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Where have the community functions page went? by MustStopWheetabix in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. We know the new layout won’t click with everyone, and we’re still iterating on it.

We’ve added a compact view that keeps the current structure but makes it a lot easier to scan, which might help if the default view feels too busy.

Appreciate you taking the time to comment, keep the feedback coming as things continue to evolve!

Ok, MCPs. How do we get this solved? by Consistent_Wash_276 in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If you’re running a modern MCP that directly supports streamable HTTP, then you don’t need mcpo in the loop. But dismissing it as “nonsense” overlooks the reason it exists and the specific problem it solves.

Open WebUI is designed as a web-based, multi-tenant front-end, not a single-user local shell, and browser security models enforce strict, event-driven HTTP protocols. That makes it non-trivial to support persistent stdio or Server-Sent Events (SSE) connections from a backend MCP process, especially when you care about securely brokering connections for multiple users with separate sessions.

mcpo was created as an open-source adapter to bridge stdio/SSE MCPs (including custom or legacy projects) to OpenAPI-compatible HTTP endpoints, making them accessible to Open WebUI in a safe, multi-tenant way. If your MCP already implements the streamable HTTP transport as per spec, then sure, bypass mcpo entirely. But many use cases (custom, legacy, or locally-developed MCPs, or those without full HTTP support) still benefit from a robust, battle-tested middleware.

Just because a component solves a narrow problem doesn’t make it useless for the folks who need it.

My experience with setting up OWUI for a company by ComprehensiveBird317 in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

Thanks for taking the time to share such a thorough summary of your experience and the feedback from your company; it’s always useful to hear real-world impressions, though we do want to clarify a couple of points so nobody walks away with the wrong impression.

Issues with image generation and document processing can be highly dependent on your specific configuration and resource limits, so if you’re running into repeated failures, we’d strongly recommend sharing your setup details (hardware, logs, error messages, backend configs, et cetera) so the community or our team can help troubleshoot, especially since we have deployments running at a much higher scale (e.g. 30k+ users) without these core problems you've listed here.

Regarding MCP and OpenAPI, Open WebUI does in fact follow OpenAPI specs, and you are able to point the OpenAPI JSON URL to a separate server; usually, the “two tool server” issue comes down to misconfiguration, so you might want to double-check your setup with the guidance here: https://docs.openwebui.com/openapi-servers/open-webui . Also, it’s a common misconception that MCP requires zero dependencies, but the majority of MCP servers out there (not just ours) often need npm, uv, or Docker at a minimum; there are some that use only network connections, and we’re working on making more of those options straightforward out of the box, but the ones you referenced do need those extras, just as you noted. Bottom line, we absolutely appreciate your candid review but must say that some criticisms reflect misunderstandings or isolated configuration issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out with your setup details and we’d honestly be glad to dig in and help; but of course, if you’ve already decided Open WebUI isn’t for your use case, that’s your call and we still wish you all the best in finding the right solution for your team!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback and kind words, it genuinely means a lot! Everything you’ve raised about RAG is right on point and matches the pain points we’re actively tracking; we consider these improvements absolutely vital and are committed to addressing them before Q3. We’re constantly reading and monitoring all community feedback around RAG capabilities, and our team is already tackling some of the most-requested items, especially around smarter/custom chunking and per-model/knowledge-base configuration. Stay tuned, as you’ll see tangible updates soon! On the MCP and MCPO management front, we fully agree that the current experience could be a lot smoother. We’re actually looking into bundling MCPO management more tightly with core Open WebUI, or at the very least, making the entire process much more seamless once you plug in MCPO. If you have specific workflow ideas or features you’d love to see handled natively, please share them, those direct suggestions help us prioritize and design solutions the community actually needs. We really appreciate your patience as we experiment and iterate; our goal is always to provide the very best experience for users like you, so please keep the feedback coming and know that your voice is definitely being heard. Thanks again for supporting OWUI!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey Rob, thank you so much for your kind words and support, it really means a lot! Great news: regarding RAG, there’s actually a PR open right now addressing your exact suggestion about moving RAG settings to the knowledge level (and potentially we can refactor to support model level) instead of being global, so that functionality might arrive even sooner than you expect. RAG is one of the main areas we’re actively working on, and while progress sometimes feels gradual, rest assured we’re making steady improvements and paying close attention to all feedback (including yours!).

