# Communicative Agents for Software Development
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γπ Wiki | π Visualizer | π₯ Community Built Software | π§ Customization | πΎ Discordγ
## π Overview
- **ChatDev** stands as a **virtual software company** that operates through various **intelligent agents** holding
different roles, including Chief Executive Officer 
, Chief Product Officer 
, Chief Technology Officer 
, programmer 
, reviewer 
, tester 
, art designer 
. These
agents form a multi-agent organizational structure and are united by a mission to "revolutionize the digital world
through programming." The agents within ChatDev **collaborate** by participating in specialized functional seminars,
including tasks such as designing, coding, testing, and documenting.
- The primary objective of ChatDev is to offer an **easy-to-use**, **highly customizable** and **extendable** framework,
which is based on large language models (LLMs) and serves as an ideal scenario for studying collective intelligence.
## π News
* **We present Experiential Co-Learning, an innovative approach where instructor and assistant agents accumulate shortcut-oriented experiences to effectively solve new tasks, reducing repetitive errors and enhancing efficiency. Check out our preprint paper at https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.17025 and this technique will soon be integrated into ChatDev.**
* November 15, 2023: We launched ChatDev as a SaaS platform that enables software developers and innovative entrepreneurs to build software efficiently at a very low cost and barrier to entry. Try it out at https://chatdev.modelbest.cn/.
* November 2, 2023: ChatDev is now supported with a new feature: incremental development, which allows agents to develop upon existing codes. Try `--config "incremental" --path "[source_code_directory_path]"` to start it.
* October 26, 2023: ChatDev is now supported with Docker for safe execution (thanks to contribution from [ManindraDeMel](https://github.com/ManindraDeMel)). Please see [Docker Start Guide](wiki.md#docker-start).
- September 25, 2023: The **Git** mode is now available, enabling the programmer to utilize Git for version control. To enable this feature, simply set ``"git_management"`` to ``"True"`` in ``ChatChainConfig.json``. See [guide](wiki.md#git-mode).
- September 20, 2023: The **Human-Agent-Interaction** mode is now available! You can get involved with the ChatDev team by playing the role of reviewer and making suggestions to the programmer ;
try ``python3 run.py --task [description_of_your_idea] --config "Human"``. See [guide](wiki.md#human-agent-interaction) and [example](WareHouse/Gomoku_HumanAgentInteraction_20230920135038).
- September 1, 2023: The **Art** mode is available now! You can activate the designer agent to generate images used in the software;
try ``python3 run.py --task [description_of_your_idea] --config "Art"``. See [guide](wiki.md#art) and [example](WareHouse/gomokugameArtExample_THUNLP_20230831122822).
- August 28, 2023: The system is publicly available.
- August 17, 2023: The v1.0.0 version was ready for release.
- July 30, 2023: Users can customize ChatChain, Phase, and Role settings. Additionally, both online Log mode and replay
mode are now supported.
- July 16, 2023: The [preprint paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.07924) associated with this project was published.
- June 30, 2023: The initial version of the ChatDev repository was released.
## β What Can ChatDev Do?
## β‘οΈ Quickstart
### π»οΈ Quickstart with Web
Access the web page for visualization and configuration use: https://chatdev.modelbest.cn/
### π₯οΈ Quickstart with terminal
To get started, follow these steps:
1. **Clone the GitHub Repository:** Begin by cloning the repository using the command:
```
git clone https://github.com/OpenBMB/ChatDev.git
```
2. **Set Up Python Environment:** Ensure you have a version 3.9 or higher Python environment. You can create and
activate this environment using the following commands, replacing `ChatDev_conda_env` with your preferred environment
name:
```
conda create -n ChatDev_conda_env python=3.9 -y
conda activate ChatDev_conda_env
```
3. **Install Dependencies:** Move into the `ChatDev` directory and install the necessary dependencies by running:
```
cd ChatDev
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
```
4. **Set OpenAI API Key:** Export your OpenAI API key as an environment variable. Replace `"your_OpenAI_API_key"` with
your actual API key. Remember that this environment variable is session-specific, so you need to set it again if you
open a new terminal session.
