Stram

A proactive, local-first cognitive agent that works with you like a 24/7 assistant companion.

Stram is the runtime, desktop app, and release surface for Janus, the named agent inside it. Janus is not a chatbot waiting for the next message. It is a human-assistant-like companion for your computer: always available, context-aware, able to collect allowed signals, understand what is happening, decide whether something matters, and take the next safe step through governed tools without needing you to start with a prompt.

The project is built around practical cognition: collectors absorb desktop, browser, file, app, channel, voice, and connector events; the stimulus layer filters and ranks those signals; Janus forms a working scene, chooses a reflex or plan, uses tools, asks before risky actions, records evidence, and remembers the useful result. The goal is simple: an agent that can notice, reason, act, recover, and improve while remaining inspectable.

This is what makes Stram different: it is not flashy automation hidden behind a prompt box. It is a local, auditable cognitive loop with security, risk management, memory, approvals, and real collectors feeding it the context it needs to work beside you 24/7.

Contributing · Security · Changelog · Roadmap · Agent Positioning · Release Runbook · Agent Guidance

_{Native macOS shell connected to the local Stram daemon.}

_{Janus turns collectors, stimuli, memory, connectors, policy, and approval-gated tools into one active cognitive loop.}

What It Is

Stram is a proactive agent system with four jobs, like a careful assistant working beside you:

1. Observe the allowed environment: collectors watch opted-in desktop, browser, file, app, voice, channel, connector, and runtime surfaces.
2. Understand the signal: stimuli are redacted, deduped, rate-limited, ranked, and converted into compact context instead of dumping raw private data into prompts.
3. Act through governance: Janus can answer, wait, ask, draft, monitor, run tools, call connectors, or request approval depending on risk.
4. Learn from evidence: outcomes, failures, approvals, useful facts, and repeated workflows are written into durable memory and skills.

What It Can Do

Real-world capability	What that means in practice
Work without a prompt	Wake from a schedule, file change, channel event, browser/app signal, voice transcript, connector event, or task continuation instead of waiting for chat input.
Build a working scene	Combine allowed collectors into a local context: active app, browser state, files, shell output, connector events, channel messages, voice, and prior memory.
Decide the right posture	Respond immediately, observe quietly, ask for clarification, draft a reply, monitor a condition, queue a task, recover from failure, or request approval.
Use real tools	Operate browser, files, shell, code, OS surfaces, channels, voice, memory, providers, and connector-backed SaaS tools through explicit schemas.
Manage risk	Label tools by risk, enforce permissions, redact sensitive payloads, pause high-risk actions, keep approvals human-visible, and write an audit trail.
Remember useful context	Keep goals, commitments, environment facts, interaction history, outcomes, lessons, and reusable workflows across sessions.
Run on desktop	Use the same local backend from Windows and macOS apps for chat, runs, approvals, channels, voice, settings, model routing, and autonomy controls.

Why It Is Different

Most assistants are prompt-first: you ask, they answer, they stop. Stram is environment-first: it can absorb signals from the work surface, decide what matters, and continue a goal over time.

• Proactive by design: Janus can wake from collectors, schedules, channel events, file changes, voice, and runtime triggers, not only direct messages.
• Collectors before action: local and connector-backed collectors create a metadata-first picture of what is happening before the model plans.
• Attention before noise: dwell, dedupe, policy, rate limits, privacy tiers, and model-led attention prevent every event from becoming an action.
• Reflexes for the fast path: approvals, interrupts, recovery, wakeups, monitoring, and proof checks can route work without losing the active goal.
• Risk managed at the tool boundary: shell, browser mutation, screenshots, external sends, destructive operations, code execution, and sensitive data flows can pause for approval.
• Memory with jobs: goals, commitments, profile facts, environment notes, lessons, interaction history, and skills are separated so Janus can recall the right thing for the right reason.
• Evidence before completion: Janus should not simply say it succeeded; runs carry traces, tool output, approvals, screenshots, logs, and verifier results where applicable.