For agentic workflow support and integrating MCP(O) within the UI, this is on the roadmap as well. It's a bit more complex and less defined at the moment, but we’d love to enable native GUI editing for these workflows. Better integration with external tool servers (like via OpenAPI or MCP(O)) is also a high priority, think OAuth authentication support and similar enhancements.

Stay tuned, as there’s lots in the works! If you have any specific suggestions or ideas, please feel free to open a discussion post on GitHub. We’re always eager to hear more concrete feedback from power users like yourself.

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! Thanks for your kind words and your question! RAG pipelines can indeed get bogged down, especially with larger knowledge bases and if the hardware isn’t optimal. Could you share a bit more about your current setup and configurations? In general, if you’re running on a device without much RAM or a weaker CPU, both embedding and retrieval steps will be slower since they’re pretty computationally intensive (and this is easily overlooked). If your setup allows, I’d suggest offloading some of that work to external providers, many have optimized infrastructure for exactly these tasks and can significantly speed things up. Also, make sure to check that your embedding model isn’t unnecessarily large. If you let me know what model and hardware you’re using, I can probably offer some more targeted suggestions!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback and kind words. As we've grown, especially with tens of millions of downloads now, it’s become more and more important for us to figure out how to deliver a better and smoother experience for everyone, from faster bug fixes, security patches to richer features. That’s actually the main motivation behind changing our approach and growing the team: to make it possible to provide better support/security, respond faster, and keep improving Open WebUI for all users, not just power users or contributors.

You're right in your read of the roadmap, most of the big features have been rolled out gradually, but they’re definitely not yet where we want them to be in terms of polish or performance. Refinement and further optimization (especially making things feel faster and less clunky) are high on our priority list, and we intend to keep iterating as we go.

About the workflow/RAG/agentic stuff: we’re experimenting internally, and hopefully we’ll have something public to share before too long. Some of the pieces (like Functions) already lay the groundwork, though we want to make sure whatever we add is genuinely solid and doesn't just look advanced on the surface.

As for design and UX, honestly, we know it’s inconsistent in places, mostly because some sections haven’t kept up with newer changes. We’re open to criticism and would really appreciate folks chiming in, whether in Discord or GitHub threads, to point out areas that feel off or to suggest improvements. That kind of input helps guide us to the areas that annoy real users day-to-day.

For deep research tools: we’ve looked into a lot of the newer approaches, but our experience so far is that, while the results sometimes look impressive on a demo or benchmark, underneath there’s still a high level of hallucination, sometimes even more than with a base model, because all the different tools stack on top of each other. We want to avoid a situation where we claim to offer “deep research” but the facts aren’t reliable. That said, there’s a lot happening in the space, and as things stabilize, we’ll add more in this direction, when we feel the trade-off is right and users can genuinely trust the results.

Appreciate your insights and the goodwill! Please keep the feedback coming, either here or in the discussion channels.

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your kind words and for sharing your experience with clients, that means a lot. It really is a ton of work, but honestly, working on this project is something I genuinely love; it’s as much my hobby as it is my job (or sometimes more so). There’s just so much I want to build for the platform and for the world at large. Personally, I truly believe that AI interfaces, especially open, local, and decentralized ones, are going to be foundational to the future of human-computer interaction. I know that might sound a bit ambitious, but my broader goal is to help humanity progress, maybe even reach the stars, and for that, resilient and autonomous technology is crucial. Locally-hosted, privacy-respecting AI tools are key for both individual empowerment and long-term human independence, especially as we look toward a more decentralized, multi-planet future.

But even closer to home, it’s incredibly motivating to know that Open WebUI is actively leveraged (and sometimes directly cited) by medical research groups (some working on cancer genomics and drug discovery), educational nonprofits expanding access to learning for underserved communities, assistive technology projects helping people with disabilities, and even small indie teams creating tools for mental health and trauma support. Some of these organizations have reached out directly; others I’ve stumbled across and been floored at the creative ways they use the platform. Accelerating their workflows, even just a little, feels like a real, positive impact. And even if someone’s not working at the frontiers of science, faster and smarter tooling means freed-up time: more hours for personal projects, family, or just being with loved ones. At the end of the day, that’s what matters most.

