AI Workdeck

The AI-native workspace for legal and document-heavy work.

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VS Code gives developers one place for files, extensions, terminals, Git, and AI coding assistants.

AI Workdeck aims to give lawyers and document-heavy teams one place for matters, documents, agents, plugins, evidence, and review.

Why Star This Repo

Star AI Workdeck if you care about any of these problems:

• Building AI-native legal or professional-service workflows
• Moving from chatbot add-ons to a real workspace where files, context, agents, and plugins live together
• Self-hosting document AI infrastructure with private data, audit trails, and organization-level workflows
• Exploring MCP-style agent orchestration, document parsing, WPS WebOffice integration, AI slides, TTS, OCR, and evidence-chain workflows in one codebase

What It Is

AI Workdeck Community Edition is the open-source kernel of AI Workdeck. It is not the full commercial SaaS product. The kernel is published so developers, law firms, legal-tech builders, and document-AI teams can inspect, self-host, integrate, and extend the core workflow infrastructure.

Demo

Core Capabilities

Architecture

flowchart TB
  User["User workspace"] --> IDE["IDE interaction layer"]
  IDE --> WPS["WPS WebOffice integration"]
  IDE --> Agent["Agent and chat interface"]
  Agent --> MCP["MCP / tool orchestration"]
  MCP --> Skills["Document skills and plugins"]
  Skills --> Data["PostgreSQL, object storage, file context"]
  Skills --> Services["MinerU, PPTX service, TTS, OCR"]
  Data --> Security["Private deployment and audit controls"]
  Services --> Security

Data Processing & Privacy

AI Workdeck is designed for self-hosted, private deployment. The following diagram shows which components process data locally vs. externally:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Your Infrastructure (private network)                          │
│                                                                 │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌────────────────┐  │
│  │ AI Agent │  │  MinerU  │  │   PPTX   │  │ Sensitive Data │  │
│  │ (Ollama) │  │ (Docker) │  │ (Docker) │  │    Masking     │  │
│  │  LOCAL   │  │  LOCAL   │  │  LOCAL   │  │     LOCAL      │  │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └────────────────┘  │
│                                                                 │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │PostgreSQL│  │   RAG    │  │    Local File Storage        │  │
│  │  LOCAL   │  │  LOCAL   │  │          LOCAL               │  │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                                                 │
├────────────────────────── Optional External ────────────────────┤
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────────┐   │
│  │   OCR    │  │   TTS    │  │ Company  │  │  Gemini /    │   │
│  │ (Aliyun) │  │(ElevenLb)|  │(Qichacha)│  │  OpenRouter  │   │
│  │ EXTERNAL │  │ EXTERNAL │  │ EXTERNAL │  │  CONFIGURABLE│   │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

For air-gapped deployments: Ollama + local storage + MinerU + PPTX service keeps all documents entirely within your network. Disable OCR, TTS, and cloud AI providers — the core workspace, document editing, agent orchestration, and due-diligence workflows function without external services.

Evidence Chain & Audit Status

Status: Foundation in place, cryptographic provenance is on the roadmap.

The Community Edition currently provides relational audit logging:

• Activity logging: UserActivityLog records every user action (LOGIN, OPEN_FILE, PAGE_VIEW, etc.) with timestamps via Hibernate @CreationTimestamp and metadata stored as JSON
• Due-diligence tracking: DdItem records state transitions (PENDING → UPLOADED → APPROVED/REJECTED) with uploadedAt and uploadedBy
• Conversation audit: ConversationFileChange logs document additions and modifications per session
• File metadata: ProjectFile stores createdAt/updatedAt timestamps and file paths in PostgreSQL

What is NOT yet implemented (on the roadmap):

• Cryptographic document hashing (SHA-256 checksums)
• Tamper-evident audit trails (Merkle chains or signed logs)
• File version history and diff tracking
• Immutable append-only evidence log

The architecture's plugin surface is designed to accommodate these features. If you need cryptographic provenance for compliance or litigation support, please open an issue describing your requirements — it helps us prioritize.

Licensing FAQ for Law Firms

Can our firm use AI Workdeck internally without disclosing our modifications?

Yes, in most cases. AGPLv3's disclosure obligation is triggered when you convey modified software to others — i.e., distribute or provide it as a network service to external users. Internal use within a single firm, even with modifications, generally does not require source code disclosure.

What about the network-use clause (AGPLv3 Section 13)?

This clause applies when you host a modified version as a network service accessible to external users. If you deploy AI Workdeck as an internal tool behind your firm's firewall, the network-use clause does not apply. If you create a client-facing portal powered by modified AI Workdeck code, AGPLv3 would require offering the source to those clients.

What about proprietary plugins and extensions?

The current architecture runs plugins in-process. Under AGPLv3, this means the copyleft may extend to proprietary plugins. If your firm plans to build proprietary workflow extensions, the commercial license provides a clean legal basis for:

• Closed-source plugins and integrations
• Proprietary on-premise deployment without source disclosure
• Commercial SaaS products built on the AI Workdeck kernel

See legal/COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md or contact [email protected].

Where does our data go?

In a self-hosted deployment with Ollama + local storage + Docker services, documents never leave your network. No telemetry, no phone-home, no analytics by default. Optional external services (OCR, TTS, cloud AI) are explicitly configured and can be disabled entirely.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Steps

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/zeweihan/aiworkdeck.git
cd aiworkdeck

# 2. Configure environment
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env.production
cp pptx-service/.env.example pptx-service/.env

# 3. Create database
# Create a PostgreSQL database named `checkba`
# or update backend environment variables for your own database name

# 4. Start all services
chmod +x restart-all.sh
./restart-all.sh

Services

Common optional providers: OpenRouter, Gemini, Qichacha, Tushare, ElevenLabs, PKULaw, WPS WebOffice, and object storage. Not every provider is required to inspect the code or run the basic workbench.

Repository Map

Roadmap

• [ ] Cleaner one-command local demo with sample data
• [ ] Public plugin SDK and example plugins
• [ ] More legal-document workflows: due diligence, shareholder meeting review, contract review, evidence timelines
• [ ] Better self-hosting guides for private law-firm and enterprise deployments
• [ ] More auditable work records: version history, diff, citations, and review logs
• [ ] Bilingual documentation for the community edition

Contributing

We welcome issues, discussions, docs improvements, integration notes, and focused pull requests. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting a PR.

Useful first contributions:

• Reproduce and document local setup paths on different operating systems
• Improve self-hosting docs and .env examples
• Add plugin examples
• Add tests around document parsing, agent tool calls, and frontend workflows
• Improve English and Chinese documentation

Licensing

AI Workdeck Community Edition is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.

If you modify this project and provide it as a network service, AGPLv3 generally requires that you provide the corresponding source code to users of that service.

Commercial licensing is available for:

• Closed-source SaaS delivery
• Proprietary on-premise delivery
• Commercial products that need to integrate the kernel without releasing proprietary modifications
• Dedicated enterprise support and implementation assistance

See LICENSE and COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md. For commercial licensing, contact [email protected].

Background

Read WHY.md for the product thesis and founder story.

⭐ Star History

If this direction matters to you, please ⭐ star the repo and share it with someone building legal AI, document AI, or professional-service infrastructure.