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Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

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Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#61
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need any subscription to run the code! By default, none of the enterprise code runs (and it can all be completely removed and the app will work as expected). Fully FOSS version here: https://github.com/onyx-dot-app/onyx-foss .

that's fair. What does the enterprise code do vs the FOSS?

As I see it has whitelisting and enterprise integrations.. as for the OS version maybe you need to roll your own. This is a usual monetization method though.

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#62

why use a name, although spelled differently onyx vs onnx, that's already used and known in the ML/AI community?

That's a fair point! We were aware of onnx, but felt it was okay since they are very different products so we felt that there wouldn't be too much confusion (people generally know which onyx/onnx they are looking for).

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#63
Interesting product and best of luck with it.

> but I’m going to start by connecting GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet 4, and Qwen to provide my team with a secure way to use them

I did get a little giggle out of that because I've never heard anyone say that hooking up 3rd party llms to anything was any way secure.

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#64
post #63

Interesting product and best of luck with it. > but I’m going to start by connecting GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet 4, and Qwen to provide my team with a secure way to use them I did get a little giggle out of that because I've never heard anyone say that hooking up 3rd party llms to anything was any way secure.

Thanks for the kind words!

The key point there is that many would do it through Azure / Bedrock + locally host the open-source models. Also, all chats / indexed data lives on-prem, and there are better guarantees around retention when using the APIs directly.

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#65
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need any subscription to run the code! By default, none of the enterprise code runs (and it can all be completely removed and the app will work as expected). Fully FOSS version here: https://github.com/onyx-dot-app/onyx-foss .

that's fair. What does the enterprise code do vs the FOSS?

All of the core chat UX + "add-ons" is in FOSS!

In the enterprise:

- permission syncing

- UI-based white labeling

- Advanced RBAC

- Usage analytics UI

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#66
In a landscape where every week we have a different leading model, these systems are really useful for the power users because they keep the interface and models constant and allow to switch easily using API via openrouter or naga. I have been using openwebui which is under active development but I'll give this a try.

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#68
post #30

Aren't most of the large frontier model providers SOC 2 compliant? I think AWS Bedrock is also SOC 2 compliant. Not sure why you would need to self host anything then as you'll get turnkey secure solutions from the bigger plays

Outside of pure security, we've seen many choose Onyx for flexibility + connectedness.

One of our largest users has forked the repo and has 20+ commits back to the repo of small customizations that are important for them (and that they could never get with ChatGPT Enterprise).

Lots of companies we talk to value having the best model for the job (e.g. not being tied to ONLY OpenAI models for example).

Compared to model provider offerings, we also (thanks to open-source contributions) cover many more existing apps when it comes to connectors.

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#69

Do you let organizations white-label it so its more customized (i.e. remove the Onyx branding, preload it with their internal MCP servers / docs) and feels like their own internal chat tool?

Yes absolutely! There's no license restriction on white-labeling, so we've seen lots of companies do that.

In our opinion, it's a bit silly to build completely in house when you can take something like Onyx as the starting point and be >95% of the way there + have a tons of bells and whistles built in.

Re: Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – Open-source chat UI

#70
post #21

> We’re building an open-source chat that works As long as you have Pricing on your website your product is not open source in the true spirit of open sourceness. It is open code for sure but it is a business and so incentive is to run it like a business which will conflate with how the project is used by the community. Btw, there is nothing wrong with that but let's be honest here if you get this funded (perhaps it…

> As long as you have Pricing on your website your product is not open source in the true spirit of open sourceness. It's an MIT license. That IS open source. If they have a commercial strategy - that's a GoodThing. It means they have a viable strategy for staying in business, and keeping the project maintained. MIT == OpenSource. Pricing == Sustainable. That's a horse worth backing IMO.

Exactly, if everything looked too good to be true and there was no transparency or hint of a business model it’s actually less attractive for some who value predictability.
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