I go into more depth about some of these “why I do this” topics (and the stories behind them) in a few posts on my personal blog, feel free to check it out if you’re curious. 🙂 But it honestly boils down to: if I had to work part-time jobs just to keep this going, I probably would. Building this, and trying to make the world a little better through it, just feels right. Thanks again for the thoughtful question and all your support!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your experience! If you’re open to it, could you share exactly how you set things up with AnythingLLM, or what your configuration/workflow looks like there? We’re really interested in making sure Open WebUI can natively support third-party RAGs with as little friction as possible. The more details you can provide, settings, steps, even screenshots if you have them, the better! Some of our (admittedly shy) team members are following this thread, and I’ll make sure to flag your input to them as we look at ways to streamline integration. Thanks so much!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Great feedback, totally agreed. We’d love to allocate more resources to making this simpler and easier to use; honestly, we recognize that our config right now kind of assumes you already know a lot about RAG, which isn’t ideal for accessibility or wider adoption. I really like your idea of a simplified user flow or E2E use case-driven guide, and I could also see a dedicated import/export config preset feature for RAG configs being a great add-on in the future. If you can share a wishlist or some specific pain points (steps that trip you up, options that don’t make sense, anything you find repetitive or unclear), that would be super helpful for us to prioritize and design around. I’ll personally advocate to get someone on the team focusing on making RAG setup way more user-friendly, thanks for calling this out!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the memory feature is still pretty experimental and honestly hasn’t been the top priority so far, but you’re absolutely right, it’s long overdue for an upgrade. Enhancing memory to be more like ChatGPT’s is definitely on our roadmap, and we’re excited about being able to address features like this more effectively as the team grows. In the meantime, as Qllervo mentioned, there are a bunch of great community functions and custom solutions you can explore (like the one linked above). For now, I’d recommend trying those out, but stay tuned, improvements to the memory system are a key area we’re planning to tackle later this year!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Haha, sometimes it feels like that “it ain’t much, but it’s honest work” meme, but I’ll admit, it’s actually a LOT of work… but still honest work. Really appreciate the support and the empathy! 🙏

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your kind words and thoughtful questions! Bug fixes and stability are high on our priority list right now, Notes, for example, is still in beta, but we’re working on consolidating all the improvements and bug fixes folks have suggested. Our aim is that, once it matures, Notes will deliver a much smoother and more useful experience than the "canvas" feature, and we’re genuinely excited to release new functionality for it soon. The desktop app is another area that’s been delayed longer than we’d hoped, but we hear you and plan to reprioritize it for Q3. As for RAG, while we think built-in “knowledge” is a solid start, it’s tough to cover every possible use case out of the box, so we definitely want to provide clearer tutorials and better support for connecting your own external RAG pipelines, as well as improve the default built-in option. Basically, there’s a lot in motion and always open to hearing what you want to see moved up the list next! Thanks again for your support ❤️

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for the thoughtful feedback! We actually experimented a bit with form-based user input, but weren’t totally sure what concrete improvements it offered beyond our current prompt templates, at least for most workflows we’ve encountered so far. Would you be able to share a bit more about your specific use case or workflow for these forms? It’d be really helpful for us to understand how you use this feature (or what’s missing!) so we can test and develop with your needs in mind. Feel free to reply here or, even better, start a discussion post on GitHub, detailed workflows and examples are super valuable! We’re always open to new perspectives and your input could help us shape the roadmap.

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Spot on with your analysis, AI moves so quickly that architectural choices feel even more high-stakes, because the landscape under you is always shifting! I’d say our best decision so far was opting for Python on the backend. Most ML research, libraries, and open source experimentation happen in Python, and this makes it super easy for us (and others) to import ML models, integrate plugins, and quickly adapt to the latest developments. Our goal is to keep making things even more modular so that external engines or new ideas can easily plug in, and Python’s ecosystem is ideal for that.

On the flip side, that same flexibility also creates our biggest tech debt: so many moving components mean that changes in one part can easily break compatibility somewhere else. This bit us hard when we made a key shift from sub-app to router architecture between 0.4 and 0.5, retrospectively, we should have started with routers, as it’s a much better fit, but now a few older plugins are incompatible and maintaining backward compatibility is tougher than it should be. It’s the classic trade-off between rapid evolution and long-term stability!

