DEV Community: NocoBase

Weekly Updates: Improvements and Bug Fixes

NocoBase — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 08:30:34 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.41

Release date: 2026-11-08

🚀 Improvements

[Departments] Added a schema-only migration option for departments and department-role bindings, allowing existing target records to be preserved. (#11343) by @zhouyanliang

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed partial-text search when using string-valued formula fields as labels in v2 association dropdowns and cascaders. (#11370) by @hongboji
[File manager] Fixed blank PDF previews caused by missing JPEG2000 image decoder resources in the v2 file manager. (#11308) by @mytharcher

v2.2.40

Release date: 2026-11-04

🐛 Bug Fixes

[File manager] Fixed audio previews continuing to play the previously opened file when switching attachments or reopening the preview for another file (#11328) by @zhouyanliang
[Backup manager] Fixed missing feedback during large backup downloads by using short-lived links and native browser downloads. (#11324) by @gchust

v2.2.39

Release date: 2026-11-04

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Data source manager] Fixed external data source collection filtering returning no results when multiple conditions target the same field. (#11306) by @zhouyanliang
[Auth: API keys] Fixed API keys gaining permissions from the creator’s other roles when the system uses roles union only. API keys now retain their assigned role’s permissions and data scopes. (#11316) by @zhouyanliang
[Workflow] Fixed password fields being unavailable for assignment in workflow v2 Create record and Update record nodes. (#11318) by @zhouyanliang
[Notification manager] Fixed workflow notification nodes being unable to find or select notification channels beyond the first page. (#11317) by @zhouyanliang
[AI employees] Fixed AI employees reporting interrupted tool execution when reading JavaScript block content (#11305) by @zhouyanliang

v2.3.0-beta.21

Release date: 2026-11-08

🚀 Improvements

[Departments] Added a schema-only migration option for departments and department-role bindings, allowing existing target records to be preserved. (#11343) by @zhouyanliang

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fixed the mobile topbar covering profile and password forms after opening them on narrow screens in the legacy and v2 clients. (#11347) by @zhouyanliang
- Fixed partial-text search when using string-valued formula fields as labels in v2 association dropdowns and cascaders. (#11370) by @hongboji
[Backup manager] Fixed missing feedback during large backup downloads by using short-lived links and native browser downloads. (#11324) by @gchust
[File manager]
- Fixed blank PDF previews caused by missing JPEG2000 image decoder resources in the v2 file manager. (#11308) by @mytharcher
- Fixed audio previews continuing to play the previously opened file when switching attachments or reopening the preview for another file (#11328) by @zhouyanliang
[Notification manager] Fixed workflow notification nodes being unable to find or select notification channels beyond the first page. (#11317) by @zhouyanliang
[Data source manager] Fixed external data source collection filtering returning no results when multiple conditions target the same field. (#11306) by @zhouyanliang
[Workflow] Fixed password fields being unavailable for assignment in workflow v2 Create record and Update record nodes. (#11318) by @zhouyanliang
[AI employees] Fixed AI employees reporting interrupted tool execution when reading JavaScript block content (#11305) by @zhouyanliang
[Auth: API keys] Fixed API keys gaining permissions from the creator’s other roles when the system uses roles union only. API keys now retain their assigned role’s permissions and data scopes. (#11316) by @zhouyanliang

v2.3.0-beta.20

Release date: 2026-11-03

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Collection: SQL] Fixed the SQL collection preview crashing when a query returns JSON or JSONB objects and arrays (#11265) by @hongboji
[Record history] Fixed record history blocks still requesting history data after form submit when the block is hidden or the current role has no permission to view it by @hongboji
[Data source: External Oracle] Fixed Oracle external data sources failing to create records when a table primary key is defined as an IDENTITY column, because the primary key and auto-increment attributes were not detected during table sync by @hongboji
[Feishu / Lark] Fix Feishu message templates saving without effect: message fields were bound outside the template column and silently dropped by @chenzhizdt

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.17

Release date: 2026-11-08

🚀 Improvements

[Departments] Added a schema-only migration option for departments and department-role bindings, allowing existing target records to be preserved. (#11343) by @zhouyanliang

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fixed partial-text search when using string-valued formula fields as labels in v2 association dropdowns and cascaders. (#11370) by @hongboji
- Fixed the mobile topbar covering profile and password forms after opening them on narrow screens in the legacy and v2 clients. (#11347) by @zhouyanliang
[Notification manager] Fixed workflow notification nodes being unable to find or select notification channels beyond the first page. (#11317) by @zhouyanliang
[Data source manager] Fixed external data source collection filtering returning no results when multiple conditions target the same field. (#11306) by @zhouyanliang
[File manager]
- Fixed blank PDF previews caused by missing JPEG2000 image decoder resources in the v2 file manager. (#11308) by @mytharcher
- Fixed audio previews continuing to play the previously opened file when switching attachments or reopening the preview for another file (#11328) by @zhouyanliang
[Auth: API keys] Fixed API keys gaining permissions from the creator’s other roles when the system uses roles union only. API keys now retain their assigned role’s permissions and data scopes. (#11316) by @zhouyanliang
[Workflow] Fixed password fields being unavailable for assignment in workflow v2 Create record and Update record nodes. (#11318) by @zhouyanliang
[AI employees] Fixed AI employees reporting interrupted tool execution when reading JavaScript block content (#11305) by @zhouyanliang
[Backup manager] Fixed missing feedback during large backup downloads by using short-lived links and native browser downloads. (#11324) by @gchust

v2.4.0-alpha.16

Release date: 2026-11-03

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Collection: SQL] Fixed the SQL collection preview crashing when a query returns JSON or JSONB objects and arrays (#11265) by @hongboji
[Record history] Fixed record history blocks still requesting history data after form submit when the block is hidden or the current role has no permission to view it by @hongboji
[Data source: External Oracle] Fixed Oracle external data sources failing to create records when a table primary key is defined as an IDENTITY column, because the primary key and auto-increment attributes were not detected during table sync by @hongboji
[Feishu / Lark] Fix Feishu message templates saving without effect: message fields were bound outside the template column and silently dropped by @chenzhizdt

Weekly Updates: Improvements and Bug Fixes

NocoBase — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:28:06 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.31

Release date: 2026-10-23

🚀 Improvements

[server] Allow the snowflake worker id to be rebound while the application is running. (#11076) by @2013xile
[Workflow] Improved workflow execution detail performance by loading only the latest job per node and loading node history on demand with cursor pagination and lightweight fields. (#11094) by @mytharcher

🐛 Bug Fixes

[AI employees]
- Fixed embedding response encoding compatibility with Qwen/DashScope endpoints to prevent document and query vector dimension mismatches. Previously affected knowledge bases require re-vectorization. (#11074) by @cgyrock
- Fixed the page freeze when opening the UI Editor while an AI employee button is hidden by a linkage rule (#11100) by @hongboji

v2.2.30

Release date: 2026-10-22

🐛 Bug Fixes

[cli-v1] Fixed NocoBase CLI initialization failing with a missing chokidar module during fresh production installations. (#11083) by @cgyrock

v2.2.29

Release date: 2026-10-21

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fix vertical alignment of sequence inputs in v2 filter forms. (#11044) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed disabled styling of relation fields controlled by linkage rules in v2 mobile forms. (#11036) by @katherinehhh
[UI layout] Fix the issue where mobile pages hidden from the menu could not be opened from links (#10641) by @zhangzhonghe
[Block: Tree] Fixed v2 tree block action buttons disappearing after a browser refresh. (#11038) by @katherinehhh

v2.2.28

Release date: 2026-10-19

🐛 Bug Fixes

[app] Fix APP_CLIENT_ENTRY_MODE redirects not working in dev mode when APP_PUBLIC_PATH is not /. (#10955) by @Molunerfinn
[evaluators] Fixed a math.js expression sandbox escape in workflow calculation nodes by upgrading mathjs. (#10984) by @mytharcher
[server] Fixed the plugin dependency compatibility check for Axios 1.20.x. (#11023) by @hongboji
[Flow engine] Fixed unresolved Liquid variables in Markdown for non-admin roles. (#11007) by @gchust
[UI layout] Fixed incorrect route permission check states and unintended loss of existing V1 permissions when saving permissions in V2. (#10957) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow] Fixed missing loop-item fields in scope-variable selectors for nested workflow loops. (#10942) by @mytharcher

v2.2.27

Release date: 2026-10-16

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fix swipe-back / browser back exiting the app after link action navigation in the v2 (mobile) client (#10963) by @katherinehhh

v2.2.26

Release date: 2026-10-15

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server] Fix duplicate snowflake primary keys after an application reload (#10911) by @2013xile
[Workflow] Fixed incorrect workflow enabled and executed status checks when KingBase returns boolean and execution count fields as strings. (#10888) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Fixed v2 relation field configuration to allow entering a new foreign key name or selecting an existing field. (#10915) by @katherinehhh

v2.3.0-beta.18

Release date: 2026-10-22

🐛 Bug Fixes

[cli-v1] Fixed NocoBase CLI initialization failing with a missing chokidar module during fresh production installations. (#11083) by @cgyrock

v2.3.0-beta.17

Release date: 2026-10-21

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fix vertical alignment of sequence inputs in v2 filter forms. (#11044) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed disabled styling of relation fields controlled by linkage rules in v2 mobile forms. (#11036) by @katherinehhh
[Block: Tree] Fixed v2 tree block action buttons disappearing after a browser refresh. (#11038) by @katherinehhh
[UI layout] Fix the issue where mobile pages hidden from the menu could not be opened from links (#10641) by @zhangzhonghe

v2.3.0-beta.16

Release date: 2026-10-19

🐛 Bug Fixes

[app] Fix APP_CLIENT_ENTRY_MODE redirects not working in dev mode when APP_PUBLIC_PATH is not /. (#10955) by @Molunerfinn
[server]
- Fix duplicate snowflake primary keys after an application reload (#10911) by @2013xile
- Fixed the plugin dependency compatibility check for Axios 1.20.x. (#11023) by @hongboji
[client-v2] Fix swipe-back / browser back exiting the app after link action navigation in the v2 (mobile) client (#10963) by @katherinehhh
[evaluators] Fixed a math.js expression sandbox escape in workflow calculation nodes by upgrading mathjs. (#10984) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Fixed v2 relation field configuration to allow entering a new foreign key name or selecting an existing field. (#10915) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow]
- Fixed missing loop-item fields in scope-variable selectors for nested workflow loops. (#10942) by @mytharcher
- Fixed incorrect workflow enabled and executed status checks when KingBase returns boolean and execution count fields as strings. (#10888) by @mytharcher
[Flow engine] Fixed unresolved Liquid variables in Markdown for non-admin roles. (#11007) by @gchust
[UI layout] Fixed incorrect route permission check states and unintended loss of existing V1 permissions when saving permissions in V2. (#10957) by @katherinehhh

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.12

Release date: 2026-10-22

🐛 Bug Fixes

[cli-v1] Fixed NocoBase CLI initialization failing with a missing chokidar module during fresh production installations. (#11083) by @cgyrock
[evaluators] Fixed a math.js expression sandbox escape in workflow calculation nodes by upgrading mathjs. (#10984) by @mytharcher
[server] Fixed the plugin dependency compatibility check for Axios 1.20.x. (#11023) by @hongboji
[client-v2]
- Fixed disabled styling of relation fields controlled by linkage rules in v2 mobile forms. (#11036) by @katherinehhh
- Fix vertical alignment of sequence inputs in v2 filter forms. (#11044) by @katherinehhh
- Fix swipe-back / browser back exiting the app after link action navigation in the v2 (mobile) client (#10963) by @katherinehhh
[app] Fix APP_CLIENT_ENTRY_MODE redirects not working in dev mode when APP_PUBLIC_PATH is not /. (#10955) by @Molunerfinn
[undefined] The docs sitemap no longer lists duplicate cross-module pages whose canonical URL points elsewhere. (#10954) by @Molunerfinn
[Flow engine] Fixed unresolved Liquid variables in Markdown for non-admin roles. (#11007) by @gchust
[Workflow] Fixed missing loop-item fields in scope-variable selectors for nested workflow loops. (#10942) by @mytharcher
[UI layout]
- Fixed incorrect route permission check states and unintended loss of existing V1 permissions when saving permissions in V2. (#10957) by @katherinehhh
- Fix the issue where mobile pages hidden from the menu could not be opened from links (#10641) by @zhangzhonghe
[Block: Tree] Fixed v2 tree block action buttons disappearing after a browser refresh. (#11038) by @katherinehhh

v2.4.0-alpha.11

Release date: 2026-10-16

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server]
- Fix duplicate snowflake primary keys after an application reload (#10911) by @2013xile
- Fix validation and scoping of the application name resolved from a request in the gateway. (#10548) by @2013xile
[client-v2] Fixed attachment previews and editor popover visibility in v2 approval form subtables. (#10586) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Fixed v2 relation field configuration to allow entering a new foreign key name or selecting an existing field. (#10915) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow] Fixed incorrect workflow enabled and executed status checks when KingBase returns boolean and execution count fields as strings. (#10888) by @mytharcher
[AI employees] AI conversations now send a stable conversation-specific prompt cache key in both OpenAI API modes, allowing compatible gateways to maintain channel affinity. (#10788) by @cgyrock

