Sim

What it is

Sim is a workspace for building, deploying and managing AI agents and workflows. Its README says you build agents visually, conversationally or with code. A workspace holds workflows made of connected blocks, plus tables, files, knowledge bases and logs. You can deploy a workflow as an API, a chat interface or an MCP server. Sim Studio makes it. You use it on Sim Cloud or run it on your own server with Docker Compose or Kubernetes, and the Mac app opens your workspace from either.

1. You describe a task in Chat, or add blocks in the builder
2. Sim lays out a workflow of connected blocks
3. You run it and read each block’s output in Logs
4. You deploy it as an API, a chat or an MCP server
5. Logs keep a record of every run

Who it suits

People who want agents and automations in one place, with their tables, files and knowledge bases beside them. Teams that want to host it on their own Docker or Kubernetes setup. Developers who want Claude Code, Codex or Cursor to run and deploy workflows for them through MCP. Skip the self-hosted route if you would rather not run Docker, a database and a set of secrets yourself. Sim Cloud needs none of that.

Where to use it

Sim runs in these places, and the docs name these ways to connect other tools.

• Sim Cloud, which you sign in to at sim.ai
• Your own server with Docker Compose, started by the sim-setup wizard, or a Kubernetes cluster with Helm
• Sim Desktop, a macOS app that opens your workspace and adds a browser, a terminal and local file tools
• Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, connected over MCP
• Local models through Ollama, vLLM or LM Studio, on a self-hosted Sim

How to set it up

Get it saves a zip of Mindket’s setup notes in your downloads folder, with a file for each agent and platform from Sim’s README and docs. Sim Cloud needs no install. For your own server, the README’s route is the sim-setup wizard.

1. Run the wizard. It asks questions, generates the secrets, writes .env and starts the published images.
2. Sign in when it opens your browser to connect the Chat key.
3. Open http://localhost:3000.

npx sim-setup

The README says the wizard makes a small sim folder, does not clone the repository, and starts the containers with Docker Compose. Run npx sim-setup status from that folder to see what is installed and healthy.

How to use it

Start in Chat, or build by hand in the workflow builder. The Getting started page shows both with a simple summarizer made of a Start block and an Agent block.

1. Select New chat and ask for the workflow.
2. Check the blocks Sim lays out and fill in any missing model credentials.
3. Click Run. Open Logs at the bottom of the builder, select the Agent block and read its Output.

Build a workflow that summarizes a product update in one sentence. Use a Start block and an Agent block, and open it beside this chat.

To connect a coding agent instead, add Sim as an MCP server. The Cloud address is the same for every client, and each client has its own way to add it.

Example

You want to see a workflow run and read its result. On the Getting started page you add an Agent block, choose a model, set the message role to User and paste a short product update.

Summarize this update in one sentence:
We launched the new dashboard on Monday. Customers can now filter
reports by team and export them as CSV. The mobile layout is still
in progress.

You click Run and open the block’s Output. The page says the content field holds the summary, and that its wording may vary. It gives this as the likely result.

The new dashboard adds team filters and CSV exports, with the mobile layout still in progress.

For newcomers and experts

If you are new. A workflow is a chain of connected blocks. A new workflow contains a Start block, and an Agent block asks a model to do the work. Logs show what each block received and returned. If a run fails, the page says to select the failed block in Logs and read its error. Then check the selected model and its credentials, and run it again. Once that works, the page points to references such as <start.input> for passing data between blocks.

For experts. Sim MCP exposes four tools. search_operations finds operations, describe_operation returns an operation’s inputs, and call_read_operation and call_write_operation run it. The operation’s required access picks the read or write tool, not its HTTP method. A call names the operation and fills in what it needs:

{
  "operation": "listTableRows",
  "params": { "tableId": "tbl_8f2c" },
  "query": { "workspaceId": "ws_91ab", "limit": 50 }
}

The Tools page caps a result at 1 MiB and says there is no streaming and no file bytes over MCP. OAuth asks for api:read or api:write, so read-only access is a scope you request. A client that cannot sign in through a browser can send an API key in the X-API-Key header. A self-hosted server uses https://<your-sim-host>/api/mcp, or your SIM_MCP_URL.

On a Docker Compose install or a source checkout, npx sim-setup add configures email, storage, sandbox, jobs, cache, knowledge, chat, llm or an integration such as slack. The Docker page says it refuses Helm releases. npx sim-setup doctor checks configuration. The Kubernetes page installs the chart from oci://ghcr.io/simstudioai/charts/sim with Helm 3.8 or later.

Good to know

Sim runs agents with your keys and your data, so a few points matter before you rely on it.

• License: the core is Apache License 2.0, with “Copyright 2026 Sim Studio, Inc.” in the LICENSE appendix. Enterprise features such as SSO, access control, access requests, whitelabeling and SCIM sit in a separate ee folder under their own license. It allows development, testing and internal non-production use, and production needs an Enterprise subscription
• Chat: it is a Sim-managed service. A self-hosted install needs a Chat key, or you set NEXT_PUBLIC_CHAT_DISABLED=true to hide Chat
• Setup commands: the README says npx sim-setup. The Docker page says bunx sim-setup and lists Bun as a prerequisite. The notes show both
• Keys: back up ENCRYPTION_KEY and API_ENCRYPTION_KEY apart from the server. Restoring a database with different keys leaves encrypted values unreadable. Never rerun the Docker page’s .env creation command over an existing install
• Uploads: the production Compose file does not mount the uploads folder, so recreating the app container loses files kept there until you set up object storage
• Usage data: for a self-hosted Sim, the Environment variables page says NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1, the Docker and Helm default, turns anonymous telemetry off
• Desktop: its terminal runs commands with your macOS account’s permissions, and it can change files outside the folders you approve. Browser and Terminal are on by default, and the Settings page can turn them off
• MCP access: an API key made in Sim settings has no default expiration. Revoke an app under Settings → General → Authorized apps. Revoking does not undo what the app already changed
• Removal: npx sim-setup down removes the containers and keeps the data volumes, but uploads in the unmounted uploads folder are lost unless you set up object storage or a persistent mount. npx sim-setup reset archives .env and wipes managed data. Both ask first. The Desktop page gives no uninstall steps