Frequently Asked Questions¶
Common questions about Animus.
General¶
Q: What is Animus? A: A Mind-class AI exocortex — persistent memory, multi-agent orchestration, and autonomous improvement. It remembers conversations, learns preferences, and coordinates AI agents across complex workflows.
Q: Is Animus a chatbot? A: No. It is a persistent intelligence layer that accumulates knowledge about you over time. Conversations are one interface among many (CLI, dashboard, API, MCP server).
Q: Does it require cloud services? A: No. Animus is local-first by design. It works fully offline with Ollama after initial install. Optional cloud providers (Anthropic, OpenAI) can be configured but are not required.
Installation¶
Q: Which Python version do I need? A: Core requires ≥3.10, Bootstrap ≥3.11, Forge ≥3.12. If in doubt, use Python 3.12 for everything.
Q: Can I install just one package?
A: Yes. Each package is independently installable. Install packages/types/ first, then any combination.
Privacy¶
Q: Where is my data stored?
A: Locally on your machine. Memory defaults to SQLite at ~/.local/share/animus/memory.db. No telemetry by default.
Q: Can Animus modify its own identity files?
A: Small changes (<20% of file size) are written directly. Larger changes go through an approval gate in the dashboard. CORE_VALUES.md is immutable by design.
Development¶
Q: How do I run tests? A: Per-package:
pytest packages/core/tests/ -v
pytest packages/forge/tests/ -v
pytest packages/bootstrap/tests/ -v
pytest packages/quorum/tests/ -v
Q: Why is CI failing?
A: GitHub Actions may be blocked by billing limits. Verify locally with pytest and ruff before merging.