Weekly Updates: Improvements and Bug Fixes

NocoBase — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:15:07 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.25

Release date: 2026-10-14

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed attachment previews and editor popover visibility in v2 approval form subtables. (#10586) by mytharcher

v2.2.24

Release date: 2026-10-13

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server] Fix validation and scoping of the application name resolved from a request in the gateway. (#10548) by 2013xile
[AI employees] AI conversations now send a stable conversation-specific prompt cache key in both OpenAI API modes, allowing compatible gateways to maintain channel affinity. (#10788) by cgyrock

v2.2.23

Release date: 2026-10-11

🚀 Improvements

[undefined]
- V3 workflow entry filenames now use a consistent v3- prefix with documented cross-branch synchronization rules. (#10590) by Molunerfinn
- Added manual Actions entry points for the workflows on NocoBase 3’s isolated branches. (#10587) by Molunerfinn

🐛 Bug Fixes

[database] Fixed a GROUP BY error on PostgreSQL when filtering by a to-many relation field and sorting by a root field on tables without a primary key constraint (#10582) by cgyrock
[client] Fix the issue where block settings disappear in UI Editor mode after the browser window is narrowed and then widened again (#10583) by zhangzhonghe
[undefined] Preserved nightly PostgreSQL and MySQL checks after moving NocoBase 3 to its dedicated branches. (#10589) by Molunerfinn
[Workflow: Aggregate node] Fixed aggregate fields disappearing when reopening workflow Aggregate nodes with associated collections, and reduced unnecessary relation traversal when restoring saved field selections. (#10578) by mytharcher
[Collection field: Many to many (array)] Fix the issue where relation fields created in the v2 data source manager could not be configured in blocks (#10581) by zhangzhonghe
[File manager] Fixed attachment uploads falling back to default storage by preserving direct-upload field parameters in main and sub-applications and honoring field storage for custom file collections. (#10577) by mytharcher

v2.2.22

Release date: 2026-10-08

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed empty JS action items becoming inaccessible in the UI editor. (#10573) by gchust
[UI layout] Fixed missing popup template options in action settings in the new client. (#10574) by gchust

v2.2.21

Release date: 2026-10-06

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed empty JS blocks becoming inaccessible in the UI Editor after disabling the block card. (#10563) by gchust
[Notification: Email] Upgraded nodemailer, hono and moment to patched versions. (#10569) by 2013xile
[UI templates] Fixed the internal template collection appearing in block collection choices after deleting a UI template. (#10561) by gchust

v2.3.0-beta.15

Release date: 2026-10-15

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed attachment previews and editor popover visibility in v2 approval form subtables. (#10586) by mytharcher
[server] Fix validation and scoping of the application name resolved from a request in the gateway. (#10548) by 2013xile
[AI employees] AI conversations now send a stable conversation-specific prompt cache key in both OpenAI API modes, allowing compatible gateways to maintain channel affinity. (#10788) by cgyrock

v2.3.0-beta.14

Release date: 2026-10-12

🚀 Improvements

[undefined]
- V3 workflow entry filenames now use a consistent v3- prefix with documented cross-branch synchronization rules. (#10590) by Molunerfinn
- Added manual Actions entry points for the workflows on NocoBase 3’s isolated branches. (#10587) by Molunerfinn

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fixed empty JS action items becoming inaccessible in the UI editor. (#10573) by gchust
- Fixed empty JS blocks becoming inaccessible in the UI Editor after disabling the block card. (#10563) by gchust
[database] Fixed a GROUP BY error on PostgreSQL when filtering by a to-many relation field and sorting by a root field on tables without a primary key constraint (#10582) by cgyrock
[undefined] Preserved nightly PostgreSQL and MySQL checks after moving NocoBase 3 to its dedicated branches. (#10589) by Molunerfinn
[client] Fix the issue where block settings disappear in UI Editor mode after the browser window is narrowed and then widened again (#10583) by zhangzhonghe
[sdk] Upgraded axios to 1.20.0 (#10566) by 2013xile
[File manager] Fixed attachment uploads falling back to default storage by preserving direct-upload field parameters in main and sub-applications and honoring field storage for custom file collections. (#10577) by mytharcher
[Workflow: Aggregate node] Fixed aggregate fields disappearing when reopening workflow Aggregate nodes with associated collections, and reduced unnecessary relation traversal when restoring saved field selections. (#10578) by mytharcher
[Collection field: Many to many (array)] Fix the issue where relation fields created in the v2 data source manager could not be configured in blocks (#10581) by zhangzhonghe
[UI layout] Fixed missing popup template options in action settings in the new client. (#10574) by gchust
[UI templates] Fixed the internal template collection appearing in block collection choices after deleting a UI template. (#10561) by gchust
[Notification: Email] Upgraded nodemailer, hono and moment to patched versions. (#10569) by 2013xile
[Block: Kanban] Fixed Kanban layout flicker when adding an AI employee action. (#10553) by jiannx
[Data source: External NocoBase] Fixed the type build failure caused by the axios 1.20.0 upgrade by 2013xile
[Workflow: Approval] Fix the issue where hidden field labels reappear and field values are empty in submitted approval details by zhangzhonghe
[Data source: External Oracle] Fixed a type error surfaced by the axios 1.20.0 upgrade by 2013xile

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.10

Release date: 2026-10-12

🚀 Improvements

[undefined]
- V3 workflow entry filenames now use a consistent v3- prefix with documented cross-branch synchronization rules. (#10590) by Molunerfinn
- Added manual Actions entry points for the workflows on NocoBase 3’s isolated branches. (#10587) by Molunerfinn

🐛 Bug Fixes

[database] Fixed a GROUP BY error on PostgreSQL when filtering by a to-many relation field and sorting by a root field on tables without a primary key constraint (#10582) by cgyrock
[client] Fix the issue where block settings disappear in UI Editor mode after the browser window is narrowed and then widened again (#10583) by zhangzhonghe
[client-v2]
- Fixed empty JS blocks becoming inaccessible in the UI Editor after disabling the block card. (#10563) by gchust
- Fixed empty JS action items becoming inaccessible in the UI editor. (#10573) by gchust
[undefined] Preserved nightly PostgreSQL and MySQL checks after moving NocoBase 3 to its dedicated branches. (#10589) by Molunerfinn
[File manager] Fixed attachment uploads falling back to default storage by preserving direct-upload field parameters in main and sub-applications and honoring field storage for custom file collections. (#10577) by mytharcher
[Workflow: Aggregate node] Fixed aggregate fields disappearing when reopening workflow Aggregate nodes with associated collections, and reduced unnecessary relation traversal when restoring saved field selections. (#10578) by mytharcher
[UI templates] Fixed the internal template collection appearing in block collection choices after deleting a UI template. (#10561) by gchust
[Collection field: Many to many (array)] Fix the issue where relation fields created in the v2 data source manager could not be configured in blocks (#10581) by zhangzhonghe
[UI layout] Fixed missing popup template options in action settings in the new client. (#10574) by gchust
[Notification: Email] Upgraded nodemailer, hono and moment to patched versions. (#10569) by 2013xile

How to Use AI for Business Analysis: Sales, Inventory, and Profit Analysis

NocoBase — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 07:53:06 +0000

Originally published at https://www.nocobase.com/en/blog/ai-business-analysis-with-nocobase

In previous articles, we introduced how to build a CRM with AI and NocoBase, IT asset management, and a ticketing system, showing how AI can turn business requirements described in natural language into enterprise applications that can actually be used.

Recently, in Reddit's r/AI_Agents, a developer shared a project they were working on: helping a small factory organize attendance and payroll data, with plans to connect an AI Agent so the owner could query employee attendance, overtime, and exception data directly through WhatsApp.

But they also had questions: once the Agent is connected, which features will the client actually need? Which ones only look good in a demo? And when the system is used in real operations, what challenges will data quality, query accuracy, and user habits create?

💬 Hey, you're reading the NocoBase blog. NocoBase is the most extensible AI-powered no-code/low-code development platform for building enterprise applications, internal tools, and all kinds of systems. It’s fully self-hosted, plugin-based, and developer-friendly. → Explore NocoBase on GitHub

The same questions apply to business analysis. When business data spans sales, inventory, procurement, and finance, looking at only one type of data is often not enough to support a complete management decision. If data sources are inconsistent or records are incomplete, AI analysis can also be affected.

In this article, we use a company that sells multiple categories of electronic devices and office supplies as an example. It built an All-in-one business system with AI and NocoBase, covering sales, inventory, procurement, finance, and other modules.

Using the business data accumulated in the system, we will show step by step how AI can support business analysis and combine information across different business functions to provide input for decision-making.

01 | Define the Business Question and Understand the Available Data

Business decisions often involve multiple departments. Sales teams focus on customer demand and order growth, procurement teams need to plan replenishment in advance, and finance teams are more concerned with costs, collections, and the use of working capital.

Sometimes sales opportunities keep increasing while inventory is already building up. In other cases, the order outlook may look positive while the company still faces cash pressure.

We want to use AI to analyze a common business question:

As sales opportunities increase, should the company keep expanding procurement, or should it prioritize controlling inventory and working-capital usage?

To answer this question, we need to understand how many orders may be coming, whether current inventory can support the expected demand, how much procurement has already been arranged, and whether the company's current financial position can support additional investment.

The NocoBase All-in-one system used in this example includes sales, inventory, procurement, and finance modules. It records information ranging from customer opportunities and product inventory to purchase orders and accounts receivable.

These modules provide the following data for this analysis:

Business module	Data in the system	Role in business decisions
Sales management	Customers, sales opportunities, opportunity stages, revenue forecasts	Understand potential orders and future sales demand
Inventory management	Products, inventory quantities, inventory movements, reorder points	Review current inventory and possible stockout risks
Procurement management	Purchase orders, suppliers, purchase amounts, order status	Understand current procurement plans and funding requirements
Finance management	Invoices, accounts receivable, expenses, budgets	Review collections and operating cash pressure

However, simply having data in the system does not mean AI can immediately produce a reliable conclusion.

💡 Further reading: Top 3 Open Source ERP with AI on GitHub: NocoBase vs Odoo vs ERPNext

For example, the expected deal value of a sales opportunity represents potential revenue, but there is still uncertainty about whether the deal will close. Current inventory needs to be assessed together with actual demand and purchase orders that have already been placed. Invoice amounts in the finance module also cannot be treated as cash already collected.

This information needs to be analyzed together with the underlying business records before it can provide a reliable basis for later decisions.

02 | Start with Sales Opportunities to Understand Future Demand

An increase in sales opportunities is usually a positive signal, but the company also needs to understand how likely those opportunities are to become actual orders and how much business demand they may generate.

In NocoBase's sales management module, users can review customer opportunities, expected deal values, opportunity stages, and expected closing dates.

Opportunities at different stages have different value for procurement planning.

For example, one customer may have only just expressed purchase intent, while another is already in quotation or contract negotiation. Both count as potential sales opportunities, but they are at different distances from an actual order.

For opportunities expected to close soon, the company can start monitoring the relevant products' inventory and fulfillment capacity in advance. For customers still in early-stage discussions, actual demand needs to be evaluated more cautiously to avoid arranging large purchases too early.

In addition to opportunity progress, NocoBase's revenue forecast page can be used to see how potential revenue is distributed across different time periods.

Revenue forecasts can inform procurement planning, but final deal values, order quantities, and delivery dates may still change. Specific purchase quantities therefore still need to be determined using actual orders and product demand.

Next, we continue with inventory and procurement data to see whether current stock and planned purchases can support this potential demand.

03 | Combine Inventory and Procurement to Evaluate Replenishment Needs

3.1 Let AI Help Identify Inventory Risks

In NocoBase's inventory management module, users can review inventory quantities, reorder points, and historical inventory movement records for different products.

The product list provides an initial view of which products are approaching their reorder points and which still have relatively high inventory. For products with low inventory, recent sales demand and supplier lead times also need to be considered before deciding whether to replenish early.

Historical movements also matter. By reviewing receipts, issues, and inventory adjustments, the company can better understand inventory trends. A product may still have plenty of inventory, for example, but if outbound volume has been very low recently, there may be a risk of overstock.

When there are many products and inventory records, reviewing them one by one can be time-consuming. We therefore tried asking AI directly from the NocoBase business page to analyze the inventory records and help identify products that may face stockout or overstock risks.

During the actual query, AI found that the system contained different inventory data sources and first needed to determine which data should be used before continuing the analysis.

