SARA
SARA is a self-hostable AI agent for WhatsApp that understands your industry, with 13 industry brains included and 20 verticals defined in an open schema. It solves the problem of generic chatbots by providing vertical-specific tools, RAG retrieval, and function calling. It is for developers and businesses that want to deploy an AI agent on WhatsApp without vendor lock-in.
✨ Key features
- Multi-provider LLM chain with automatic failover
- RAG retrieval with PostgreSQL + pgvector and BM25
- Function calling with 87 tool definitions across 20 verticals
- PII anonymization and prompt injection guardrails
- Voice, image, PDF, and document support on WhatsApp
- Multi-language: Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese
🎯 Use cases
- Restaurant booking and allergen queries
- Clinic patient scheduling and intake forms
- Real estate listings and valuations
- Salon appointments and membership management
- Automotive test drives and service booking
📦 Installation
🧰 Requirements: Requires Node.js, Docker, PostgreSQL with pgvector, a WAHA instance, and a GROQ API key (free at console.groq.com).
git clone https://github.com/Alessandro114/sara.git
cd sara
cp .env.example .envdocker compose up -d🚀 Usage
# Verify health
curl http://localhost:3006/api/sara/health
# Connect WhatsApp: open http://localhost:3006/api/sara/qr and scan the QR code with your WhatsApp number.
After connecting, send a message to the number and SARA will respond.
⚠️ Good to know
Self-hosted version does not support multi-number (multi-tenant), white-label, advanced analytics, or priority support; embedding model must produce 1024-dimensional vectors.
❓ FAQ
What are the minimum requirements to run SARA?
You need a GROQ_API_KEY (free), a PostgreSQL database with pgvector, and a WAHA instance. The .env.example file lists all required variables.
Can I use a different LLM provider?
Yes, SARA supports Cerebras, SambaNova, and Mistral as fallback providers, but GROQ is required as the primary.
How do I change the industry vertical?
Set the VERTICAL environment variable to the desired slug, e.g., 'dineos' for restaurants or 'propertyos' for real estate.
Is SARA free to use?
Yes, SARA is open-source under AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted for free. Commercial licensing is available for use without AGPL obligations.
📊 Repository
🤖 Overview, features, install steps and FAQ were generated from the project's README on Sep 4, 2026. Always check the original source before running commands.