One YAML file. Any model. Any protocol. Any runtime.
Build chat APIs, RAG pipelines, autonomous agents, and MCP servers without writing orchestration code β then run the same definition anywhere, like docker-compose.
AI systems shouldn't be locked into a single provider, runtime, or cloud. model-compose is built on four principles:
- Composable β Models, agents, workflows, tools, memory, and protocols are interchangeable building blocks.
- Portable β Define your AI system once and run it anywhere without re-engineering.
- Model-Agnostic β Mix local models and cloud APIs in the same system.
- Stream-Native β Tokens, audio, video frames, and events flow through workflows as first-class values.
Install with uv:
uv pip install model-composeOr with pip:
pip install model-composeCreate model-compose.yml:
controller:
adapter:
type: http-server
port: 8080
webui:
port: 8081
workflow:
job:
component: chatgpt
input:
prompt: ${input.prompt}
component:
id: chatgpt
type: http-client
base_url: https://api.openai.com/v1
action:
path: /chat/completions
method: POST
headers:
Authorization: Bearer ${env.OPENAI_API_KEY}
body:
model: gpt-4o
messages:
- role: user
content: ${input.prompt}Run it:
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key
model-compose upThat's it. You're serving GPT-4o at http://localhost:8080 with a web UI at http://localhost:8081. No application code. No framework boilerplate. Same file runs locally, in Docker, or in production.
Every workflow gets a browser UI for free β inputs, outputs, streaming, and file uploads are inferred from the schema. Two lines of YAML, no frontend code.
controller:
webui:
driver: gradio
port: 8081Perfect for iteration, demos, and sharing a workflow with non-engineers before wiring it into production.
Here's what a single YAML file can serve today β just a few examples.
Build a ReAct agent that plans, uses tools, and completes multi-step tasks β declaratively.
component:
id: research-agent
type: agent
tools: [search-web, fetch-page]
max_iteration_count: 10
action:
model:
component: chatgpt
system_prompt: You are a web research assistant.
user_prompt: ${input.question}See simple agents like a code reviewer, a RAG assistant, and a web researcher in agents/.
Run open-weight models on your own hardware with PyTorch, vLLM, or llama.cpp β same YAML surface as cloud APIs, no SDK code.
component:
type: model
task: chat-completion
model: HuggingFaceTB/SmolLM3-3B
action:
messages:
- role: system
content: ${input.system_prompt}
- role: user
content: ${input.user_prompt}Point model: at any Hugging Face repo, or a local GGUF file via llama.cpp. Browse local chat, embedding, TTS, VLM, image/audio/video tasks under model-tasks/.
Compose embedding, vector search, and generation into a single workflow β no glue code.
workflow:
jobs:
- id: embed
component: embedder
input: { text: ${input.query} }
- id: retrieve
component: knowledge
action: search
input: { vector: ${jobs.embed.output} }
- id: answer
component: chatgpt
input:
context: ${jobs.retrieve.output}
question: ${input.query}Native drivers ship for Chroma, Milvus, Qdrant, FAISS, Neo4j, ArangoDB, and Redis.
Chain audio, video, and image stages across models and native codecs β swap any step without touching the rest.
workflow:
jobs:
- id: extract-audio
component: audio-extractor
input: { source: ${input.video as video} }
- id: transcribe
component: whisper
input: { audio: ${jobs.extract-audio.output} }
- id: translate
component: translator
input: { text: ${jobs.transcribe.output} }
- id: dub
component: tts
input: { text: ${jobs.translate.output} }
- id: lip-sync
component: wav2lip
input:
video: ${input.video as video}
audio: ${jobs.dub.output as audio/wav}
output: ${output as video/mp4}See full video dubbing, scene detection, voice cloning, and face mosaic pipelines in media-processing/.
Stream tokens, audio chunks, and video frames end-to-end β first-class across every stage.
workflow:
job:
component: chatgpt
output: ${output as sse-text}
component:
id: chatgpt
type: http-client
action:
body: { stream: true, ... }
stream_format: json
output: ${response[].choices[0].delta.content}Real-time TTS, video-to-frames, and live chat examples live under data-streaming/ and showcase/.