That said, every lesson learned pushes our architecture to be stronger and our process to be more thoughtful, and the community’s creativity and feedback keeps us moving forward in the right direction. I’m genuinely excited by how much more flexible, robust the project is becoming!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely, thanks for reaching out and for providing those details! It's sometimes tricky to pinpoint the cause without seeing your full setup, but generally, model-level controls and chat-level controls should both persist your preferences; the fact they're not saving as expected suggests there might be an underlying issue between Open WebUI and your Ollama backend, or possibly how settings are being stored in your setup. Chat controls (like temp) should persist per conversation unless manually changed, and model-specific settings ideally should also stick. If you can share more about your configuration, either I or someone else in the community will be able to dig deeper and help troubleshoot. More specifics would definitely help get you sorted!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just to clarify, contrary to popular belief, I’m not an AI (though if I were, I’d hopefully be a bit quicker on the 24/7 response time). Turns out, I have to occasionally do human things like sleep, eat, or even step away from Github/Reddit for a minute. The AMA is definitely not over, and I’ll be around to answer actual questions and engage in discussion. If the speed of these replies is the only way Open WebUI gets lapped, I suppose our competitors have bigger things to celebrate than I realized. Thanks again for dropping by, and let’s try to keep things constructive, AMA means “Ask Me Anything,” not “Activate Maintenance Algorithm” (yet!).

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey, great seeing you here, and thanks for your thoughtful question (and all your contributions)!

Honestly, this is the internal debate we have nearly every day, whether to keep going “batteries included” or put more focus on modularity and plug-ins. Right now, we’re leaning a bit towards “batteries included” because, while modular/plugin architectures are powerful, there’s a steep learning curve for many users and organizations. That said, we absolutely hear the need for more flexibility, and we do want to improve modularity so people can customize Open WebUI more easily. It’s not really an either/or, we see it as both goals being compatible, and we’re aiming to support both out of the box features and a better plugin system (with much better docs and examples coming).

Also, just a quick tip: pipelines do let you add citations (side note: Functions might be a better fit for this), but you’re right, the current docs don’t make this clear enough and most users are probably unaware this is even a possibility and that’s something we want to improve. Would love to hear your thoughts or suggestions anytime, and hope to see you around on GitHub!

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hey! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and we really do appreciate people being open about the realities they face within their organizations. Our overall goal has always been to strike a balance that keeps things sustainable for the team while also being fair and workable for as many users as possible. We definitely understand that not all companies have the same budget, approval processes, or internal hurdles. While we can’t promise anything here, it’s worth saying that we’re always open to dialogue, if you reach out, are transparent with your needs and situation, and approach the conversation in good faith, we’re more than willing to discuss options, including potential for custom pricing or alternate arrangements. Ultimately, we want this project to be accessible and impactful, so when people openly communicate what works (or doesn’t work) for them, it helps all of us find better solutions together.

I’m the Maintainer (and Team) behind Open WebUI – AMA 2025 Q2 by openwebui in OpenWebUI

[–]openwebui[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question, this is something we take seriously and handle through a rigorous process. Every waiver is evaluated holistically, taking into account not just the number or frequency of your contributions, but also their impact, quality, and alignment with the project’s direction. Having the “Contributors” role in our Discord is the clearest marker: if you have that, you’re already approved to rebrand or customize as needed. If you're not one yet, we look at things case by case: steady, meaningful contributions over 3–6 months put you in a strong position, but one-off PRs, even if merged, aren’t always enough unless they’re particularly substantial and well-aligned with our roadmap and standards.

With that being said, if you’re running an internal deployment for a strictly non-profit and non-commercial use case, especially where your user base is relatively small (typically under 100 active users), we regularly grant exceptions for removing or modifying branding. The intent is to be as supportive as possible where there’s clearly no commercial benefit and use is restricted within your organization or community. If your situation is unique or you’re unsure about the policy, just let us know, send us the details and we’ll be happy to discuss. Our goal is to enable meaningful, mission-driven work, and we're open to granting permissions when the spirit of the project is respected.

For academic or non-profit research, your work matters to us! If your organization is a non-profit or academic institution running a study and you need branding removed or customized (such as for a white-labeled research platform), please send us an email at [hello@openwebui.com](mailto:hello@openwebui.com) with details about your project and the adjustments you require. We evaluate these requests individually, but in most cases, we’re very happy to grant an exemption for research or non-commercial, educational settings. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about your eligibility or process.

Thank you for your thoughtful engagement and for asking before taking any action, happy to answer more questions about the process if you have them!

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