Practical overview
When it fits
Use Nerve when an agent must persist beyond a single interaction, run on a schedule, manage ongoing tasks or communicate through more than one channel.
Who it is for
- Individuals building a persistent personal assistant.
- Teams or developers deploying task-focused worker agents.
- Operators who need scheduled agent sessions and approval-based execution.
Documented uses
- Deploy an AI assistant that retains preferences and conversation context.
- Run recurring briefings, cleanup, reports or follow-up sessions.
- Monitor operational work and propose approved fixes.
- Manage long-running agent tasks through a web interface or Telegram.
- Turn repeated workflows into reusable Markdown skills.
Requirements & limits
Nerve is publicly available as an Apache-2.0 repository. The documented setup supports local or server deployment, with Docker instructions also referenced. The project describes an OAuth route using a Claude subscription instead of an API key.
- The runtime is built around the Claude Agent SDK, so Claude is the documented agent ecosystem.
- Personal and worker modes use different workspace and memory conventions.
- Cron sessions can be isolated, persistent or attached to the main conversation.
- The web interface and Telegram bot share the same agent engine, memory and tools.
- Worker workflows are designed around planning, approval and execution logging.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Install Nerve from the repository
Set up the Nerve runtime and build its web interface using the documented installation paths.
Before you start
- Git
- Python 3.13 or later
- uv
- Node.js 22.12 or later
Steps
Run the documented installer, which installs dependencies, clones the repository, builds the web UI and launches the setup wizard.
For a manual installation, clone the repository and enter its directory.
Create the Python environment with uv, activate it, install the web dependencies, build the frontend and run nerve init.
Start the runtime with nerve start -f.
Expected outcome
A locally installed Nerve runtime with its web interface built and the setup wizard completed or ready to complete.
Guide limitations
- This procedure documents installation and startup; it does not establish that a particular agent task will execute successfully.
- The repository separately documents Docker deployment and upgrade procedures.
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 4 October 2026
- Original website title
- ClickHouse/nerve · Official homepage title · retained in its source language