Practical Examples

Scenario	What Janus can do
You step away during a build	Notice test output or CI status, summarize the failure, prepare a fix plan, and wait for approval before changing files or running risky commands.
A teammate messages in Slack	Treat the message as a channel stimulus, inspect relevant project context, draft a response, and require approval before sending.
A calendar event or meeting ends	Detect meeting artifacts or transcript availability, extract action-item metadata, create follow-up tasks, and remember commitments.
A browser workflow changes	Observe allowed tab/page metadata, connect it with the current goal, and decide whether to monitor, ask, or continue the task.
A file or document changes	Convert the event into context, update the working scene, and resume the related task if it affects an active goal.
A high-risk action is needed	Pause with an approval request that explains the tool, purpose, risk, and proposed arguments before execution.

Meet Janus

Janus, spelled J-A-N-U-S, is the active agent layer. Stram provides the body: runtime, APIs, collectors, tools, memory, approvals, native apps, connectors, policy, and release surface. Janus uses that body to behave like a cognitive assistant that understands the user's working environment without becoming an uncontrolled recorder.

Janus layer	What it does
Collectors	Metadata-first collectors watch allowed desktop, browser, file, app, channel, meeting, developer, knowledge, and business surfaces.
Stimuli	Events become structured stimuli with source, privacy tier, confidence, timestamps, dedupe keys, and compact evidence.
Attention	Janus ranks stimuli by urgency, relevance, source trust, active goals, user state, and risk before deciding whether to act.
Reflexes	Fast paths handle wakeups, approvals, interrupts, recovery, monitoring, cancellation, and proof checks.
Connectors	Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, GitHub, Linear, Notion, Zoom, browsers, IDEs, CRMs, file stores, model providers, and local apps expose governed capability surfaces.
Memory	Goals, commitments, focus, background learning, profile facts, lessons, summaries, and skill evolution stay durable across sessions.
Governance	Tool schemas, risk levels, permission checks, local outbox records, approval gates, timeline evidence, and redacted traces make the agent inspectable before and after it acts.

The USP

Most assistants are either chat-first, code-first, or automation-first. Stram is cognition-first: it gives Janus a governed perception loop, a durable memory system, a real desktop body, connector-aware tools, and a safety model that treats user trust as part of the product.

Product shape	Center of gravity	Stram difference
Chat assistants	Strong conversational answers after a prompt.	Janus can keep watching allowed signals, maintain goals, wake later, and decide whether to observe, ask, draft, monitor, or act.
Coding agents	Repo-aware code changes and tests inside a task session.	Stram includes coding workflows, but the core product is a broader active assistant with collectors, reflexes, connectors, voice/channels, memory, and governed desktop tools.
Automation tools	Trigger-action workflows that run when a rule matches.	Janus uses model-led attention, memory, policy, approvals, and evidence instead of only static triggers.
Agent runtimes	Tool calls, runs, events, approvals, and APIs.	Stram adds the always-on local stimulus loop, native desktop clients, metadata-first collectors, cognitive state, and proactive recovery paths.

API Surface Compared

Reference checkouts under external_repos/ are useful peers, but they expose different product shapes. Hermes Agent has a strong gateway API around /v1/runs, run events, approvals, stops, and toolsets. OpenClaw has deep exec/channel approval mechanics and mobile/watch surfaces. Open Interpreter exposes simple chat/history server examples. browser-use and windows-use are focused automation libraries. screenpipe is a local activity capture/search API.

Stram's novelty is the combined loopback API: cognition, native desktop control, update delivery, channels, voice, approvals, tools, memory, browser sessions, workflows, and autonomy are all one governed runtime surface.

