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ODAI requires a minimum of 4GB RAM for local development. Lower memory may cause instability when running the full agent stack.

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Prerequisites

Before setting up ODAI locally, make sure you have the following installed and configured:
  • Python 3.11+ (Python 3.13 recommended)
  • Google Cloud SDK (gcloud CLI) — required for accessing Google Secret Manager and deploying
  • Firebase project — for authentication and Firestore data storage
  • API keys for the third-party services you plan to use (see Environment Variables)

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Setup

1

Clone the repository

Clone the ODAI backend repository and navigate into it:
git clone <repository-url>
cd odai/backend
2

Create a virtual environment

Create and activate a Python virtual environment:
# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv

# Activate on macOS/Linux
source venv/bin/activate

# Activate on Windows
venv\Scripts\activate
3

Install dependencies

Install both production and testing dependencies (173 production packages):
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -r test_requirements.txt
4

Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the backend root directory. Setting LOCAL=true tells the application to read secrets from this file instead of Google Secret Manager:
# Core settings
LOCAL=true
PRODUCTION=false

# Firebase credentials (paste the full JSON as a single-line string)
FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY='{...}'

# OpenAI
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_key

# Financial
PLAID_CLIENT_ID=your_plaid_client_id
PLAID_SECRET=your_plaid_secret

# Communication
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=your_twilio_sid
TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=your_twilio_token

# Google OAuth (required for Google integrations)
GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret

# Add other API keys as needed — see Environment Variables for the full list
Never commit your .env file to version control. It contains secrets that should remain local. The .gitignore should already exclude it.
5

Start the development server

Run the FastAPI application with hot reload enabled:
uvicorn api:APP --reload --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080
The API will be available at http://localhost:8080.The --reload flag watches for file changes and automatically restarts the server, making it convenient during active development.

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The LOCAL environment variable

When LOCAL=true is set, config.py loads all settings from the .env file using pydantic-settings: 
if local == True:
    model_config = SettingsConfigDict(env_file=".env")
Without this flag (i.e., in deployed environments), the application fetches every secret from Google Secret Manager at startup instead. Always ensure LOCAL=true is present in your .env when developing locally.

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Verifying the setup

Once the server is running, check the health endpoint: 
curl http://localhost:8080/
You should receive a successful response from the FastAPI root handler.

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Next steps

  • Review all available Environment Variables to enable specific integrations
  • Run the test suite to confirm everything is wired up correctly
  • See Deployment when you’re ready to push to a hosted environment

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