Lobe Chat: open-source, modern design AI chat framework (github.com)

LobeChat is an open-source, modern chat UI and framework for building ChatGPT/LLM applications that emphasizes extensibility, multimodality, and easy private deployment. It offers one-click free deployment for private chat apps (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq, Ollama and more), local LLM support, a desktop app/PWA, and native TTS/STT, text-to-image, file upload/knowledge‑base, and model visual recognition. Architecturally it centers on an MCP plugin system (function-calling) and an MCP marketplace so developers can plug databases, APIs, file systems and external tools into conversations. For AI/ML practitioners this matters because LobeChat reduces integration friction across many model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, Hugging Face, Cloudflare Workers, Groq, etc.), enables self-hosting and local inference, and adds features that improve transparency and interactivity: Chain-of-Thought visualization for stepwise reasoning, branching conversations (continuation vs standalone), Claude-style artifacts (SVG/HTML/docs), and agent/plugin markets for workflow automation. The result is a flexible playground for prototyping multimodal agents, evaluating multiple backends, and shipping customizable, privacy-friendly chat apps quickly. LobeChat is actively developed with community contribution encouraged, so expect the ecosystem and plugin catalog to expand.