# Huginn — Self-Hosted Automation Agents That Monitor and Act on Your Behalf

> A system for building agents that perform automated tasks online, like a self-hosted IFTTT or Zapier that watches for events, takes actions, and keeps you informed.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# Huginn — Self-Hosted Automation Agents That Monitor and Act on Your Behalf

## Quick Use
```bash
docker run -d --name huginn -p 3000:3000 ghcr.io/huginn/huginn
# Open http://localhost:3000 — default login: admin / password
```

## Introduction
Huginn is a self-hosted system for creating agents that monitor the web, react to events, and perform automated actions. Think of it as a privacy-respecting, self-hosted alternative to IFTTT or Zapier where you own all the data and logic.

## What Huginn Does
- Creates agents that watch web pages, RSS feeds, emails, and APIs for changes
- Chains agents together into complex automation workflows via event propagation
- Sends notifications via email, Slack, Pushbullet, or webhooks when triggers fire
- Scrapes websites on a schedule and extracts structured data
- Digests and summarizes collected information into periodic reports

## Architecture Overview
Huginn is a Ruby on Rails application backed by MySQL or PostgreSQL. Agents run as background jobs via a delayed_job worker process. Each agent has a schedule, receives events from upstream agents, processes them, and optionally emits new events downstream. The web UI provides a visual graph of agent connections.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Deploy via Docker: `docker run -d -p 3000:3000 ghcr.io/huginn/huginn`
- Configure database connection via DATABASE_URL environment variable
- Set SMTP credentials for email-based agents and notifications
- Use HUGINN_SEED_USERNAME and HUGINN_SEED_PASSWORD for initial admin account
- Scale workers independently with `docker run huginn /scripts/init bin/threaded.rb`

## Key Features
- Over 50 built-in agent types covering web scraping, APIs, email, and social media
- Visual directed graph editor showing event flow between agents
- Liquid templating for dynamic message formatting
- Scenario import and export for sharing automation recipes
- Dry-run mode for testing agents before enabling live execution

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **n8n** — Visual node-based workflows with a modern UI; Huginn uses a code-first agent model
- **Node-RED** — Flow-based programming for IoT; Huginn focuses on web monitoring and data collection
- **Activepieces** — SaaS-friendly automation; Huginn is fully self-hosted with no cloud dependency
- **Zapier** — Commercial SaaS with 5000+ integrations; Huginn is free and privacy-first
- **Home Assistant** — Home automation focused; Huginn targets web data and online services

## FAQ
**Q: How is Huginn different from Zapier or IFTTT?**
A: Huginn runs entirely on your own server with no usage limits, no subscription fees, and no data shared with third parties.

**Q: What programming knowledge is needed?**
A: Basic web concepts are enough for most agents. Complex scenarios may use Liquid templates or custom agent classes in Ruby.

**Q: Can Huginn handle thousands of agents?**
A: Yes, though performance depends on server resources and job scheduling. Run multiple worker processes for heavy workloads.

**Q: Is there a mobile app?**
A: No native app exists, but the web UI is responsive. Huginn can send push notifications to your phone via Pushbullet or ntfy.

## Sources
- https://github.com/huginn/huginn
- https://github.com/huginn/huginn/wiki

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/bdb2d245-3eef-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: AI Open Source