Even within inventory data, some records represent current inventory quantities while others store historical receipts, issues, and inventory adjustments. Using the wrong data source can mix up current inventory with historical movements and affect the analysis that follows.

Inventory data is also only one part of deciding whether more stock needs to be purchased. The company may already have purchase orders with suppliers even if the products have not yet arrived. We therefore also need to review existing procurement arrangements to understand which needs are already covered and how much funding may be required.

3.2 Review Procurement Plans and Future Funding Requirements

In NocoBase's procurement management module, users can review suppliers, purchase amounts, and order status for existing purchase orders, along with purchase commitments and supplier spending.

These records help the company understand which requirements already have procurement arranged.

For example, a product may currently have low inventory, but if a corresponding purchase order is already being processed, the company should first check the ordered quantity and expected arrival time before placing another order. This helps avoid duplicate purchasing and unnecessary inventory buildup.

The funding involved in procurement also needs attention. Existing purchase orders reflect the company's current procurement arrangements, but order amounts, purchase commitments, and actual payments may differ. To understand how much more funding will be required, payment records and supplier payment terms should also be considered.

Combining current inventory, purchase orders, and the sales demand identified earlier helps the company assess whether additional procurement is necessary, avoiding unnecessary stock increases while existing purchases are still pending.

Procurement decisions are also affected by customer collections and overall working-capital conditions. Next, we turn to the finance data.

04 | Review Financial Data to Understand Revenue and Profitability

From a finance perspective, there are three main questions: How has recent revenue performed? What is the status of accounts receivable and collections? And is the available data sufficient to evaluate profitability?

4.1 Review Invoices and Accounts Receivable

We first open NocoBase's finance management module and review customer invoices and related accounts-receivable records to understand invoicing, outstanding amounts, and collection progress.

These records are closely related to day-to-day cash planning.

For example, a sales order may already have been fulfilled and invoiced, but the customer may not pay until later. If the company needs to pay suppliers at the same time, procurement cash outflows may occur before customer collections.

That is why financial analysis needs to distinguish between invoice amounts, recognized revenue, accounts receivable, and cash actually collected. For a company considering additional procurement, understanding outstanding receivables and expected collection dates helps evaluate whether more purchasing will create additional cash pressure.

4.2 Let AI Analyze Revenue and Profitability

Next, we ask AI to analyze the company's revenue and profitability in more depth.

On the NocoBase finance page, we asked AI to analyze revenue growth and profitability using the financial data already available in the system, with the goal of understanding recent revenue changes and whether profitability had improved.

AI queried the data it could currently access and generated a revenue-growth and profitability analysis report.

The report provided analysis related to revenue, but when it tried to evaluate profitability further, AI identified a data limitation: the available data was not sufficient to calculate profit completely, so it could not confirm whether revenue growth had actually improved profitability.

Accurate profit calculation requires not only revenue but also the actual costs associated with the relevant products or orders. Procurement costs, transportation, warehousing, and other related expenses can all affect the final result.

Even if the procurement module already records purchase-order amounts, those amounts cannot simply be treated as the cost of goods sold. The company still needs to identify which costs correspond to realized sales revenue and how related expenses should be allocated.

If the company wants to analyze profitability by product or order in more detail, it needs to add the corresponding cost and expense records, define a clear profit-calculation method, and then combine those records with sales data.

05 | Combine Business Data and Let AI Support Management Decisions

After the previous analysis, we now have separate views of potential sales demand, inventory, procurement arrangements, revenue, and collections.

We then ask AI to combine these data points and help identify which business issues should receive the most attention in the next stage.

💡 Further reading: Build an Interactive Operations Dashboard with NocoBase

In NocoBase, we asked AI to perform an integrated business analysis using sales opportunities, purchase orders, purchase commitments, accounts receivable, and other available data to evaluate the relationship between future demand and funding arrangements.

AI generated an integrated business analysis report based on the data it could access. Combining sales opportunities, procurement arrangements, and accounts receivable, the report produced three main recommendations:

Prioritize customer collections. Verify outstanding customer payments and expected collection dates, identify the receivables that need priority follow-up, and improve cash recovery.
Plan additional procurement cautiously. Compare potential sales demand with current inventory and purchase orders already submitted to determine which products actually need early replenishment, avoiding duplicate purchasing or premature inventory buildup.
Manage working capital carefully. Combine existing purchase commitments, upcoming payment plans, and expected collection dates to evaluate the working capital tied up by new purchases and plan the use of funds more reasonably.

These recommendations provide a reference for the next round of business planning, but the relevant data still needs to be verified before action is taken. When adjusting procurement plans, for example, the company needs to confirm inventory quantities, inbound orders, and expected sales demand. When following up on customer collections, it needs to confirm receivable amounts, due dates, and current collection progress.

In NocoBase, companies can also configure corresponding business processes as needed. Outstanding customer collections can be assigned to responsible staff, with communication and collection progress recorded. New purchase requests can use approval workflows, while role permissions define what different users are allowed to do. This allows verified analysis recommendations to be translated into concrete business actions that are then confirmed and executed by the responsible people.

Conclusion

Many business questions cannot be answered with a single metric. Whether sales growth justifies more procurement also depends on inventory, costs, collections, and working-capital planning. Individual indicators can reveal changes in the business, while relationships across different data sources often help teams identify the opportunities and risks that deserve more attention.

With NocoBase, companies can connect and relate data distributed across different business systems, giving AI a more complete basis for analysis. As business data continues to update, AI can participate in new analyses over time, helping teams detect changes earlier and make better use of existing data in day-to-day management and decision-making.

💡 Bring AI into existing business systems: Read How to Add AI to Existing Enterprise Systems with NocoBase to learn how to reuse existing data and expand AI applications gradually.

🚀 Try it yourself: Visit the NocoBase online demo to explore how AI, business data, and workflows can work together in the same system.

Related reading:

How to Start Using AI Without Replacing Existing Business Systems

NocoBase — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:18:18 +0000

Originally published at https://www.nocobase.com/en/blog/add-ai-to-existing-enterprise-systems-with-nocobase

AI capabilities are entering every part of enterprise software, from code generation and data analysis to Agents, automation, and business assistance. We previously reviewed 10 Open-Source AI Agent Platforms for Business, covering automation, Agent building, and internal applications. Enterprises now have more options than ever.

But for companies that already rely on CRM, ERP, MES, SaaS, or custom-built systems, actually adopting AI is not that simple. Existing systems often have years of operational history, accumulated data, established processes, permission models, integrations, and user habits. Even when a company wants to add AI capabilities, migrating or rebuilding the entire system is rarely easy.

Recently, in Reddit's r/CRMSoftware, a small-business owner shared a similar experience.

Their company started using Salesforce in 2019 with only one account and has since grown to a team of 12. Over the past seven years, they have built extensive customizations around their business, and Salesforce has gradually become a core operational system.

As the business continued to grow, they needed more automation, cross-platform integrations, call logging, financial synchronization, LLM integrations, and forms. They also wanted to explore AI Agents, intelligent analytics, and AI-driven business automation. Continuing with Salesforce would require a plan upgrade and additional budget for APIs, Agentforce, and other third-party tools. Migrating, on the other hand, would mean dealing with custom objects, non-standard workflows, historical data, and the time and cost of the entire transition.

This situation is common in many companies: there are new, relatively independent requirements, but the business still needs to keep using data from existing systems. A full migration is expensive, while rebuilding everything from scratch creates additional maintenance pressure.

A more flexible approach is to use AI with NocoBase to turn the new requirement into a separate internal application first. Compared with relying on AI to build everything from scratch, enterprise applications still need stable data relationships, permissions, workflows, and long-term maintainability. NocoBase already provides these foundational capabilities, while AI can help build the new application on top of them and continue using data from the existing system.

This means the company does not need to solve a full-system migration at the beginning. As the new application matures, more data and business processes can be moved over gradually based on actual needs.

For example, imagine a manufacturing company that already has an Inventory Management System but wants to add a mobile inventory counting app. Warehouse staff need to scan items, enter actual quantities, and handle discrepancies on site, while continuing to use the existing product, SKU, warehouse, and inventory data. A requirement with a clear scope that still needs to reuse existing data is a good fit for building a separate application with AI and NocoBase, then expanding it gradually based on real usage.

Next, we will use this scenario to show how AI and NocoBase can turn a relatively independent new requirement into a new internal application, while gradually adding AI analysis and automation capabilities.

01 | Choose a Business Scenario That Can Be Piloted Independently

Start with a business requirement that has a clear scope, measurable value, and can be piloted independently.

Clear scope: the business objects, operating process, and users are relatively well defined, and changing this scenario does not affect multiple core systems at once.
Measurable value: after the application is introduced, the team can directly observe metrics such as processing time, manual work, exception volume, and operational efficiency.
Independent pilot: the application can first be used by one department, one group of users, or one business process while continuing to reuse data from the existing system.

This manufacturing company already has an Inventory Management System that manages products, SKUs, warehouses, current inventory, and inventory movements.

The new requirement is to let warehouse staff complete inventory counting on site, including claiming tasks, scanning items, entering actual quantities, recording inventory discrepancies, and reviewing exceptions.

The division of responsibilities between the old system and the new application can therefore be defined first:

	Application	Responsibilities
Existing system	Inventory Management System	Products, SKUs, warehouses, current inventory, inventory movements
New requirement	Mobile inventory counting app	Counting tasks, scanning, actual quantities, inventory discrepancies, discrepancy reasons, review status

The mobile inventory counting process mainly covers task claiming, scanning, quantity entry, and discrepancy review, while continuing to use product and inventory data from the existing Inventory Management System. During the pilot, the company can start with one warehouse, one group of operators, or one inventory-counting cycle, while continuing to call the foundational data from the existing system. After launch, the team can evaluate the pilot using metrics such as counting efficiency, manual workload, and discrepancy-handling time.

02 | Use AI and NocoBase to Turn the New Requirement into an Internal Application

Once the business scope is clear, the team can organize the existing system, business rules, and new requirements, then use AI to complete the initial application build.

For example:

We already have an Inventory Management System for products, SKUs, warehouses, and current inventory. We now need a mobile inventory counting app that allows warehouse staff to view counting tasks, scan items, enter actual quantities, record inventory discrepancies, and review exception data.

The Coding Agent can use these requirements to organize the application structure and configure the data model, pages, role permissions, and workflows in NocoBase. Business users are responsible for confirming the specific rules, such as who can claim tasks, how inventory discrepancies should be handled, and who is responsible for review.

The core mobile inventory counting process can be represented as:

Counting task → Product / SKU → System inventory → Actual quantity → Inventory discrepancy → Discrepancy reason → Processing status

After warehouse staff claim a task, they scan an item to locate the corresponding product and enter the actual quantity. If there is an inventory discrepancy, the record enters a pending-review state, and the responsible person confirms the reason and result. Operators and reviewers have their own pages and permissions, while reminders, pending tasks, and other follow-up actions can be handled through NocoBase workflows.

After the application is generated, fields, pages, layouts, and later functional changes can continue to be modified in NocoBase through the Coding Agent.

03 | Continue Using Data from the Existing System

Products, SKUs, warehouses, current inventory, and inventory movements continue to be maintained by the original Inventory Management System. NocoBase can read this data through an external database or API and use it directly inside the mobile inventory counting app.

📃 Data Sources - NocoBase

For example, when warehouse staff count a “brake pad set,” they can see the current inventory, safety stock, and recent inventory movements from the original system while entering the actual quantity, inventory discrepancy, discrepancy reason, and processing result in the mobile inventory counting app.

Data source	Information used during counting
Inventory Management System	Current inventory, safety stock, recent inventory movements
Mobile inventory counting app	Actual quantity, inventory discrepancy, discrepancy reason, processing status

To avoid inventory changes during counting from affecting the result, the application can record the system inventory and corresponding timestamp at the start of the task as the baseline for that count. Daily inventory continues to be maintained by the existing Inventory Management System.

If an inventory discrepancy is ultimately confirmed, the team can first complete the reason recording and review in the mobile inventory counting app, then handle the inventory adjustment according to the existing process. Whether the new application writes directly back to the original system depends on the APIs and permissions exposed by that system.

In this way, the new application only adds inventory-counting data and processes. Foundational data such as products, SKUs, warehouses, and inventory continues to come from the existing system, reducing duplicate maintenance.

04 | After Launch, Let AI Participate Further in Inventory Counting

Once the mobile inventory counting app is in use, counting tasks, actual quantities, discrepancy reasons, and review results will continue to create new business data. Beyond checking individual records, managers also need to understand overall counting progress, long-unprocessed tasks, and which SKUs repeatedly show inventory discrepancies.

During the application-building stage, the Coding Agent mainly helps build and adjust the application. After launch, NocoBase AI Employees can use the accumulated data to participate in day-to-day inventory analysis and related work.

