Overview
Guides for using Akili day to day, plus everything you need to evaluate, embed, and deploy the platform.
Akili is an AI workspace for teams: multi-model chat, custom agents, and knowledge bases with cited answers — deployable as managed SaaS or self-hosted inside your own infrastructure.
How the pieces fit
Everything in Akili composes around four surfaces. Chats are where you work with any of 9 model providers in a single thread — switch models mid-conversation and nothing resets. Agents package a working setup (instructions, model, knowledge, tools) into something your whole org can share and deploy to Slack, Teams, or your own website. Knowledge bases ground answers in your own documents with enforced citations. And the marketplace lets you install agents others built — or publish your own and get paid on every run.
Underneath all of it sits one usage unit — the credit — and one identity model: your personal workspace is simply a tenant of one, and joining an organization adds a membership, not a second account.
Architecture at a glance
Five layers, one deployment boundary. Surfaces talk to the core; the core routes every request through the model layer and grounds it in the data layer. The whole box ships as managed SaaS or runs inside your own infrastructure — only the marketplace and managed billing plane stay in the cloud.
Surfaces — where people meet Akili
Web app
app.akili.io
Mobile
Android · iOS soon
VS Code
chat + completions
Webchat widget
your website
Slack & Teams
agent bots
Akili core
Chat & Agents
versioned, roll-backable
Knowledge & RAG
cited answers
Memory & Projects
context that compounds
Marketplace
cloud-only · dev payouts
Identity
SSO/OIDC · SCIM deprovision
RBAC & Audit
deny-by-default, always on
Credits & metering
reserve-then-settle
MCP tools
typed tool boundary
Model layer — routed, never locked in
Bring your own keys (encrypted at rest) or use included server-side models on credits
Data layer
PostgreSQL + pgvector
documents, embeddings, ledger
Redis
queues, hot credit balance
Blob storage
files & library
Deployment boundary — everything inside this box runs in our cloud, or inside yours (Docker Compose, Kubernetes, or your own Azure tenant)
Where to start
| If you want to… | Read |
|---|---|
| Get a grounded answer from your own documents today | Quickstart |
| Understand what usage actually costs | Credits & billing |
| Build an agent your team can share | Building agents |
| Use your existing OpenAI / Anthropic / Azure agreement | Bring your own key |
| Put an agent on your own website | Embeddable webchat |
| Run the whole platform in your own infrastructure | Self-hosting guide |
All guides
Getting started
- OverviewWhat Akili is, what it's made of, and where to start — multi-model chat, agents, knowledge bases, and a marketplace, in our cloud or yours.
- QuickstartSign up, pick a model, and get a grounded answer from your own documents in under ten minutes.
- Credits & billingHow Akili credits work: what a credit is, how plans pool them, what happens when you run out, and how auto-refill caps protect you.
Core platform
- Building agentsCreate a custom agent once — instructions, model, knowledge, tools — then version it, roll it back, and deploy it anywhere Akili runs.
- Knowledge basesUpload documents, let Akili index them, and get answers that cite their sources. How ingestion, retrieval, and citations work.
- Bring your own keyConnect your existing OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, or other provider agreement. Keys are encrypted at rest; usage bills to your account, with no markup.