Getting started

RustFox is an open-source, self-hosted Telegram AI assistant written in Rust. It runs in Telegram, calls sandboxed tools, and keeps conversation memory in SQLite. The default model path is OpenRouter. Ollama is the local option. Setup is a single binary plus a wizard, with an optional systemd, launchd, or Windows service.

Source, releases, and architecture decision records live in the RustFox repository. This is the v1.0.8 docs archive, frozen at GitHub Release v1.0.8. Latest on the version switcher is this docs repository’s main branch (work after v1.0.8). Docs may lag a tag. Versioning is not a release gate.

Path

1. Setup — download a release binary, or build from source in the advanced section.
2. Config — fill the wizard, or edit config.toml.
3. Use it in Telegram. Turn on the portal when you want the browser UI.
4. Update with /selfupgrade, or by replacing the binary.

Spellings for the shell and the bot are on Commands. What the assistant can do is on Features. Which provider is Active is on Providers. Locked failure symptoms are on Troubleshooting. What changed in recent releases is on Changelog.

Before the first install, and before every update, confirm that no stray rustfox process is using the same fox-home (RUSTFOX_HOME, default ~/.rustfox). The same rule is on Setup and Update.

rustfox --version and rustfox -V print the package version and exit 0. They do not start the bot or the scheduler. Prefer rustfox status when you want service health. A bare rustfox starts the bot, so it is the wrong health check.