📃 AI Employees - NocoBase Documentation

For example, an AI Employee can generate an inventory-counting overview that summarizes completion rate, accuracy, and inventory discrepancies, while highlighting tasks and products that need priority attention:

These results come from actual records in the application, and managers can always return to the corresponding tasks to verify the details.

For SKUs that repeatedly show discrepancies, AI Employees can also combine actual counting results, discrepancy reasons, and recent inventory movements to organize issues that need further investigation.

For example, if a “brake pad set” shows discrepancies across several consecutive counts, the team can prioritize checking recent receipts, issues, and transfers, and confirm whether duplicate counting, timing differences, or data-entry errors are involved. Cases where the cause cannot yet be confirmed can remain pending for further review by the responsible person.

On this basis, AI Employees can also be configured with appropriate skills and workflows to create review tasks, send reminders to responsible users, and generate inventory-counting reports. What data an AI Employee can access and which actions it can perform can also be configured according to actual roles and permissions.

This allows the company to start by using AI for summaries and analysis, then gradually expand it into more day-to-day operational work once the business rules and usage patterns become stable.

05 | Validate the Pilot Results

After the mobile inventory counting app has been used for a period of time, the company can evaluate whether the approach is worth continuing and decide whether to expand the scope, migrate selected modules from the old system, or keep the existing division of responsibilities.

Has manual recording and repeated data organization decreased?
Has the time required for each inventory count been reduced?
Are inventory discrepancies easier to identify and handle?
Can the existing inventory data be used reliably?
Can AI Employees already participate in day-to-day business processing?
Can the new application reliably handle routine inventory-counting work?

If these indicators generally meet expectations, the approach is ready for real business use, and the company can continue in two directions.

Extend the Same Approach to New Business Requirements

If the company has other relatively independent requirements that also need to use data from existing systems, it can reuse the same approach: define a clear scenario, build a new internal application with AI and NocoBase, then test and use it.

Handling one specific requirement at a time keeps the application scope and validation goals clear and makes it easier to judge whether further investment is worthwhile.

Evaluate Whether to Migrate Selected Modules from the Existing System

As the new application continues to be used, it will gradually accumulate its own data and business processes. If some functions can already reliably take over work from the existing system, the company can further evaluate whether the corresponding modules still need to remain in the old system.

If the mobile inventory counting app can reliably cover task assignment, counting, discrepancy handling, and review, the company can further assess whether the inventory-counting data and processes in the original Inventory Management System should be moved to NocoBase.

Conclusion

In the past, when a new business requirement appeared, teams typically had to choose between purchasing SaaS, modifying an existing system, or scheduling custom development. All of these approaches require cost evaluation, resource coordination, and often a waiting period before results can be validated.

If your company already uses CRM, supply chain management, project management SaaS, or similar systems and has a new requirement that the existing tools do not handle well, AI and NocoBase make it possible to start with a smaller, clearly scoped, confirmed requirement and test it in a more lightweight way.

Try the NocoBase + AI Demo: Request an online demo
Build it yourself: View the AI Builder documentation

Related reading:

Weekly Updates: AI Employees Now Support Knowledge Base Citations

NocoBase — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 09:48:47 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.20

Release date: 2026-09-30

🎉 New Features

[AI employees] AI employee chat responses expose the referenced knowledge base documents (#10560) by @cgyrock
[AI: Knowledge base] Resolve referenced knowledge base documents for AI employee chat responses by @cgyrock

🐛 Bug Fixes

[create-nocobase-app] Upgrade js-yaml and uuid (#10555) by @2013xile
[sdk] Upgraded axios to 1.20.0 (#10566) by @2013xile
[client-v2] Fix the issue where the "Current popup parent record" variable is missing in quick create popups of association fields in approval forms (#10554) by @zhangzhonghe
[Block: Kanban] Fixed Kanban layout flicker when adding an AI employee action. (#10553) by @jiannx
[Data source: External NocoBase] Fixed the type build failure caused by the axios 1.20.0 upgrade by @2013xile
[Data source: External Oracle] Fixed a type error surfaced by the axios 1.20.0 upgrade by @2013xile
[Workflow: Approval] Fix the issue where hidden field labels reappear and field values are empty in submitted approval details by @zhangzhonghe

v2.2.19

Release date: 2026-09-29

🎉 New Features

[AI employees] Added support for OpenCode Zen / Go as an LLM service by sending the required session headers; DeepSeek Flash models now accept image attachments, and web search is limited to DeepSeek V4 Pro because Flash models silently ignore it (#10551) by @cgyrock

🚀 Improvements

[client-v2] Table column quick edit: support setting a data scope for association fields (#10547) by @katherinehhh

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fix the issue where signing in with another account after signing out shows a 404 page (#10549) by @zhangzhonghe
[Action: Batch update] Prevent bulk update actions from submitting option values that no longer exist in the configured collection field. (#10540) by @jiannx
[Workflow] Fix creation of the jobs status and ID index during database sync. (#10552) by @mytharcher

v2.2.18

Release date: 2026-09-25

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client] Fixed workflow manual node form layouts failing when multiple fields are arranged in one row. (#10545) by @mytharcher
[client-v2] Fixed saving attachment and file relation changes inside approval form sub-tables. (#10544) by @mytharcher
[Block: GridCard] Fixed Grid Card pagination switching and aligned simple-pagination page sizes with the configured column count (#10541) by @jiannx
[Workflow: Aggregate node] Fix aggregate field selection for collections selected through to-many associations. (#10543) by @mytharcher
[Migration manager] Updated decompress to @xhmikosr/decompress 11.1.4 by @2013xile

v2.3.0-beta.13

Release date: 2026-09-30

🎉 New Features

[AI employees]
- AI employee chat responses expose the referenced knowledge base documents (#10560) by @cgyrock
- Added support for OpenCode Zen / Go as an LLM service by sending the required session headers; DeepSeek Flash models now accept image attachments, and web search is limited to DeepSeek V4 Pro because Flash models silently ignore it (#10551) by @cgyrock
[AI: Knowledge base] Resolve referenced knowledge base documents for AI employee chat responses by @cgyrock

🚀 Improvements

[client-v2] Table column quick edit: support setting a data scope for association fields (#10547) by @katherinehhh

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fix the issue where the "Current popup parent record" variable is missing in quick create popups of association fields in approval forms (#10554) by @zhangzhonghe
- Fix the issue where signing in with another account after signing out shows a 404 page (#10549) by @zhangzhonghe
- Fixed saving attachment and file relation changes inside approval form sub-tables. (#10544) by @mytharcher
[create-nocobase-app] Upgrade js-yaml and uuid (#10555) by @2013xile
[client] Fixed workflow manual node form layouts failing when multiple fields are arranged in one row. (#10545) by @mytharcher
[Workflow] Fix creation of the jobs status and ID index during database sync. (#10552) by @mytharcher
[Workflow: Aggregate node] Fix aggregate field selection for collections selected through to-many associations. (#10543) by @mytharcher
[Block: GridCard] Fixed Grid Card pagination switching and aligned simple-pagination page sizes with the configured column count (#10541) by @jiannx
[Action: Batch update] Prevent bulk update actions from submitting option values that no longer exist in the configured collection field. (#10540) by @jiannx
[Migration manager] Updated decompress to @xhmikosr/decompress 11.1.4 by @2013xile

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.9

Release date: 2026-09-30

🎉 New Features

[AI employees]
- AI employee chat responses expose the referenced knowledge base documents (#10560) by @cgyrock
- Added support for OpenCode Zen / Go as an LLM service by sending the required session headers; DeepSeek Flash models now accept image attachments, and web search is limited to DeepSeek V4 Pro because Flash models silently ignore it (#10551) by @cgyrock
[AI: Knowledge base] Resolve referenced knowledge base documents for AI employee chat responses by @cgyrock

🚀 Improvements

[client-v2] Table column quick edit: support setting a data scope for association fields (#10547) by @katherinehhh

🐛 Bug Fixes

[sdk] Upgraded axios to 1.20.0 (#10566) by @2013xile
[client-v2]
- Fix the issue where the "Current popup parent record" variable is missing in quick create popups of association fields in approval forms (#10554) by @zhangzhonghe
- Fixed saving attachment and file relation changes inside approval form sub-tables. (#10544) by @mytharcher
- Fix the issue where signing in with another account after signing out shows a 404 page (#10549) by @zhangzhonghe
[client] Fixed workflow manual node form layouts failing when multiple fields are arranged in one row. (#10545) by @mytharcher
[create-nocobase-app] Upgrade js-yaml and uuid (#10555) by @2013xile
[Workflow: Aggregate node] Fix aggregate field selection for collections selected through to-many associations. (#10543) by @mytharcher
[Block: GridCard] Fixed Grid Card pagination switching and aligned simple-pagination page sizes with the configured column count (#10541) by @jiannx
[Workflow] Fix creation of the jobs status and ID index during database sync. (#10552) by @mytharcher
[Action: Batch update] Prevent bulk update actions from submitting option values that no longer exist in the configured collection field. (#10540) by @jiannx
[Block: Kanban] Fixed Kanban layout flicker when adding an AI employee action. (#10553) by @jiannx
[Data source: External NocoBase] Fixed the type build failure caused by the axios 1.20.0 upgrade by @2013xile
[Migration manager] Updated decompress to @xhmikosr/decompress 11.1.4 by @2013xile
[Data source: External Oracle] Fixed a type error surfaced by the axios 1.20.0 upgrade by @2013xile
[Workflow: Approval] Fix the issue where hidden field labels reappear and field values are empty in submitted approval details by @zhangzhonghe

Weekly Updates: Improvements and Bug Fixes

NocoBase — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 16:10:03 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.17

Release date: 2026-09-24

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fix: sub-table fields were still editable after the field was set to disabled (#10532) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed quick edit popover closing when collapsing a multi-select dropdown, and dropdown options covering the Submit button. (#10536) by @katherinehhh
[Departments] Restricted department user directory access to authorized roles (#10539) by @2013xile
[Workflow] Fixed workflow user selection search to query the API instead of filtering only loaded users. (#10537) by @mytharcher
[Block: Kanban] Fixed modern kanban blocks not refreshing after adding records through the toolbar when no filters were active. (#10525) by @jiannx
[Email manager] Prevent circular email reply relationships from blocking mail synchronization by @jiannx

v2.2.16

Release date: 2026-09-21

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Access control] Fixed unintended permission changes when clicking the blank space beside system permission checkboxes in the modern client's role settings. (#10518) by @jiannx
[Block: Comment] Fixed comment-specific Edit, Delete, and Quote reply actions incorrectly appearing in the table row action configuration menu. (#10519) by @jiannx
[Workflow: Approval] Fixed data not being saved correctly after a before-save approval is returned, resubmitted, and approved. by @mytharcher

v2.2.15

Release date: 2026-09-19

🚀 Improvements

[Data source manager] In the v2 data source manager, the relation field's foreign key can be selected from the existing columns of the owning collection, like v1. (#10526) by @katherinehhh

🐛 Bug Fixes

[flow-engine] Fixed number precision validation in V2 forms accepting values with too many decimal places. (#10512) by @katherinehhh
[client-v2] Fixed inconsistent v2 subtable row heights before and after adding fields. (#10520) by @katherinehhh
[File manager] Enabled knowledge-base document downloads to use the same file download handling as file-manager. (#10513) by @cgyrock
[Data source manager]
- Fixed submission errors when editing relation fields with existing inverse fields in the v2 data source manager. (#10521) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed empty inverse relationship types when adding an inverse field to an existing relationship in the v2 data source editor. (#10511) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed incorrect duplicate-name validation when recreating deleted fields in v2 data source settings. (#10509) by @katherinehhh
[AI employees]
- Improved AI conversation prompt-cache reuse after frontend tools finish by keeping the conversation time context stable. (#10517) by @cgyrock
- Fixed AI employee settings not being saveable when the knowledge base was turned off but its retrieval fields were empty (#10507) by @cgyrock
[Workflow] Fixed disappearing to-many field assignments when reopening workflow update nodes in v2, and changed association selections to store keys and load record labels by key. (#10523) by @mytharcher
[AI: Knowledge base] Improved knowledge-base document deletion with a modal confirmation showing the filename and localized buttons, and unified document download handling with file-manager. by @cgyrock
[Workflow: Approval] Fixed approval tasks not opening from the Related approvals block on native V2 pages. by @mytharcher
[WeCom] Fix duplicate slashes in WeCom authorization and callback URLs when Origin has a trailing slash. by @chenzhizdt

v2.3.0-beta.12

Release date: 2026-09-24

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fixed quick edit popover closing when collapsing a multi-select dropdown, and dropdown options covering the Submit button. (#10536) by @katherinehhh
- Fix: sub-table fields were still editable after the field was set to disabled (#10532) by @katherinehhh
[Block: Kanban] Fixed modern kanban blocks not refreshing after adding records through the toolbar when no filters were active. (#10525) by @jiannx
[Workflow] Fixed workflow user selection search to query the API instead of filtering only loaded users. (#10537) by @mytharcher
[Departments] Restricted department user directory access to authorized roles (#10539) by @2013xile
[Email manager] Prevent circular email reply relationships from blocking mail synchronization by @jiannx

