The open-source AI workbench for scientific research
Give it a goal. It reads the literature, writes and runs code, runs the experiments, and writes up what it found.
Install · Quickstart · Docs · Gateway
OpenScience is an AI workbench for scientific research. You give it a goal, and it works through the research loop the way a capable collaborator would. It reads the papers that matter, forms a hypothesis, writes and runs code, runs experiments on real compute, queries the major scientific databases, and writes up the result. It runs as a workspace in your browser and works with any frontier or open-weight model from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and dozens of other providers, using your own API keys. No account is required.
It is model-agnostic, open source, and built to do real work in machine learning, biology, physics, and chemistry.
What it does
- Runs the whole loop. Literature review, hypothesis, code, experiment, analysis, and write-up, in one continuous session.
- One adaptive Research agent. A single user-facing collaborator handles the task end to end, loads domain skills when useful, and can delegate bounded Explore, Execute, or Review work internally. Normal and Ultra efforts control how widely it investigates; plan mode stays read-only.
- 295 bundled skills. Training (DeepSpeed, PEFT, TRL), evaluation, dataset work, molecular and clinical biology, cheminformatics, papers and LaTeX, figures, and cloud compute (Modal, Tinker, and others).
- Scientific databases as tools. UniProt, PDB, Ensembl, ChEMBL, PubChem, arXiv, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, and around 30 more, queryable directly by the agent.
- A real workspace. A browser UI with a file tree, an editor, a terminal, session history, and inline rendering for molecules, structures, genomes, and plots.
- Extensible. LSP integration, MCP servers, plugins, custom agents and commands, and a TypeScript SDK.
Install
Install with npm, then open the workspace:
npm install -g @synsci/openscience
openscience
The command is openscience, and it opens the workspace in your browser without requiring an account or setup wizard. Connect ChatGPT/Codex, your own provider keys, or optional Gateway-managed models from Customize → Models when you want them. If you would rather not install it globally, npx synsci does the same thing in a single step:
npx synsci
Platform binaries are also attached to GitHub Releases; see the changelog for what's new in each version.
Linux installs require kernel 5.1 or newer. Glibc builds require glibc 2.17 or newer, and musl builds are published separately. CentOS 7's stock 3.10 kernel is not supported even though its glibc version meets the minimum; use a newer host kernel or VM.
Quickstart
Set an API key from any provider (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, and so on) and start the workspace:
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
openscience
openscience opens the workspace in your browser. Your keys stay on your machine and requests go straight to the provider. You can also run openscience keys add to store a key from the terminal, add keys from the Credentials panel, and pick a model from the model selector. To open the workspace in a specific project:
openscience ~/code/my-project
Gateway
The managed Gateway from Synthetic Sciences is optional. It adds synced private research graphs, managed models, and managed research search without becoming a dependency for local, BYOK, or ChatGPT/Codex-backed work.
openscience login # connect your Synthetic Sciences account
openscience wallet # check your balance and top up
Ace is $20/month with 20 credits, a Generous research quota, Synthetic Scientists access, and auto-reload enabled by default. Ace+ is $100/month with 150 credits, a 3x research quota, the same Synthetic Scientists access, priority support, and early access. Auto-reload can be turned off during checkout or anytime in Billing. Bring-your-own-key, local-model, and eligible ChatGPT/Codex usage remain independent of those plans and are never charged against managed credits. Use openscience status to see what you are connected to, and openscience logout to disconnect.
How it works
OpenScience runs a local server that hosts the workspace UI, the agent runtime, the complete default skill library, and the tool layer. The agent plans with a research harness, calls tools (shell, editor, LSP, MCP servers, scientific connectors, and skills), and streams its work back to the browser. Models are routed per request, so you can switch between providers or run local models without changing anything else. Sessions, skills, artifacts, and provenance are stored on disk. The Gateway adds optional managed models, credential sync, private research graphs, and managed search after login.
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
backend/cli | The CLI, server, provider integrations, sessions, and skills |
frontend/workspace | The browser workspace UI, served by the CLI |
frontend/docs | The documentation and session-share site |
tooling/sdk/js | The TypeScript SDK |
tooling/plugin | The plugin runtime |
Configuration
Global config lives in ~/.config/openscience/openscience.json. Project config lives in openscience.json or a .openscience/ directory at the repo root (schema). Custom agents, commands, tools, plugins, and themes load from those directories.
Development
You need Bun 1.3 or newer.
bun install
bun dev
bun run typecheck
bun run --cwd backend/cli test
bun run --cwd backend/cli build
bun dev runs the workspace from source, and bun run --cwd backend/cli build produces the platform binaries.
See ARCHITECTURE.md for how the system fits together, CONTRIBUTING.md for how to contribute, AGENTS.md for the style guide, and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md for community standards.
Security
The permission system keeps you aware of what the agent is doing; it is not an isolation boundary by itself. New local installs start in Approve for me: the project is trusted, while commands run inside macOS Seatbelt or Linux bubblewrap containment. The composer’s Research tools → Action approval menu can switch to Ask for approval (sandboxed and project trust revoked) or deliberately enable Full access (trusted project with containment off). Managed policy may enforce a stricter boundary. The sandbox is not a full jail, so use a container or VM for hostile code. Gateway tokens stay out of general subprocess environments, arbitrary Python/R kernels receive a minimal environment, and credential-shaped values are redacted from output. Content-free product telemetry is enabled by default and can be disabled in Settings; prompts, responses, files, notebook cells, and shell output require a separate explicit research-content opt-in. To inspect or verify containment, run openscience sandbox and openscience sandbox test; to report a vulnerability, see SECURITY.md.
License
Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.
OpenScience is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic. "Claude" is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC, used here only to describe compatibility.