What is SillyTavern used for?

SillyTavern is a locally installed web frontend for chatting with large language models, built for users who want fine control over prompts, characters and connected AI backends. It is a good fit for roleplay and character chat with LLMs, testing prompts across several AI backends, and a configurable local front end for self-run models.

Is SillyTavern open source?

Yes. SillyTavern is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at SillyTavern/SillyTavern and is written mainly in JavaScript.

Yes. SillyTavern is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host SillyTavern?

Yes. SillyTavern can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is SillyTavern an alternative to?

SillyTavern is an open-source alternative to Character.AI and Replika. Other open-source alternatives to Character.AI include RisuAI, MaiBot and TavernAI V1.

Is SillyTavern actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to SillyTavern was on 23 September 2026, and the latest release is 1.19.0, published on 14 September 2026. The project has 34k stars on GitHub.

SillyTavern: open-source alternative to Character.AI

About SillyTavern

SillyTavern is an LLM frontend aimed at power users. It is a web interface for conversing with large language models, and it is built to give people far more control over how conversations are set up than a typical chatbot window provides. The project describes itself with the short tagline of an LLM frontend for power users.

It is widely used for character-driven chat and roleplay, and it connects to a range of text-generation backends, both hosted APIs and locally run models, with extensions that add features. The repository's topics identify it simply as AI, chat and LLM software. Documentation is maintained on a separate site, and there are active Discord and Reddit communities.

SillyTavern is written in JavaScript and licensed under AGPL-3.0, so the source is available and modifications to hosted versions must be shared. You run it yourself on your own computer or server rather than using a hosted service, which keeps your chats and API keys under your control.

Key features

Web frontend for large language models
Connects to hosted APIs and local backends
Character-based chat and roleplay tools
Extension system for added features
Runs on your own machine
Active documentation and community

Good fit for

→Roleplay and character chat with LLMs
→Testing prompts across several AI backends
→A configurable local front end for self-run models

Built with: JavaScript
Tags: llm; chat; frontend; ai; roleplay; self-hosted; javascript; local-ai

SillyTavern: questions and answers

What is SillyTavern used for?: SillyTavern is a locally installed web frontend for chatting with large language models, built for users who want fine control over prompts, characters and connected AI backends. It is a good fit for roleplay and character chat with LLMs, testing prompts across several AI backends, and a configurable local front end for self-run models.
Is SillyTavern open source?: Yes. SillyTavern is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at SillyTavern/SillyTavern and is written mainly in JavaScript.
Is SillyTavern free?: Yes. SillyTavern is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host SillyTavern?: Yes. SillyTavern can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is SillyTavern an alternative to?: SillyTavern is an open-source alternative to Character.AI and Replika. Other open-source alternatives to Character.AI include RisuAI, MaiBot and TavernAI V1.
Is SillyTavern actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to SillyTavern was on 23 September 2026, and the latest release is 1.19.0, published on 14 September 2026. The project has 34k stars on GitHub.