v2.3.0-beta.11

Release date: 2026-09-20

🚀 Improvements

[Data source manager] In the v2 data source manager, the relation field's foreign key can be selected from the existing columns of the owning collection, like v1. (#10526) by @katherinehhh
[WeCom] Support configurable WeCom sync email types and consistent email mapping for full and incremental synchronization. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed inconsistent v2 subtable row heights before and after adding fields. (#10520) by @katherinehhh
[flow-engine] Fixed number precision validation in V2 forms accepting values with too many decimal places. (#10512) by @katherinehhh
[server] Prevent secret environment variable exposure in custom request URLs (#10503) by @2013xile
[File manager]
- Enabled knowledge-base document downloads to use the same file download handling as file-manager. (#10513) by @cgyrock
- Move the delete button on v2 attachment and Attachment (URL) cards to the top-right corner to reduce accidental deletion during preview. (#10508) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow] Fixed disappearing to-many field assignments when reopening workflow update nodes in v2, and changed association selections to store keys and load record labels by key. (#10523) by @mytharcher
[Block: Comment] Fixed comment-specific Edit, Delete, and Quote reply actions incorrectly appearing in the table row action configuration menu. (#10519) by @jiannx
[Data source manager]
- Fixed submission errors when editing relation fields with existing inverse fields in the v2 data source manager. (#10521) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed empty inverse relationship types when adding an inverse field to an existing relationship in the v2 data source editor. (#10511) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed incorrect duplicate-name validation when recreating deleted fields in v2 data source settings. (#10509) by @katherinehhh
[AI employees]
- Fixed AI employee settings not being saveable when the knowledge base was turned off but its retrieval fields were empty (#10507) by @cgyrock
- Improved AI conversation prompt-cache reuse after frontend tools finish by keeping the conversation time context stable. (#10517) by @cgyrock
- Fixed AI employee data query tools returning no records when the collection's role permission uses a data scope based on the current user (#10501) by @cgyrock
[Collection field: Sequence] Fix sequence field validation for random character patterns configured with multiple character sets. (#10504) by @mytharcher
[Access control] Fixed unintended permission changes when clicking the blank space beside system permission checkboxes in the modern client's role settings. (#10518) by @jiannx
[AI: Knowledge base] Improved knowledge-base document deletion with a modal confirmation showing the filename and localized buttons, and unified document download handling with file-manager. by @cgyrock
[Workflow: Approval]
- Fixed data not being saved correctly after a before-save approval is returned, resubmitted, and approved. by @mytharcher
- Hide approval action buttons for queued sequential approvers and show a waiting hint. by @mytharcher
- Fixed approval tasks not opening from the Related approvals block on native V2 pages. by @mytharcher
[WeCom] Fix duplicate slashes in WeCom authorization and callback URLs when Origin has a trailing slash. by @chenzhizdt

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.8

Release date: 2026-09-24

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fix: sub-table fields were still editable after the field was set to disabled (#10532) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed quick edit popover closing when collapsing a multi-select dropdown, and dropdown options covering the Submit button. (#10536) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow] Fixed workflow user selection search to query the API instead of filtering only loaded users. (#10537) by @mytharcher
[Portal manager] Fix the issue where the workflow task center page is missing the top navigation bar (#10535) by @zhangzhonghe
[Departments] Restricted department user directory access to authorized roles (#10539) by @2013xile
[Block: Kanban] Fixed modern kanban blocks not refreshing after adding records through the toolbar when no filters were active. (#10525) by @jiannx
[Email manager] Prevent circular email reply relationships from blocking mail synchronization by @jiannx

v2.4.0-alpha.7

Release date: 2026-09-20

🚀 Improvements

[Data source manager] In the v2 data source manager, the relation field's foreign key can be selected from the existing columns of the owning collection, like v1. (#10526) by @katherinehhh
[WeCom] Support configurable WeCom sync email types and consistent email mapping for full and incremental synchronization. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed inconsistent v2 subtable row heights before and after adding fields. (#10520) by @katherinehhh
[flow-engine] Fixed number precision validation in V2 forms accepting values with too many decimal places. (#10512) by @katherinehhh
[Block: Comment] Fixed comment-specific Edit, Delete, and Quote reply actions incorrectly appearing in the table row action configuration menu. (#10519) by @jiannx
[Access control] Fixed unintended permission changes when clicking the blank space beside system permission checkboxes in the modern client's role settings. (#10518) by @jiannx
[Workflow] Fixed disappearing to-many field assignments when reopening workflow update nodes in v2, and changed association selections to store keys and load record labels by key. (#10523) by @mytharcher
[AI employees]
- Improved AI conversation prompt-cache reuse after frontend tools finish by keeping the conversation time context stable. (#10517) by @cgyrock
- Fixed AI employee settings not being saveable when the knowledge base was turned off but its retrieval fields were empty (#10507) by @cgyrock
[File manager]
- Enabled knowledge-base document downloads to use the same file download handling as file-manager. (#10513) by @cgyrock
- Move the delete button on v2 attachment and Attachment (URL) cards to the top-right corner to reduce accidental deletion during preview. (#10508) by @katherinehhh
[Data source manager]
- Fixed empty inverse relationship types when adding an inverse field to an existing relationship in the v2 data source editor. (#10511) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed submission errors when editing relation fields with existing inverse fields in the v2 data source manager. (#10521) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed incorrect duplicate-name validation when recreating deleted fields in v2 data source settings. (#10509) by @katherinehhh
[Collection field: Sequence] Fix sequence field validation for random character patterns configured with multiple character sets. (#10504) by @mytharcher
[AI: Knowledge base] Improved knowledge-base document deletion with a modal confirmation showing the filename and localized buttons, and unified document download handling with file-manager. by @cgyrock
[Workflow: Approval]
- Hide approval action buttons for queued sequential approvers and show a waiting hint. by @mytharcher
- Fixed approval tasks not opening from the Related approvals block on native V2 pages. by @mytharcher
- Fixed data not being saved correctly after a before-save approval is returned, resubmitted, and approved. by @mytharcher
[WeCom]
- Resolve the merge conflict between develop and next while preserving both URL handling changes. by @chenzhizdt
- Fix duplicate slashes in WeCom authorization and callback URLs when Origin has a trailing slash. by @chenzhizdt

How to Build a Real-World Business System with AI and NocoBase: A Car Rental Management Example

NocoBase — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 16:07:28 +0000

Originally published at https://www.nocobase.com/en/blog/build-car-rental-management-system-with-ai-and-nocobase

Recently, an iceberg chart titled “Vibe Coding vs. Production Reality” sparked discussion on X and Reddit. Above the waterline are today's AI Coding tools. Below it are permissions, payments, data consistency, logs, rollbacks, monitoring, and all the issues that only surface once a system goes live. The original poster noted that a PoC that once took a week can now be built in an afternoon, but a working demo is not the same as a system that can be delivered and maintained continuously.

Business processes and management rules vary significantly from company to company. Even when two businesses are both managing resources, the underlying logic for orders, scheduling, maintenance, settlement, and exceptions can be completely different. AI Coding lowers the cost of implementing these custom requirements, but it does not make the business itself simpler.

Take car rental as an example. An order does not simply get created and wait to be completed. It occupies vehicle availability, goes through handover, use, and return, and if the customer returns the vehicle late, it can affect later bookings and fleet scheduling.

Enterprise business systems like this need to maintain stable data relationships, permissions, and business rules over the long term. If a Coding Agent builds everything completely from scratch, these common capabilities also need to be implemented and maintained one by one. With an existing application foundation, the Coding Agent can focus more of its effort on modeling, implementing, and validating the specific business.

NocoBase is built around App Foundation, providing data models, permissions, workflows, UI, APIs, and runtime mechanisms. Coding Agents build and deliver applications on top of these capabilities, while people confirm business goals, make decisions on proposed solutions, accept results, and authorize releases.

Next, we will use a car rental system as an example. Starting from business modeling, we will see how a Coding Agent can turn a set of realistic, interconnected business requirements into an application that can keep running and evolving on NocoBase.

💡 Further reading: Building an Inventory Management System: Vibe Coding vs NocoBase + AI

1. Let the Coding Agent Build a Complete Business Model

Before development begins, you can give the core car-rental requirements to the Coding Agent and ask it to organize the data model, business processes, role permissions, and acceptance criteria.

📃 Related documentation: Data Modeling - NocoBase Documentation

For example:

We need to manage vehicles, customers, locations, employees, and rental orders. Vehicles involve insurance, maintenance, and traffic violations, while orders are linked to customers, vehicles, rental periods, and payment information. The rental process includes scheduling, vehicle handover, use, return, inspection, and settlement, while also handling cancellations, late returns, maintenance, violations, and outstanding payments. Please organize the core data relationships, business processes, role permissions, and key acceptance criteria.

Based on this, the Coding Agent can produce a complete system plan:

Establish relationships between vehicles and locations, orders, maintenance records, insurance, and other data;
Move orders through creation, scheduling, handover, rental, return, and settlement;
Define explicit handling rules for exceptions and turn them into verifiable conditions, such as preventing the same vehicle from being assigned to overlapping periods, preventing vehicles under maintenance from entering new schedules, and correctly generating receivables after an order is completed.

Once the plan is confirmed, the Coding Agent can use NocoBase App Foundation to turn these agreed business rules into a working application.

2. Let the Coding Agent Build the System on NocoBase

2.1 Turn the Business Model into Working Pages

These business models are then turned into different working pages. In this car rental system, the main pages include:

Rental desk: handle vehicle handover, return, cancellation, late return, and outstanding balances;
Fleet schedule: view current and future vehicle occupancy;
Vehicle dispatch: manage vehicle allocation between locations;
Expiry and compliance management: manage upcoming insurance, license, and maintenance deadlines;
Payment management: handle rent, deposits, refunds, and receivables;
Operations dashboard: view orders, vehicles, exceptions, and business metrics.

These pages all use the same business data and relationships. When an order changes, vehicle status, schedules, payments, and business metrics update accordingly.

📃 Related documentation: UI Builder - NocoBase Documentation

2.2 Follow One Order Through the Full Business Process

Once the application is built, you can use a single order to verify the main process, focusing on whether the vehicle schedule, vehicle status, and payment records update correctly as the order status changes.

After an order confirms the vehicle and rental period, the corresponding time slot needs to be added to the fleet schedule. A vehicle already occupied by an order cannot be assigned again during an overlapping period.

At handover time, staff complete the vehicle handover in the rental desk. The order enters the rental stage and the vehicle status updates at the same time. Return, cancellation, late return, and outstanding-balance handling continue from the same workspace.

When the vehicle is returned, the system needs to record the actual return time, mileage, and charges. If the return is late, the system calculates the relevant fees according to the defined rules. After vehicle inspection is completed, the vehicle status is updated based on the inspection result.

After the order is completed, rent, deposits, and other charges move into payment management, where the amount, payment type, payment method, and current status are retained.

At this point, one rental has completed the full process from order to settlement:

Order → Scheduling → Handover → Rental → Return → Settlement

2.3 Use Workflows for Automated Rules and Cross-Module Coordination

Some rules do not need to be handled manually each time. They can be executed automatically by workflows when the relevant conditions are met.

📃 Related documentation: Workflow Management - NocoBase Documentation

This system already includes workflows for late returns, insurance and driver's-license expiry, vehicle maintenance, receivable generation after order completion, and moving an order into the pickup process when the scheduled time arrives.

Take traffic violations as an example. After a violation record is created, the system looks up the rental order that corresponds to the vehicle and the time of the violation. If a match is found, the order is linked automatically, making it easier to identify the actual driver and determine responsibility later.

This rule can be expressed as:

New violation → Find corresponding rental order → Check for a match → Link the order automatically

Similar reminders, status updates, and cross-module operations can all be configured in workflows using a “trigger condition → business decision → action” structure, so agreed business rules continue to run consistently.

2.4 Handle Exceptions, Compliance, and Business Analysis

Once orders can move through the normal process, issues that require human attention also need clear handling paths.

For example, a late vehicle return can create a pending task; insurance, driver's-license, or maintenance deadlines can enter expiry and compliance management; and unpaid balances or overdue receivables can enter cash-flow and aging analysis.

As this business data accumulates, it can also be used for operational analysis. In vehicle profitability analysis, rental revenue can be combined with maintenance, insurance, and other costs to evaluate the actual return of different vehicles.

Order, vehicle, compliance, and financial data can also be summarized in the operations dashboard, making it easier for managers to see current pending items, exceptions, and key business metrics.

