jan/docs/docs/specs/architecture.md

title	slug
Architecture	/specs

:::warning

This page is still under construction, and should be read as a scratchpad

:::

Overview

• Jan has a modular architecture and is largely built on top of its own modules.
• Jan uses a local file-based approach for data persistence.
• Jan currently supports an Electron-based Desktop UI and a C++ inference engine called Nitro.

Extensions

Jan has an Extensions API inspired by VSCode. In fact, most of Jan's core services are built as extensions.

Jan supports the following OpenAI compatible extensions:

Jan Module	Description	API Docs
Chat	Inference	/chats
Models	Models	/models
Assistants	Apps	/assistants
Threads	Conversations	/threads
Messages	Messages	/messages

Modules

Modules are low level, system services. It is similar to OS kernel modules. Modules provide abstractions to basic, device level functionality like working with the filesystem, device system, databases, AI inference engines, etc.

Jan follows the dependency inversion principle such that modules expose the interfaces that extensions can then implement.