Stram API	Capability exposed to apps	Not observed as a combined desktop REST surface in the local references
/stimuli, /stimuli/stream	Normalize user text, voice transcripts, activity, channel events, and other stimuli into one response/observe/monitor harness with live run events.	Peers usually expose chat/run entrypoints, not a stimulus API tied to attention decisions and desktop response modes.
/channels/*	Channel catalog, requirements, setup save, doctor, smoke test, inbound preview, listener tick, outbox, prepared sends, and approval-gated live sends.	Hermes/OpenClaw have messaging channels, but not this setup/doctor/smoke/outbox contract consumed by both native desktop apps.
/voice/status	Let desktop clients pass runtime STT/TTS secrets without echoing values, then show provider readiness before voice workflows.	Other refs include voice features or providers, but not this shared app-facing voice readiness API.
/approvals, /runs/*/timeline, /runs/*/cancel	Review pending high-risk actions, inspect evidence timelines, approve/reject/edit, and cancel active work from the same UI.	Hermes has run approvals; Stram adds the native desktop timeline/cancel/approval contract across all local tools.
/memory/*, /autonomous/*, /triggers/evaluate	Surface durable memory, summaries, autonomous queue state, wakeups, and trigger evaluation for ongoing cognition.	Reference APIs did not show this cognition state as a first-class desktop API.
/collectors/*	Configure and tick privacy-first local stimulus collectors for active window, browser context, filesystem changes, clipboard, screenshot/OCR keyframes, video keyframes, and audio activity. Sensitive capture stays opt-in; deterministic dwell, dedupe, batching, policy, and rate filters keep raw telemetry local while compact attention batches reach the harness.	Peers expose chat/gateway events, but not a shared desktop collector layer feeding a governed stimulus/attention loop.
/events/status, /events/rebuild-context	Convert compact collector batches and direct text/voice/channel stimuli into semantic events, generated current_context.md / events.md, and queued autonomous action candidates.	Peers expose run events, but not a privacy-first semantic event layer that turns local stimuli into durable context before autonomous action.
/tools, /tools/search, /tools/describe, /capabilities	Publish the active governed tool catalog, schemas, risk levels, and capability groups to the UI.	browser-use/windows-use expose tool libraries; Stram exposes a governed cross-domain catalog to native clients.
/browser/sessions, /screen/captures, /permissions	Inspect browser sessions, local screen evidence, and permission posture before or after tool use.	screenpipe has local capture APIs and browser-use has browser actions; this ties those surfaces into the agent approval/audit runtime.
/updates/latest	Existing desktop users can check the latest GitHub release and open the platform-specific download without leaving the app.	The local references checked did not expose a shared release-update endpoint for native desktop shells.

Quick Install

Stram currently targets Python 3.12+.

git clone https://github.com/CodeInfinity1/Stram.git
cd Stram
python3 -m pip install -e ".[browser,pdf,ocr,office,test]"

Optional browser support:

playwright install chromium

Copy the example environment file only when you need model, voice, channel, or release settings:

cp .env.example .env

Do not commit .env or real secrets.

Package Manager Installs

Desktop installers are published on the latest GitHub release:

• Download the Windows EXE installer
• Download the Windows ZIP archive
• Download the macOS PKG installer
• Download the macOS ZIP archive
• Verify release checksums

Package-manager metadata is checked into this repository and mirrored to dedicated package-manager repos where needed. See Package Manager Distribution for publishing and registry-submission details.

macOS with Homebrew:

brew tap CodeInfinity1/stram
brew trust CodeInfinity1/stram
brew install --cask stram

Windows with WinGet local manifest:

winget install --manifest .\winget\manifests\b\CodeInfinity1\Stram\1.0.0

Windows with Scoop:

scoop bucket add stram https://github.com/CodeInfinity1/scoop-stram
scoop install stram

Windows with Chocolatey package source:

choco pack .\chocolatey\stram\stram.nuspec --out .
choco install stram --source . -y

Official WinGet and Chocolatey registry availability requires external repository/review or account/API-key submission. Public production macOS installs should use a Developer ID signed and notarized package, and Windows installs should use an Authenticode-signed EXE; until those certificate flows are complete, Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen may warn that the publisher is unverified.