💡 Further reading: Build an Interactive Operations Dashboard with NocoBase

2.5 Test, Accept, and Release Against the Acceptance Criteria

Once the system is complete, it can be tested against the acceptance criteria confirmed earlier, checking whether key rules such as vehicle scheduling, status changes, receivable generation, and exception handling behave as expected.

The Coding Agent runs the tests and fixes the issues it finds, then revalidates the affected processes after each change. Once the key rules pass, people complete acceptance and authorize the release. The Coding Agent then performs the deployment and checks the runtime result.

📃 Related documentation: Version Control - NocoBase Documentation

Coding Agent implementation and testing → Human acceptance and release authorization → Coding Agent release and runtime verification

These acceptance criteria can also be retained. When the system changes later, the same checks can be rerun to confirm whether new functionality affects existing business rules.

3. Using and Iterating the System After Launch

After the system goes live, AI enters two different work scenarios:

Coding Agent continues to handle application changes, testing, and delivery;
AI Employees read business data, call tools, and handle specific tasks inside the running system.

They can use the same underlying models, but their identities, permissions, and scopes of work need to be managed separately.

3.1 Let AI Employees Handle Daily Tasks with Business Context

Once vehicle, order, scheduling, payment, and compliance data are in the system, AI Employees can directly use that business data within the permissions they have been granted.

💡 Further reading: Automating Company Background Research with Built-in Workflows and AI Employees - NocoBase

For example, from the operations dashboard, an AI Employee can query the orders that need attention today, vehicles with exceptions, or current revenue.

In vehicle dispatch, it can suggest how vehicles should be reallocated based on the vehicles available at each location and current orders, with business staff making the final decision.

Which data an AI Employee can read, which tools it can call, and whether it can perform a specific action are all determined by the corresponding business permissions and tool configuration.

📃 Related documentation: How AI Employees Control Usage and Data Access Permissions

3.2 Keep Iterating on the Existing System

Business rules continue to change after a system goes live. A company may add new locations, adjust pricing, change insurance inspection methods, connect new payment methods, or add new business metrics.

These requirements can be handed back to the Coding Agent, which can modify the existing data models, pages, permissions, and workflows directly.

For example, if the business wants to add “dynamic peak-period pricing,” it only needs to provide the applicable conditions, pricing rules, and expected results. The Coding Agent can propose changes based on the existing vehicle, order, and pricing structure, then implement and test them after confirmation, and deliver the update through the same acceptance and release process.

In this way, later iterations can focus mainly on the parts of the business that have changed, while confirmed data relationships and business rules remain in place.

Conclusion

The use cases for AI + NocoBase are not limited to large enterprise systems. Individuals, small teams, and business departments can also start with smaller requirements, such as an internal tool, approval application, asset register, or simple operations system, and let the Coding Agent build the data model, pages, and workflows on top of the existing application foundation.

If this article was helpful, feel free to share it with others who are interested in AI Coding, enterprise applications, or business-system development.

If you also want to build similar enterprise applications with AI and NocoBase, these complete examples may be useful:

👉 Build a CRM with AI + NocoBase

👉 Build an Enterprise IT Operations System with AI + NocoBase

Related reading:

Weekly Updates : Improvements and Bug Fixes

NocoBase — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 06:39:19 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.14

Release date: 2026-09-16

🚀 Improvements

[WeCom] Support configurable WeCom sync email types and consistent email mapping for full and incremental synchronization. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server] Prevent secret environment variable exposure in custom request URLs (#10503) by @2013xile
[Collection field: Sequence] Fix sequence field validation for random character patterns configured with multiple character sets. (#10504) by @mytharcher
[File manager] Move the delete button on v2 attachment and Attachment (URL) cards to the top-right corner to reduce accidental deletion during preview. (#10508) by @katherinehhh
[AI employees] Fixed AI employee data query tools returning no records when the collection's role permission uses a data scope based on the current user (#10501) by @cgyrock
[Workflow: Approval] Hide approval action buttons for queued sequential approvers and show a waiting hint. by @mytharcher

v2.2.12

Release date: 2026-09-11

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed the issue where variables nested deeper than three levels cannot be used in workflow query node conditions (#10494) by @mytharcher
[Workflow] Fix workflow list loading parameters under MySQL 8.3+ (#10486) by @mytharcher

v2.2.11

Release date: 2026-09-11

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Office File Previewer] Fixed the issue with incorrect URLs being used for Office file previews (#10496) by @mytharcher

v2.3.0-beta.10

Release date: 2026-09-15

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Fixed the issue where variables nested deeper than three levels cannot be used in workflow query node conditions (#10494) by @mytharcher
[Workflow] Fix workflow list loading parameters under MySQL 8.3+ (#10486) by @mytharcher
[Office File Previewer] Fixed the issue with incorrect URLs being used for Office file previews (#10496) by @mytharcher

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.6

Release date: 2026-09-15

🚀 Improvements

[utils] Added an option to block server-side requests and redirects to literal IP addresses (#10490) by @2013xile
[client-v2] Improve V2 form QR scanning reliability on iOS. (#10456) by @katherinehhh

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server]
- Prevent secret environment variable exposure in custom request URLs (#10503) by @2013xile
- Fixed misleading preparing status when a subapp deployment environment is unavailable (#10485) by @2013xile
[client-v2]
- Fixed the issue where variables nested deeper than three levels cannot be used in workflow query node conditions (#10494) by @mytharcher
- Fix filter forms not collapsing on mobile (#10479) by @zhangzhonghe
- Fix interrupted option value input for custom radio and checkbox fields in filter forms (#10480) by @zhangzhonghe
- Fixed the v2 Update record field settings failing after an assigned field was deleted. (#10483) by @katherinehhh
- Fix full-page reloads when opening settings pages (#10474) by @zhangzhonghe
- Hide unsupported built-in date variables from workflow create and update field assignments. (#10442) by @mytharcher
- Show the standard deleted-field warning for historical V2 field assignments. (#10484) by @katherinehhh
[AI employees] Fixed AI employee data query tools returning no records when the collection's role permission uses a data scope based on the current user (#10501) by @cgyrock
[Office File Previewer] Fixed the issue with incorrect URLs being used for Office file previews (#10496) by @mytharcher
[Workflow: Delay node] Fixed delay duration variable validation and report invalid resolved values instead of waiting unexpectedly. (#10469) by @mytharcher
[Workflow] Fix workflow list loading parameters under MySQL 8.3+ (#10486) by @mytharcher
[Access control] Fix role permissions so selecting a deeply nested menu also selects all parent menus (#10473) by @zhangzhonghe
[Data source manager] Fixed the inverse-field option not remaining selected when editing a v2 relation field. (#10482) by @katherinehhh
[Flow engine] Fixed non-admin variable resolution in form linkage rules, referenced templates, and scripts. (#10467) by @gchust
[Workflow: Approval] Fix approval cards showing outdated content after saving an edited draft by @zhangzhonghe
[App supervisor] Fixed subapp access failures after rolling updates or deployment environment changes by @2013xile

Weekly Updates: Improvements and Bug Fixes

NocoBase — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 09:42:33 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.10

Release date: 2026-09-10

🚀 Improvements

[utils] Added an option to block server-side requests and redirects to literal IP addresses (#10490) by @2013xile
[client-v2] Improve V2 form QR scanning reliability on iOS. (#10456) by @katherinehhh

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2] Hide unsupported built-in date variables from workflow create and update field assignments. (#10442) by @mytharcher
[server] Fixed misleading preparing status when a subapp deployment environment is unavailable (#10485) by @2013xile
[Workflow: Delay node] Fixed delay duration variable validation and report invalid resolved values instead of waiting unexpectedly. (#10469) by @mytharcher
[App supervisor] Fixed subapp access failures after rolling updates or deployment environment changes by @2013xile

v2.2.9

Release date: 2026-09-09

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Fixed the v2 Update record field settings failing after an assigned field was deleted. (#10483) by @katherinehhh
- Show the standard deleted-field warning for historical V2 field assignments. (#10484) by @katherinehhh
- Fix filter forms not collapsing on mobile (#10479) by @zhangzhonghe
- Support displaying to-many association fields as read-only subtables in client v2 forms. (#10478) by @katherinehhh
- Fix nested association fields rendering blank in V2 forms when the parent relation uses dropdown selection. (#10477) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed the inverse relationship type being editable in v2 field configuration. (#10476) by @katherinehhh
- Fix interrupted option value input for custom radio and checkbox fields in filter forms (#10480) by @zhangzhonghe
- Fix full-page reloads when opening settings pages (#10474) by @zhangzhonghe
[cli] Restrict legacy local upload URLs to signed-in users by default, with an opt-in compatibility switch for public access. (#10471) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Fixed the inverse-field option not remaining selected when editing a v2 relation field. (#10482) by @katherinehhh
[Flow engine] Fixed non-admin variable resolution in form linkage rules, referenced templates, and scripts. (#10467) by @gchust
[Access control] Fix role permissions so selecting a deeply nested menu also selects all parent menus (#10473) by @zhangzhonghe
[Block: Kanban] Fixed an issue where newly created records were not immediately visible in the Kanban block. (#10463) by @gaurangagar
[Workflow: Approval] Fix approval cards showing outdated content after saving an edited draft by @zhangzhonghe

v2.2.8

Release date: 2026-09-08

🚀 Improvements

[WeCom] Improved type safety and unified the notification recipient selector in the WeCom plugin. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server] Fixed applications unexpectedly starting in environments where they were not deployed (#10464) by @2013xile
[Notification: In-app message] Allow all workflow variable types in in-app notification titles and detail links. (#10470) by @mytharcher
[File manager] Prevent file redirects from reusing expired signed storage URLs. (#10475) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Added current user and current role variable selection to v2 permission data scopes (#10472) by @jiannx
[Workflow: JavaScript] Fixed an issue where a timed-out JavaScript workflow node could incorrectly abort the workflow instead of respecting "Continue when exception thrown". (#10461) by @mytharcher
[AI employees] Fixed AI employees repeatedly querying knowledge bases when the Knowledge Base Prompt omitted the retrieved-content placeholder, and added clear validation guidance when saving the configuration. (#10413) by @cgyrock
[AI: Knowledge base] Fixed PGVector connection testing, ZIP import result display, document segment-setting inheritance, and validation for chunk overlap values in AI knowledge bases. by @cgyrock
[App supervisor] Fixed exposure of sub-application authentication secrets in application management responses by @2013xile
[DingTalk] Unified the DingTalk notification recipient selector. by @chenzhizdt

v2.2.7

Release date: 2026-09-05

🎉 New Features

[AI: Knowledge base] Added an authenticated knowledge base retrieval API and a built-in provider for connecting remote NocoBase knowledge bases. by @cgyrock

🚀 Improvements

[undefined] Corrected the root package license metadata to Apache-2.0 and raised the Node.js requirement to version 22 (#10448) by @hongboji
[Notification: In-app message] Fixed frontend freezing after selecting an in-app message or email channel in workflow v2 notification nodes (#10445) by @jiannx
[DingTalk] DingTalk ActionCard button links can now be configured to open in an external browser. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Collection: SQL] Restricted SQL collections from querying PostgreSQL system objects or executing multiple statements (#10455) by @2013xile
[Block: Comment] Fixed the record comments block to display the commenter's nickname when using the Last modified by field (#10446) by @jiannx
[AI employees]
- Prevented Bedrock errors caused by aborted AI responses leaving tool calls without matching tool results. (#10447) by @cgyrock
- Fixed an error that prevented business analysis reports containing charts from opening. (#10440) by @cgyrock
[Collection field: Markdown(Vditor)] Fix Vditor detail fields to use HTML preview by default so Markdown images can be displayed. (#10459) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Fix the missing record unique key setting in the v2 collection editor. (#10453) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow] Fixed workflow user selection when a user-related collection uses its primary key as the user foreign key (#10354) by @mytharcher
[File manager] Fixed AI employee workflow nodes failing to access NocoBase permanent file URLs and unnecessarily copying internal files to AI storage. (#10408) by @cgyrock
[AI: Knowledge base] Knowledge base uploads now allow all document formats supported by the backend by @cgyrock
[Template print] Fix dynamic image rendering for stable file URLs in template printing. by @hongboji

