queries or TypeScript processors
- SUI Pages — Component-based web UI with server-side rendering
- Chat UI (CUI) — Built-in conversation interface for agents
- TypeScript — Built-in V8 engine; no Node.js required
- Single Binary — Runs on ARM64/x64; no Python, Node, or containers needed on the host
- Vector Search — Embeddings with OpenAI or FastEmbed
- Knowledge Graph — Entity-relationship retrieval
- GraphRAG — Hybrid vector + graph search
Yao (爻, yáo) is the fundamental symbol in the I Ching — the building block of the eight trigrams. Like a binary digit, it has two states. Their combinations describe the patterns of everything.