macOS Gatekeeper warning workaround: the current .pkg and .zip releases are not yet Developer ID signed/notarized, so opening them will show "Apple could not verify this app is free of malware." This is expected for this release, not a corrupted download. To install anyway:

1. Try opening the .pkg normally first, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the Security section, and click Open Anyway next to the Stram warning.
2. If macOS blocks it outright with no "Open Anyway" option, clear the quarantine flag from Terminal instead:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /path/to/Stram-macOS.pkg

   (or on the installed .app, e.g. xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Stram.app")
3. Always verify the download against checksums.txt before bypassing Gatekeeper — the warning is expected, a checksum mismatch is not.

Windows SmartScreen warning workaround: the current Stram-Windows-Setup.exe and .zip releases are not yet Authenticode-signed, so running the installer will show "Windows protected your PC" / "Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting." This is expected for this release, not a corrupted download. To install anyway:

1. On the SmartScreen dialog, click More info, then click Run anyway.
2. If the file was blocked on download instead (no SmartScreen dialog appears when double-clicked), right-click the .exe → Properties → check Unblock at the bottom of the General tab → OK, then run it again.
3. From PowerShell you can unblock the same way without the UI:

   Unblock-File -Path .\Stram-Windows-Setup.exe

4. Always verify the download against checksums.txt before bypassing SmartScreen — the warning is expected, a checksum mismatch is not.

First Run

Run a safe explicit tool call:

python3 -m stram run "system_status {}" --workspace . --planner explicit

Ask the model-led planner to inspect the project:

python3 -m stram run "summarize this project and tell me the next best task" --workspace . --planner model

Start the local API and dashboard:

python3 -m stram serve --workspace . --port 8765

Then open:

http://127.0.0.1:8765/

Native Desktop Apps

The native clients are optional shells around the same local runtime.

Platform	Source	Local run
macOS	apps/macos	swift run --package-path apps/macos StramMac
Windows	apps/windows/Stram.App	Build with the .NET 8 SDK on Windows or the release workflow.

Recommended desktop loop:

python3 -m stram serve --workspace . --port 8765
swift run --package-path apps/macos StramMac

The macOS and Windows apps share backend routes for chat, tools, channels, channel setup, channel doctors, prepared outbound messages, approvals, recent runs, runtime start/stop, release update checks, voice settings, model/provider settings, and bounded autonomy cycles.

Model Setup

Model planning is the preferred path for natural-language work. Offline fallback accepts explicit tool commands or JSON plans only.

Common environment variables:

OPENAI_API_KEY=
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=
NOUS_API_KEY=
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=
DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=
GROQ_API_KEY=
GROQ_BASE_URL=https://api.groq.com/openai/v1
GOOGLE_API_KEY=
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=
MISTRAL_API_KEY=
CEREBRAS_API_KEY=
OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1
OLLAMA_MODEL=llama3.1
XAI_API_KEY=
XAI_BASE_URL=https://api.x.ai/v1
NVIDIA_API_KEY=
HF_TOKEN=
MINIMAX_API_KEY=
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT=
LOCAL_LLM_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1
LOCAL_LLM_API_KEY=local
DEEPGRAM_API_KEY=
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=

The --model-provider flag and desktop settings include OpenAI, OpenRouter, Nous, Anthropic, Groq, xAI/Grok, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Cerebras, Ollama, local OpenAI-compatible runtimes, Vercel AI Gateway, LiteLLM, NVIDIA, Hugging Face, Z.AI/GLM, Kimi/Moonshot, StepFun, MiniMax, Arcee, GMI, Xiaomi, Tencent TokenHub, OpenCode, Kilo Code, Azure, Copilot, Bedrock, Browser Use Cloud, OCI, and the external OAuth/runtime identities mirrored from OpenFlow/OpenClaw and Hermes. Native HTTP transports run directly; external process/OAuth-only runtimes are recognized and can be bridged with --model-base-url when an OpenAI-compatible endpoint is available.