v2.3.0-beta.9

Release date: 2026-09-10

🚀 Improvements

[utils] Added an option to block server-side requests and redirects to literal IP addresses (#10490) by @2013xile
[client-v2] Improve V2 form QR scanning reliability on iOS. (#10456) by @katherinehhh
[WeCom] Improved type safety and unified the notification recipient selector in the WeCom plugin. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Hide unsupported built-in date variables from workflow create and update field assignments. (#10442) by @mytharcher
- Fix full-page reloads when opening settings pages (#10474) by @zhangzhonghe
- Fixed the v2 Update record field settings failing after an assigned field was deleted. (#10483) by @katherinehhh
- Show the standard deleted-field warning for historical V2 field assignments. (#10484) by @katherinehhh
- Fix interrupted option value input for custom radio and checkbox fields in filter forms (#10480) by @zhangzhonghe
- Support displaying to-many association fields as read-only subtables in client v2 forms. (#10478) by @katherinehhh
- Fix nested association fields rendering blank in V2 forms when the parent relation uses dropdown selection. (#10477) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed the inverse relationship type being editable in v2 field configuration. (#10476) by @katherinehhh
- Fix filter forms not collapsing on mobile (#10479) by @zhangzhonghe
[server] Fixed misleading preparing status when a subapp deployment environment is unavailable (#10485) by @2013xile
[cli] Restrict legacy local upload URLs to signed-in users by default, with an opt-in compatibility switch for public access. (#10471) by @mytharcher
[Workflow: Delay node] Fixed delay duration variable validation and report invalid resolved values instead of waiting unexpectedly. (#10469) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager]
- Fixed the inverse-field option not remaining selected when editing a v2 relation field. (#10482) by @katherinehhh
- Added current user and current role variable selection to v2 permission data scopes (#10472) by @jiannx
[Notification: In-app message] Allow all workflow variable types in in-app notification titles and detail links. (#10470) by @mytharcher
[Access control] Fix role permissions so selecting a deeply nested menu also selects all parent menus (#10473) by @zhangzhonghe
[Block: Kanban] Fixed an issue where newly created records were not immediately visible in the Kanban block. (#10463) by @gaurangagar
[File manager] Prevent file redirects from reusing expired signed storage URLs. (#10475) by @mytharcher
[Flow engine] Fixed non-admin variable resolution in form linkage rules, referenced templates, and scripts. (#10467) by @gchust
[Workflow: Approval] Fix approval cards showing outdated content after saving an edited draft by @zhangzhonghe
[App supervisor] Fixed subapp access failures after rolling updates or deployment environment changes by @2013xile

v2.3.0-beta.8

Release date: 2026-09-07

🎉 New Features

[AI: Knowledge base] Added an authenticated knowledge base retrieval API and a built-in provider for connecting remote NocoBase knowledge bases. by @cgyrock

🚀 Improvements

[Notification: In-app message] Fixed frontend freezing after selecting an in-app message or email channel in workflow v2 notification nodes (#10445) by @jiannx

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server] Fixed applications unexpectedly starting in environments where they were not deployed (#10464) by @2013xile
[AI employees]
- Fixed AI employees repeatedly querying knowledge bases when the Knowledge Base Prompt omitted the retrieved-content placeholder, and added clear validation guidance when saving the configuration. (#10413) by @cgyrock
- Prevented Bedrock errors caused by aborted AI responses leaving tool calls without matching tool results. (#10447) by @cgyrock
[Collection field: Markdown(Vditor)] Fix Vditor detail fields to use HTML preview by default so Markdown images can be displayed. (#10459) by @mytharcher
[Collection: SQL] Restricted SQL collections from querying PostgreSQL system objects or executing multiple statements (#10455) by @2013xile
[Block: Comment] Fixed the record comments block to display the commenter's nickname when using the Last modified by field (#10446) by @jiannx
[Workflow] Fixed workflow user selection when a user-related collection uses its primary key as the user foreign key (#10354) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Fix the missing record unique key setting in the v2 collection editor. (#10453) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow: JavaScript] Fixed an issue where a timed-out JavaScript workflow node could incorrectly abort the workflow instead of respecting "Continue when exception thrown". (#10461) by @mytharcher
[AI: Knowledge base]
- Knowledge base uploads now allow all document formats supported by the backend by @cgyrock
- Fixed PGVector connection testing, ZIP import result display, document segment-setting inheritance, and validation for chunk overlap values in AI knowledge bases. by @cgyrock
[Template print] Fix dynamic image rendering for stable file URLs in template printing. by @hongboji
[App supervisor] Fixed exposure of sub-application authentication secrets in application management responses by @2013xile
[DingTalk] Unified the DingTalk notification recipient selector. by @chenzhizdt

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.5

Release date: 2026-09-09

🚀 Improvements

[WeCom] Improved type safety and unified the notification recipient selector in the WeCom plugin. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[client-v2]
- Support displaying to-many association fields as read-only subtables in client v2 forms. (#10478) by @katherinehhh
- Fixed the inverse relationship type being editable in v2 field configuration. (#10476) by @katherinehhh
- Fix nested association fields rendering blank in V2 forms when the parent relation uses dropdown selection. (#10477) by @katherinehhh
[cli] Restrict legacy local upload URLs to signed-in users by default, with an opt-in compatibility switch for public access. (#10471) by @mytharcher
[Workflow: JavaScript] Fixed an issue where a timed-out JavaScript workflow node could incorrectly abort the workflow instead of respecting "Continue when exception thrown". (#10461) by @mytharcher
[File manager] Prevent file redirects from reusing expired signed storage URLs. (#10475) by @mytharcher
[Notification: In-app message] Allow all workflow variable types in in-app notification titles and detail links. (#10470) by @mytharcher
[Data source manager] Added current user and current role variable selection to v2 permission data scopes (#10472) by @jiannx
[Block: Kanban] Fixed an issue where newly created records were not immediately visible in the Kanban block. (#10463) by @gaurangagar
[DingTalk] Unified the DingTalk notification recipient selector. by @chenzhizdt

v2.4.0-alpha.4

Release date: 2026-09-06

🎉 New Features

[AI: Knowledge base] Added an authenticated knowledge base retrieval API and a built-in provider for connecting remote NocoBase knowledge bases. by @cgyrock

🚀 Improvements

[Notification: In-app message] Fixed frontend freezing after selecting an in-app message or email channel in workflow v2 notification nodes (#10445) by @jiannx

🐛 Bug Fixes

[server] Fixed applications unexpectedly starting in environments where they were not deployed (#10464) by @2013xile
[Collection field: Markdown(Vditor)] Fix Vditor detail fields to use HTML preview by default so Markdown images can be displayed. (#10459) by @mytharcher
[AI employees]
- Fixed AI employees repeatedly querying knowledge bases when the Knowledge Base Prompt omitted the retrieved-content placeholder, and added clear validation guidance when saving the configuration. (#10413) by @cgyrock
- Prevented Bedrock errors caused by aborted AI responses leaving tool calls without matching tool results. (#10447) by @cgyrock
[Block: Comment] Fixed the record comments block to display the commenter's nickname when using the Last modified by field (#10446) by @jiannx
[Data source manager] Fix the missing record unique key setting in the v2 collection editor. (#10453) by @katherinehhh
[Workflow] Fixed workflow user selection when a user-related collection uses its primary key as the user foreign key (#10354) by @mytharcher
[Collection: SQL] Restricted SQL collections from querying PostgreSQL system objects or executing multiple statements (#10455) by @2013xile
[AI: Knowledge base]
- Fixed PGVector connection testing, ZIP import result display, document segment-setting inheritance, and validation for chunk overlap values in AI knowledge bases. by @cgyrock
- Knowledge base uploads now allow all document formats supported by the backend by @cgyrock
[Template print] Fix dynamic image rendering for stable file URLs in template printing. by @hongboji
[App supervisor] Fixed exposure of sub-application authentication secrets in application management responses by @2013xile

10 Open-Source AI Agent Platforms for Business: From Automation to Internal Apps

NocoBase — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 14:07:48 +0000

Originally published at https://www.nocobase.com/en/blog/open-source-ai-agent-platforms-for-business

TL;DR

These 10 platforms can be roughly grouped into three categories:

NocoBase, Activepieces, Kestra, and Windmill are better suited to connecting AI with enterprise data, automation, and business processes.
Coze Studio, Langflow, and Dify are better suited to visually building Agents and AI applications.
MaxKB, AnythingLLM, and RAGFlow are better suited to enterprise knowledge bases and RAG.

If a company needs to manage structured business data, permissions, and internal applications, NocoBase is worth considering first. If the main goal is to connect multiple SaaS tools and automate tasks, Activepieces is a strong option. If the focus is building Agents and AI workflows, Dify, Langflow, or Coze Studio are good starting points. If private document Q&A and complex knowledge retrieval matter most, MaxKB, AnythingLLM, or RAGFlow are more suitable.

Introduction

More companies are starting to bring AI Agents into everyday work. Customer follow-up, email organization, task reminders, and data summaries are all examples of repetitive work that can increasingly be handed over to AI.

On Reddit's r/smallbusiness, one small-business owner explained that they already use ChatGPT and want to go further by letting AI handle customer follow-up, email classification, proposal reminders, and weekly summaries. As they researched further, they came across n8n, Zapier, APIs, MCP, and various Agent-building tools. They do not have a development background and do not want to learn an entire technical stack just for a few automation workflows. What made the decision even harder was the maintenance question: if it takes several weeks to build these applications, will they then need constant upkeep and eventually become more complicated than the original way of working?

This is a common problem when businesses choose AI Agent tools. A simple search for “AI Agent” brings up very different types of products: developer frameworks such as LangChain, CrewAI, and Haystack; Agent-building platforms; automation tools; RAG platforms; and enterprise application platforms that can manage business data, pages, permissions, and workflows in the same system.

Based on practical business use cases, this article collects 10 open-source AI Agent projects that support self-hosting and already provide visual applications, workflows, knowledge bases, or business-system capabilities. For each project, we look at the basics, notable AI Agent capabilities, business use cases, and the types of teams it is best suited for.

To keep the scope clear, the projects included here need to meet several basic criteria: the core code is public and actively maintained, self-hosting is supported, Agent, tool-calling, or AI workflow capabilities are already available, and the project provides at least one of the following: visual applications, automation, knowledge bases, or enterprise business systems. Project information and selection guidance are based mainly on official websites, GitHub repositories, and official documentation. This is not a benchmark under a unified test environment or a complete ranking.

💡 If you are more interested in development frameworks such as LangChain and CrewAI and want to compare different Agent frameworks and development platforms, see our earlier article: 8 Open-Source AI Agent Platforms for Internal Tools.

Before going through the projects one by one, you can first scan the list below to understand how their positioning, use cases, and technical requirements differ.

1. Enterprise Applications and Business Automation

1. NocoBase

Website: https://www.nocobase.com/

GitHub: https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase

GitHub Stars: 23.9K

Related documentation

AI Employees: https://docs.nocobase.com/ai-employees/quick-start

AI Builder: https://docs.nocobase.com/ai-builder

NocoBase is an open-source, self-hosted AI no-code platform for enterprise applications. It is mainly used to build CRM systems, ticketing systems, IT management systems, approval workflows, and other internal business applications. It provides the foundational capabilities required by enterprise applications, including data models, pages, permissions, and workflows, while also allowing AI to participate in both application building and later adjustments. AI Employees can also be configured inside the system so AI can combine current business data, tools, and processes to perform analysis, information processing, and task execution.

Core AI Capabilities

AI + no-code application building: Users can describe business requirements in natural language, and AI can create data tables and relationships, pages, workflows, and role permissions. NocoBase provides both a no-code portal and an AI portal. The no-code portal makes it easier for business users to continue adjusting the application visually, while the AI portal is better suited to complex interactions and highly customized pages.

👉 AI Portal Quick Start - NocoBase Documentation

AI Portal:

No-code Portal:

AI Employees and business execution: AI can participate in daily work as a specific role, handling tasks such as data analysis, email organization, and information extraction. It can also use system tools and workflows to query data, fill forms, or trigger business processes.

👉 AI Employees: Using Tools - NocoBase Documentation

Enterprise knowledge base: AI Employees can retrieve enterprise knowledge automatically or on demand, with accessible content filtered according to the current user's role. This allows customer service, sales, or internal assistants to work with the company's own knowledge.

👉 NocoBase AI Knowledge Base Documentation

Enterprise permissions and execution control: AI Employees inherit the current user's data permissions. Important operations such as modifying data can also require confirmation before execution, helping prevent an Agent from gaining access beyond the user's own permission scope.

👉 AI Employee Roles and Permissions - NocoBase Documentation

Business Use Cases

CRM: Organize communication details from customer emails or meeting notes, generate follow-up suggestions, and assist sales using customer, contact, and opportunity data.

Customer support and ticketing: Analyze submitted customer issues, determine category and priority, generate response suggestions using the knowledge base, and participate in ticket-handling workflows.

IT management: Identify IT request types, priorities, and handling suggestions from employees' natural-language descriptions, then work with asset, maintenance, approval, and related business data.

Internal business applications: Configure AI Employees for different roles in procurement, approval, project management, operations, and other systems, allowing them to use business data and workflows to complete routine tasks.

Selection Guidance

NocoBase is a good fit for teams with clearly defined business needs such as CRM, customer support ticketing, IT management, or approvals, especially when they want AI to accelerate application building without asking AI to create an entire business system from scratch. Core capabilities such as data models, permissions, and workflows are already provided by the platform. Business teams can complete most of the setup with no-code tools and AI, then extend the system further through APIs and plugins. It is especially suitable for teams building internal systems that are expected to be used and iterated over the long term.