Turn any workflow into an MCP server that Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor can use β one line change.
controller:
adapter:
type: mcp-server # β was: http-server
port: 8080Full examples live in mcp-servers/, including a Slack bot MCP.
The same YAML that runs on your laptop scales without a rewrite.
model-compose upRuns on your machine with a Gradio web UI at :8081 β perfect for iteration.
Add a runtime: block. Same file, same behavior:
controller:
runtime:
type: docker
image: my-ai-service:latest
ports: [ "8080:8080" ]Add a queue. Dispatchers accept jobs, subscribers process them across N machines:
controller:
adapter: { type: http-server, port: 8080 }
queue:
driver: redis
host: redis.internal
name: my-queueNo shared filesystem. No code changes. Just add more subscribers to scale.
| model-compose | Managed APIs (OpenAI, etc.) | Code Frameworks (LangChain, etc.) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to first API | Minutes (one YAML) | Hours (SDK + server code) | Days (framework + integration) |
| Provider Coupling | Multi-provider via config | Single provider per SDK | Multi-provider via abstractions |
| Code Coupling | Declarative YAML β no application code | Application code required | Framework-specific code required |
| Infrastructure Control | Full Sovereignty | Provider-controlled | Heavy Abstraction |
| Runtime Flexibility | Hybrid-First (Local + Cloud) | Cloud Only | Complex to customize |
| Protocol Support | HTTP / WebSocket / MCP | Provider-specific | Limited |
| Data Streaming | First-class across all stages | Response-only (SSE tokens) | Framework-wrapped generators |
| Deployment | Docker / Native / Virtualenv / Process | Provider-managed | Manual integration |
- Any model, anywhere β HuggingFace, vLLM, llama.cpp locally, or OpenAI/Anthropic/Google/xAI via HTTP
- Agents in YAML β ReAct loops, tool use, multi-step reasoning β no code
- Human-in-the-loop β pause workflows for approval, resume from CLI/UI/API
- 100+ components β models, agents, HTTP/WebSocket clients, vector/graph stores, shell, browsers, and more
- Any protocol β HTTP REST, WebSocket, or MCP with one line
- Any runtime β Docker, native, virtualenv, process, embedded β switch in one line
- Distributed β Redis queue dispatch for horizontal scaling
- Instant Web UI β Gradio-powered UI in 2 lines of YAML
- Streaming everywhere β SSE, WebSocket, and inter-job streams as first-class values
Browse examples by category:
| Category | What's inside |
|---|---|
agents/ |
Code reviewer, RAG assistant, Web researcher, Web page analyzer, ... |
showcase/ |
End-to-end pipelines: disk analysis, face-based scene search, real-time TTS |
model-providers/ |
OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Google, ElevenLabs, vLLM |
model-tasks/ |
Local chat, embedding, TTS, VLM, face embedding, ... |
media-processing/ |
Audio/video/image processing: extraction, conversion, scene detection |
media-broadcast/ |
Live broadcasting pipelines (e.g. YouTube Live over RTMP) |
web-automation/ |
Web scraping, headless browser automation, page capture |
text-processing/ |
Text chunking and preprocessing |
mcp-servers/ |
Build MCP servers exposed to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT |
workflow-queue/ |
Redis-backed distributed dispatch (streaming + non-streaming) |
data-streaming/ |
Video-to-frames, YouTube live chat, streaming inputs |
job-flow/ |
Workflow control: conditional routing, hooks, interrupts |
integrations/ |
Vector/graph/KV stores, search engines, channels, tunnels |
runtime/ |
Component execution runtimes: Docker, Apple Container, virtualenv, ... |
Browse the full catalog in examples/README.md.
Protocol adapters β Composition engine β Runtime executors
We welcome all contributions β bug fixes, docs improvements, new examples.
git clone https://github.com/hanyeol/model-compose.git
cd model-compose
pip install -e .See CONTRIBUTING if available, or open a PR directly.
MIT License Β© 2025-2026 Hanyeol Cho.
Have questions, ideas, or feedback? Open an issue or start a discussion on GitHub Discussions.