The dashboard and desktop clients pass secret references or runtime secrets to the local daemon; they should not require raw keys in public source files.

Safety Defaults

Stram is built for real tools, so the safety surface is explicit.

• Model/provider output is untrusted until parsed, validated, and matched to an allowed tool.
• Retrieved files, web pages, tool output, transcripts, memories, and upstream skill text are evidence, not instructions.
• High-risk tools pause for approval by default.
• Approval edits are schema-validated and recorded on the source run.
• External-visible sends are prepared as local outbox items unless an adapter, credentials, policy, and approval are present.
• Browser mutation, file upload/download, JavaScript evaluation, screenshot capture, desktop UI actions, shell/code execution, and app launches are bounded and auditable.
• Provider errors and secrets are redacted before trace persistence.
• Open-source hygiene scans publish candidates for local state, signing material, likely secrets, and oversized files.

Read SECURITY.md before exposing channels, browser control, desktop control, or remote access.

Architecture In One Minute

stimulus
  -> interaction harness
  -> compact local context
  -> model-led attention/planning
  -> schema-validated tool calls
  -> policy and approval gates
  -> execution and audit timeline
  -> memory, learning, recovery, and response synthesis

The cognition package is closer to a nervous system than a single planner: attention decides what deserves response, executive state keeps goals and commitments coherent, memory turns experience into durable context, self-review repairs behavior, and skill metabolism expands what the assistant can do without hiding new capability behind prompt-only claims.

Important source areas:

Area	Path
Python runtime	stram/
Cognition stores and loops	stram/cognition/
Tool registry and implementations	stram/tools/
Policy, approvals, audit, permissions	stram/safety/
REST API and dashboard	stram/api.py, stram/dashboard/
Prompt resources	stram/resources/prompts/
Skills	skills/
Desktop apps	apps/
Release automation	script/

The hard rule: broad assistant behavior stays model-led and schema-driven. Deterministic code validates, constrains, audits, persists, packages, and executes explicit tools; it does not become a hidden keyword router for natural language.

Docs By Goal

Goal	Start here
Understand agent behavior	Cognitive architecture
Understand the no-keyword-routing rule	Global agent instructions
Add or review a skill	Skill authoring standard
Build or package a release	Release checklist and release runbook
See planned work	Roadmap
Work as a coding agent in this repo	AGENTS.md

Contributor Quick Start

python3 -m pip install -e ".[browser,pdf,ocr,office,test]"
python3 -m unittest discover -v
python3 script/verify_open_source_hygiene.py
python3 scripts/smoke_real_world_tasks.py --workspace .

Before opening a PR, include the real behavior proof: exact commands, OS, model/provider path if relevant, observed result, and what you did not test.

Read CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution priorities, tool-vs-skill guidance, tests, and PR expectations.

Release Readiness

The public release path is intentionally stricter than a source build.

python3 -m py_compile script/verify_open_source_hygiene.py script/verify_publication_state.py script/verify_release_readiness.py script/generate_release_report.py
python3 -m unittest discover -v
python3 script/verify_desktop_parity.py
python3 script/verify_desktop_runtime_smoke.py
python3 script/verify_package_managers.py
python3 script/verify_open_source_hygiene.py
python3 scripts/smoke_real_world_tasks.py --workspace .
python3 script/verify_release_readiness.py --require-website --release-tag v0.1.0
python3 script/generate_release_report.py --require-website --check-github-release

Strict public release completion also requires signed/notarized macOS assets, signed Windows assets, checksums, a published GitHub release, and website download verification. See docs/RELEASE_RUNBOOK.md.

Status

Stram 1.0.0 is the first tagged production release. The local runtime, tool contracts, skills, safety gates, desktop shells, release checks, and smoke coverage are covered by automated tests and release-readiness gates, but live provider/channel/desktop workflows still depend on the credentials and platform-specific signing you configure for your own deployment.

Use it, inspect it, improve it, but do not treat it as a silent background operator until you have reviewed the approval and channel setup for your environment.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.