blah.chat

Personal AI chat assistant with access to all models (OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, xAI, Perplexity, and more), mid-chat model switching, conversation branching, and transparent cost tracking.

✨ Features

• All Models in One Place: Access GPT-5, Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Grok, and 50+ models via Vercel AI Gateway
• Mid-Chat Model Switching: Compare responses or switch models without losing context
• Conversation Branching: Fork conversations to explore different directions
• Resilient Generation: Responses survive page refresh, tab close, even browser crashes
• RAG Memory: Automatic semantic memory extraction and retrieval
• Voice Input: Audio transcription with Whisper (OpenAI/Groq)
• AI Tools: Web search (Tavily), code execution (E2B), URL parsing (Jina)
• Cost Tracking: Per-message token usage and cost breakdown
• Shared Workspaces: Multi-user projects, shared conversations, and project notes

💻 CLI

Chat with AI models directly from your terminal.

Install

# Shell (macOS/Linux)
curl -fsSL https://blah.chat/install | bash

# npm
npm i -g @blah-chat/cli

# Homebrew (coming soon)
brew install planetaryescape/tap/blah

Usage

# First time: authenticate via browser
blah login

# Start chatting
blah "What is the capital of France?"
blah --model claude-3-opus "Explain quantum computing"
blah --help

📸 Preview

Dark mode

Light mode

🔑 Required API Keys

blah.chat requires API keys for certain features:

Core Features (Required)

• AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY - Vercel AI Gateway for all AI model access

Speech Features (Optional)

Speech-to-Text (STT)

Requires ONE of the following providers (configured by admin in Settings):

• GROQ_API_KEY - Groq Whisper Turbo (default, $0.04/hour)
• OPENAI_API_KEY - OpenAI Whisper ($0.006/min)
• DEEPGRAM_API_KEY - Deepgram Nova-3 ($0.0077/min)
• ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY - AssemblyAI ($0.0025/min)

Text-to-Speech (TTS)

• DEEPGRAM_API_KEY - Deepgram Aura voices (required)

Note: If STT/TTS API keys are not configured, these features will be automatically disabled. Users will see an error message when attempting to enable them:

• Development: Specific missing key name shown
• Production: "Please contact your administrator" message

See the Self-Hosting Guide for full environment variable setup.

🚀 Quick Deploy

Docker Compose

Run the web app plus Postgres, Redis, Redis HTTP, and MinIO locally:

cp docker/env.example .env.docker
# Edit .env.docker with real Clerk, AI Gateway, and Trigger.dev values.
BLAH_CHAT_ENV_FILE=.env.docker docker compose up

See docker/README.md and SELF_HOSTING.md.

Vercel

Provision Postgres, Redis, R2-compatible storage, Clerk, and Trigger.dev first, then set the production environment variables from docs/operations/production-env-checklist.md.

Railway

Railway can host the web app, but you still need to provide the same Postgres, Redis, R2-compatible storage, Clerk, and Trigger.dev environment variables.

Self-Hosting

For Docker Compose self-hosting/local dev, see docker/README.md. For full instructions on self-hosting, see SELF_HOSTING.md.

📄 License

blah.chat is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

Self-hosted usage: Free under AGPL-3.0 with default limits (50 messages/day, $10/month budget per user). Commercial usage (exceeding limits or without source disclosure): Requires commercial license. Cloud version: Coming soon with subscription plans.

For commercial licensing or questions, contact: blah.chat@bhekani.com

Why AGPL?

We chose AGPL to:

• Protect the community from exploitation by cloud providers
• Ensure improvements are shared back with the community
• Allow free self-hosting while building a sustainable business

If you modify blah.chat and run it as a network service, AGPL Section 13 requires you to provide users with access to your modified source code.

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Development Setup

Option A: Docker Compose

This is the cleanest local setup because it runs the app and infrastructure in one compose project:

cp docker/env.example .env.docker
# Edit .env.docker with real external service keys.
BLAH_CHAT_ENV_FILE=.env.docker docker compose up

Open http://localhost:3000.