On Unix/Linux:
```
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_OpenAI_API_key"
```
On Windows:
```
$env:OPENAI_API_KEY="your_OpenAI_API_key"
```
5. **Build Your Software:** Use the following command to initiate the building of your software,
replacing `[description_of_your_idea]` with your idea's description and `[project_name]` with your desired project
name:
On Unix/Linux:
```
python3 run.py --task "[description_of_your_idea]" --name "[project_name]"
```
On Windows:
```
python run.py --task "[description_of_your_idea]" --name "[project_name]"
```
6. **Run Your Software:** Once generated, you can find your software in the `WareHouse` directory under a specific
project folder, such as `project_name_DefaultOrganization_timestamp`. Run your software using the following command
within that directory:
On Unix/Linux:
```
cd WareHouse/project_name_DefaultOrganization_timestamp
python3 main.py
```
On Windows:
```
cd WareHouse/project_name_DefaultOrganization_timestamp
python main.py
```
### π³ Quickstart with Docker
- We thank [ManindraDeMel](https://github.com/ManindraDeMel) for providing Docker support. Please see [Docker Start Guide](wiki.md#docker-start).
## β¨οΈ Advanced Skills
For more detailed information, please refer to our [Wiki](wiki.md), where you can find:
- An introduction to all command run parameters.
- A straightforward guide for setting up a local web visualizer demo, which can visualize real-time logs, replayed logs, and ChatChain.
- An overview of the ChatDev framework.
- A comprehensive introduction to all advanced parameters in ChatChain configuration.
- Guides for customizing ChatDev, including:
- ChatChain: Design your own software development process (or any other process), such
as ``DemandAnalysis -> Coding -> Testing -> Manual``.
- Phase: Design your own phase within ChatChain, like ``DemandAnalysis``.
- Role: Defining the various agents in your company, such as the ``Chief Executive Officer``.
## π€ Share Your Software
**Code**: We are enthusiastic about your interest in participating in our open-source project. If you come across any
problems, don't hesitate to report them. Feel free to create a pull request if you have any inquiries or if you are
prepared to share your work with us! Your contributions are highly valued. Please let me know if there's anything else
you need assistance!
**Company**: Creating your own customized "ChatDev Company" is a breeze. This personalized setup involves three simple
configuration JSON files. Check out the example provided in the ``CompanyConfig/Default`` directory. For detailed
instructions on customization, refer to our [Wiki](wiki.md).
**Software**: Whenever you develop software using ChatDev, a corresponding folder is generated containing all the
essential information. Sharing your work with us is as simple as making a pull request. Here's an example: execute the
command ``python3 run.py --task "design a 2048 game" --name "2048" --org "THUNLP" --config "Default"``. This will
create a software package and generate a folder named ``/WareHouse/2048_THUNLP_timestamp``. Inside, you'll find:
- All the files and documents related to the 2048 game software
- Configuration files of the company responsible for this software, including the three JSON config files
from ``CompanyConfig/Default``
- A comprehensive log detailing the software's building process that can be used to replay (``timestamp.log``)
- The initial prompt used to create this software (``2048.prompt``)
**See community contributed software [here](Contribution.md)!**
## π¨βπ»β Contributors
Made with [contrib.rocks](https://contrib.rocks).
## π Citation
```
@misc{qian2023communicative,
title={Communicative Agents for Software Development},
author={Chen Qian and Xin Cong and Wei Liu and Cheng Yang and Weize Chen and Yusheng Su and Yufan Dang and Jiahao Li and Juyuan Xu and Dahai Li and Zhiyuan Liu and Maosong Sun},
year={2023},
eprint={2307.07924},
archivePrefix={arXiv},
primaryClass={cs.SE}
}
@misc{qian2023experiential,
title={Experiential Co-Learning of Software-Developing Agents},
author={Chen Qian and Yufan Dang and Jiahao Li and Wei Liu and Weize Chen and Cheng Yang and Zhiyuan Liu and Maosong Sun},
year={2023},
eprint={2312.17025},
archivePrefix={arXiv},
primaryClass={cs.CL}
}
```
## βοΈ License
- Source Code Licensing: Our project's source code is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. This license permits the use, modification, and distribution of the code, subject to certain conditions outlined in the Apache 2.0 License.
- Project Open-Source Status: The project is indeed open-source; however, this designation is primarily intended for non-commercial purposes. While we encourage collaboration and contributions from the community for research and non-commercial applications, it is important to note that any utilization of the project's components for commercial purposes necessitates separate licensing agreements.
- Data Licensing: The related data utilized in our project is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. This license explicitly permits non-commercial use of the data. We would like to emphasize that any models trained using these datasets should strictly adhere to the non-commercial usage restriction and should be employed exclusively for research purposes.
## π Star History
[](https://star-history.com/#openbmb/chatdev&Date)
## π€ Acknowledgments
## π¬ Contact
If you have any questions, feedback, or would like to get in touch, please feel free to reach out to us via email at [chatdev.openbmb@outlook.com](mailto:chatdev.openbmb@outlook.com)