November 2, 2025
Docs 404, drama 200 OK
Syllabi – Open-source agentic AI with tools, RAG, and multi-channel deploy
Build-anywhere AI chatbots land — but commenters yell “ship when it’s ready”
TLDR: Syllabi launched as an open-source chatbot builder that pulls info and takes actions. Commenters love the vision but slam missing docs, tricky setup, and unclear business plans; the maker admits features are still baking, igniting a debate over shipping early versus shipping ready
Syllabi just dropped as an open-source toolkit for building smart chatbots that not only answer questions but also take actions (think sending Slack messages or triggering workflows). The creator, achushankar, showed up with an early disclaimer: multi‑channel chat (Slack/Discord) works but needs testing; some integrations and docs are still in progress. Cue the crowd. One user bluntly flagged “docs that don’t exist,” and the thread quickly turned into a scavenger hunt for missing instructions. Another congratulated the launch, then delivered the reality check: no easy one‑click setup and surprise dependencies make it hard to try. Translation for non‑tech folks: people want it to be installable without headaches. There’s also a feature wish list: local models (run it entirely on your own machine) and AWS Bedrock support. Meanwhile, the product pitch promises smart retrieval (RAG — a way to find the right info fast), clickable citations, diagrams, and even running code in the browser, which had folks intrigued. But the vibe is peak beta: ambitious demos, rough edges, and a landing page that screams “unfinished” (someone spotted a cutoff “Brand Customi”). The jokes rolled in: “Feature list is agentic, docs are erratic.” Fans say ship early, skeptics say finish first. Classic launch-day drama
Key Points
- •Syllabi is an open-source platform to build agentic AI chatbots that combine knowledge bases with tool integrations.
- •Its RAG-based retrieval supports multi-format ingestion (e.g., PDFs, websites, Google Drive, Notion) and provides source citations with document highlighting.
- •Chatbots can be deployed across channels, including web embeds, Slack, Discord, and via a REST API.
- •Custom skills and tools can be added through webhooks and API integrations, enabling external actions and agentic behavior.
- •Conversations support diagrams (Mermaid), multimedia, and native in-browser code execution for Python and R using Pyodide and WebR.