Run the Trigger.dev worker container when you have Trigger auth configured:

BLAH_CHAT_ENV_FILE=.env.docker docker compose --profile jobs up

Option B: Bun on Host, Infra in Docker

Start dependencies only:

docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d

Create host env and run the app:

cp docker/env.example .env.local
# Edit .env.local with real external service keys.
bun install
bun run db:migrate
bun dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Required Services

Core Services

• Vercel AI Gateway (AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY): Required for all AI model inference (or every user must enable BYOK).
• Clerk (NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY, CLERK_SECRET_KEY, CLERK_ISSUER_DOMAIN, CLERK_WEBHOOK_SECRET): User authentication and webhook user-sync.
• Postgres (DATABASE_URL): Primary database — Neon recommended in production.
• Upstash Redis (UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL, UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN): Live generation event log and cache.
• Cloudflare R2 (R2_ACCOUNT_ID, R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID, R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, R2_BUCKET): Attachment + transcription storage.
• Trigger.dev (TRIGGER_SECRET_KEY, TRIGGER_API_URL, INTERNAL_TASK_SECRET, INTERNAL_TASK_BASE_URL): Durable generation workers and recovery cron.
• Encryption (BYOD_ENCRYPTION_KEY): Encrypts user BYOK provider keys and BYOD connection strings — long-lived, do not rotate without re-encrypting stored credentials.

AI Tools & Integrations

• Tavily (TAVILY_API_KEY): Enables real-time web search capabilities.
• Jina (JINA_API_KEY): Used by the URL Reader tool to parse web pages into markdown.
• E2B (E2B_API_KEY): Powers the code interpreter sandbox for executing code safely.
• Firecrawl (FIRECRAWL_API_KEY): Optional alternative for advanced web scraping/crawling.
• OpenAI (OPENAI_API_KEY): Needed for audio transcription (Whisper) if not using Groq.

Production Environment Checklist

See docs/operations/production-env-checklist.md for the canonical list derived from parsePersistenceEnv. Before promoting to production, every "Required" entry must be set and /api/v1/health must return 200 with database, redis, r2, and trigger all "ok".

Clerk Webhook Setup

Clerk webhooks sync user data into Postgres. Without this, first sign-in may fail until the app can fetch and create the user from Clerk.

Local Development (Tunnel Required)

Since Clerk needs to reach your local server, set up a tunnel:

1. Start a tunnel (choose one):

   # Using ngrok
   ngrok http 3000
   
   # Using cloudflared
   cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:3000

2. Configure webhook in Clerk Dashboard:

   • Go to Clerk Dashboard → Webhooks → Add Endpoint
   • Set endpoint URL: https://your-tunnel-url.ngrok.io/api/webhooks/clerk
   • Subscribe to events: user.created, user.updated, user.deleted
   • Copy the Signing Secret

3. Add to your env file (.env.docker or .env.local):

   CLERK_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_your_signing_secret_here
   CLERK_ISSUER_DOMAIN=your-clerk-frontend-url.clerk.accounts.dev

   Important: CLERK_ISSUER_DOMAIN is your Clerk Frontend API URL (found in Clerk Dashboard → API Keys → Frontend API). Format: your-app-name.clerk.accounts.dev for development, clerk.yourdomain.com for production.

Tip: Use a static ngrok URL (free tier includes one) to avoid reconfiguring the webhook each session:

ngrok http 3000 --domain=your-static-subdomain.ngrok-free.app

Set this up once in the Clerk dashboard and you're done.

Admin Access Setup (Optional)

To access the admin dashboard (/admin):

1. In Clerk Dashboard, set your user's publicMetadata.isAdmin to true.
2. Sign out and back in to refresh your session token.

Future admin changes via /admin/users auto-sync to Clerk.

Health Check

After startup, check:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/v1/health

For full functionality, database, redis, r2, and trigger should all report ok.