2. Activepieces

Website: https://www.activepieces.com/

GitHub: https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces

GitHub Stars: 24.0K

Related documentation

MCP: https://www.activepieces.com/docs/mcp/overview

Product Overview

Activepieces is an open-source, self-hosted AI automation platform mainly used to connect the applications, data, and business processes a company already relies on. It brings AI Agents, automation workflows, and data into the same environment and is well suited to sales, customer support, operations, and other work that spans multiple tools.

Core AI Capabilities

Visual AI Agent creation: Users can define an Agent's task, model, and available tools, then place the Agent directly inside automation workflows. Existing workflows can also be reused as Agent tools.

Natural-language automation building: Users can describe what they want to accomplish and let AI generate an Agent or automation workflow. They can then continue editing visually by adding conditions, loops, and code execution.
Connect business tools: The platform can connect more than 700 applications, including CRM systems, email, collaboration tools, spreadsheets, and other commonly used services. Through MCP, tools and workflows built in the platform can also be exposed to other AI clients that support MCP.

Business Use Cases

Sales lead processing: Capture new leads from email or forms, let AI classify customer type and priority, update the CRM, and generate follow-up content.
Customer support workflows: Automatically read customer issues, classify and summarize them, assign tickets, and synchronize information between customer support systems and CRM.
Daily operations automation: Organize email, extract information, synchronize spreadsheets or databases, and automatically generate daily reports, weekly reports, and business notifications from data across multiple systems.

Selection Guidance

Activepieces is better suited to small and midsize teams or business departments that already use several SaaS tools but have limited development resources. Sales, marketing, customer support, and operations teams that frequently move data, send messages, and follow up across multiple systems can start with visual workflows and later add APIs or custom integrations as requirements become more complex.

3. Kestra

Website: https://kestra.io/

GitHub: https://github.com/kestra-io/kestra

GitHub Stars: 28.0K

Related documentation

AI Copilot: https://kestra.io/docs/ai-tools/ai-copilot

Product Overview

Kestra is an open-source, self-hosted workflow orchestration platform mainly used to manage automation across data, AI, and infrastructure. AI Agents can run directly as tasks inside workflows, calling tools, executing other tasks, or triggering existing flows based on their goals.

Core AI Capabilities

AI Agents working with workflows: AI Copilot can generate or modify workflows from natural-language instructions. Agents can also be placed directly inside existing workflows, where they can use models, memory, tools, and existing Kestra tasks and flows, then decide the next step based on execution results.

Visual and code-based development: Workflows can be created and adjusted through the visual interface, while more complex requirements can be extended with YAML, Python, Docker, and custom scripts.

Traceable execution: Agents and regular tasks share the same runtime system, making it possible to inspect execution status, logs, and failure records in one place for easier troubleshooting and maintenance.

Business Use Cases

Data-processing automation: Choose next steps based on data state and call existing workflows to complete cleaning, analysis, and aggregation.
IT and operations workflows: Analyze alerts or system events, then execute checks, notifications, or other follow-up tasks.
Complex business and AI workflows: Combine models, tools, approvals, data processing, and cross-system tasks to handle workflows that require multiple steps and dynamic decisions.

Selection Guidance

Kestra is better suited to teams that already have some automation foundation and have developers, data engineers, or operations specialists involved. Its orchestration capabilities become more valuable when workflows grow longer and need task dependencies, retries, execution-state tracking, and multi-step AI decisions. If a small team only wants to build a few simple business automations quickly, it may not need such a complete workflow system.

4. Windmill

Website: https://www.windmill.dev/

GitHub: https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill

GitHub Stars: 17.7K

Related documentation

AI Agent applications: https://www.windmill.dev/use-cases/ai-agents

Product Overview

Windmill is an open-source, self-hosted development and automation platform that can run scripts, APIs, workflows, and internal applications in one environment. It supports both visual orchestration and code in Python, TypeScript, Go, SQL, and other languages, making it more suitable for teams with some technical expertise.

Core AI Capabilities

Add Agents to workflows: AI Agents can run directly as workflow steps and be combined with conditions, approvals, error handling, and other nodes to handle tasks that require AI judgment.

Use existing technical resources: Agents can use scripts, databases, APIs, and other workflows already available in Windmill. They can also connect to MCP tools, allowing teams to reuse existing code and internal services directly inside Agent workflows.

Permissions, approvals, and execution records: Teams can limit which resources an Agent can access and execute, require human confirmation before important actions, and inspect tool calls, inputs and outputs, logs, and execution status for each run.

Business Use Cases

IT and operations automation: Analyze problems based on alerts or system state, then call scripts to perform checks, remediation, and notifications.
Data processing and analysis: Query databases or run existing data scripts, let an Agent analyze the results, and trigger subsequent workflows.
Internal AI tools: Combine Agents, backend scripts, and internal app interfaces to build data assistants, operations tools, and other internal applications.

Selection Guidance

Windmill is more suitable for teams that already have developers, data specialists, or operations engineers. If a company has accumulated many scripts, databases, APIs, and internal services and wants to reuse those existing resources for Agents and automation, Windmill can be a natural fit. For teams without technical staff that mainly want to build a few simple workflows visually, its development-platform orientation may feel heavier.

2. Visual AI Agent Building Platforms

5. Coze Studio

Website: https://www.coze.cn/home

GitHub: https://github.com/coze-dev/coze-studio

GitHub Stars: 21.5K

AI Agent documentation: https://github.com/coze-dev/coze-studio/wiki/1.-What-is-Coze-Studio

Product Overview

Coze Studio is an open-source, all-in-one AI Agent development platform from ByteDance. Its main focus is visually creating, debugging, and deploying Agents. Users can combine models, knowledge, and tools directly, making it suitable for quickly building customer-service assistants, knowledge Q&A, content assistants, and other AI applications.

Core AI Capabilities

Visual Agent and workflow building: Configure models, prompts, and tools through the interface, or orchestrate multi-step workflows on a canvas with conditions, data processing, and other logic.

RAG and knowledge bases: Connect enterprise documents and knowledge data so Agents can answer questions and handle tasks based on specified content.
Plugins and external tools: Agents can call external services through plugins, bringing search, queries, data processing, and other capabilities into the execution process.

Development, debugging, and deployment: Agents can be created, tested, and deployed within the same platform, reducing the need to switch between multiple tools.

Business Use Cases

AI customer support: Use knowledge bases to answer product, service, and after-sales questions, while plugins query additional business information.
Enterprise knowledge assistants: Provide employee Q&A, document lookup, and information organization based on internal documents and knowledge bases.
Content and marketing assistants: Combine search, content generation, and workflows for research, content organization, and first-draft creation.

Selection Guidance

Coze Studio is a good fit for teams that are just starting to experiment with AI Agents and want to quickly build customer-service assistants, knowledge Q&A, or content assistants without dedicated AI developers. Product, operations, or business teams can validate ideas visually first, then add knowledge bases, plugins, and more complex workflows as needed.

6. Langflow

Website: https://www.langflow.org/

GitHub: https://github.com/langflow-ai/langflow

GitHub Stars: 153.9K

Related documentation

Agents: https://docs.langflow.org/agents

Product Overview

Langflow is an open-source visual AI application development platform mainly used to build Agents and AI workflows. It combines models, tools, data, and other Agents through modular components while retaining Python extensibility, making it suitable for AI application scenarios that require frequent experimentation and iteration.

Core AI Capabilities

Drag-and-drop building and multi-Agent composition: Configure Agents on a visual canvas and connect models, prompts, tools, and other components into complete workflows. Components and flows can also be used as Agent tools, and multiple Agents can divide work such as retrieval, analysis, and organization.
MCP support: Connect external MCP services or expose workflows built in Langflow to other AI applications that support MCP.

Models and Python extensions: Freely combine different models and data sources. When built-in components do not cover a requirement, custom Python components can connect enterprise APIs and processing logic.

Business Use Cases

Knowledge and document applications: Combine internal documents, retrieval, models, and Agents for knowledge Q&A, document analysis, and information extraction.
Multi-Agent workflows: Let different Agents handle retrieval, analysis, organization, and other tasks, then connect them into one complete process.
AI application prototypes: Quickly validate ideas such as customer support assistants, research assistants, and content-generation tools, then connect them to existing products through APIs.

Selection Guidance

Langflow is better suited to teams with some technical involvement that need to experiment frequently with different models and Agent structures. Product or data teams can first build workflows visually, while developers add more complex functionality through Python, custom components, and APIs. It is well suited to prototyping and continuous experimentation. For teams with no technical staff that only want to launch fixed business workflows quickly, later-stage maintenance may depend more heavily on developers.

7. Dify

Website: https://dify.ai/

GitHub: https://github.com/langgenius/dify

GitHub Stars: 154.0K

Related documentation

Official documentation: https://docs.dify.ai/

Dify is an open-source AI application development platform for building Agents, knowledge assistants, and more complex AI workflows. It covers the full lifecycle from application creation and debugging to publishing and ongoing runtime management, making it suitable for teams that want to develop multiple AI applications continuously within one platform.

Core AI Capabilities

Agent and workflow building: Configure Agent models, instructions, tools, and knowledge bases through the visual interface, or use the canvas to orchestrate multi-step workflows with conditions, knowledge retrieval, tool calls, and human input.

RAG and knowledge processing: Build knowledge bases from PDF, PPT, and other documents, with content cleaning, chunking, indexing, and retrieval testing.

Model and plugin extensions: Connect multiple model providers and add new tools, data sources, triggers, and Agent capabilities through plugins.
Publishing and runtime management: Publish completed applications as web apps or APIs, while monitoring logs, feedback, latency, and usage.

Business Use Cases

AI customer support and knowledge assistants: Combine enterprise knowledge bases and external tools to handle customer inquiries or internal employee knowledge searches.
Business information processing: Connect extraction, classification, analysis, generation, and tool calls into complete workflows.
Rapid AI application launch: Publish completed Agents or workflows as applications or APIs, then integrate them with existing products and business systems.

Selection Guidance

Dify is a good fit when a team has moved beyond experimenting with a single Agent and plans to keep building customer support, knowledge assistants, content-processing tools, and other AI applications. Business and product teams can complete most configuration visually, while developers can add plugins, APIs, and deeper integrations when needed. For small and midsize businesses or product teams that want to manage multiple AI projects on one platform, it can be easier than maintaining several separate tools.

3. Enterprise Knowledge and RAG Agents

8. MaxKB

Website: https://maxkb.cn/

GitHub: https://github.com/1Panel-dev/MaxKB

GitHub Stars: 22.6K

Related documentation

Official documentation: https://maxkb.cn/docs/v2/index.html

Product Overview

MaxKB is an open-source, self-hosted enterprise Agent platform that is well suited to starting with enterprise knowledge bases and knowledge Q&A. In addition to basic RAG, it provides visual workflows and tool-calling capabilities that can be extended into customer support, office assistants, and similar scenarios.

Core AI Capabilities

Enterprise knowledge bases and RAG: Upload documents or crawl online content, then perform chunking, vectorization, and knowledge retrieval for internal materials and professional Q&A.
Visual workflows and tool calling: Combine AI conversation, knowledge retrieval, conditions, forms, document extraction, and other nodes on a canvas. MCP services can also be connected so models can call external tools.
Multiple models and local deployment: Connect public models such as OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Qwen, as well as local models through Ollama, vLLM, and similar tools.
Integration with existing systems: Completed Agents can be embedded into websites and internal applications through public links, embed code, or APIs.

Business Use Cases

AI customer support: Connect product knowledge bases, FAQs, and business materials to an Agent for handling customer inquiries.
Professional knowledge applications: Use industry materials for search, organization, and analysis in finance, education, research, and other specialized scenarios.

Selection Guidance

MaxKB is particularly suitable for teams that already have a large amount of enterprise documentation and knowledge material and want to build knowledge-focused AI Agents relatively quickly. Its visual workflows and knowledge-base capabilities have a relatively low entry barrier, while local deployment and local models make it a good fit for organizations with requirements around internal knowledge use, data control, and third-party system integration.

9. AnythingLLM

Website: https://anythingllm.com/

GitHub: https://github.com/Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm

GitHub Stars: 65.4K

Related documentation

Agent Flow: https://docs.anythingllm.com/agent-flows/overview

Product Overview

AnythingLLM is an open-source, local-first AI application mainly used to build AI assistants based on private documents and internal knowledge. It offers both desktop and self-hosted versions with a relatively complete graphical interface, so teams can start without first setting up a complex development environment.

Core AI Capabilities

Private documents and RAG: Add PDF, Word, text, and other files to separate workspaces so AI can answer questions based on selected content while preserving citations.

Agent Flow: Visually combine web scraping, API calls, model instructions, file reading and writing, and other steps into repeatable processing flows.
Multi-user and permissions: The self-hosted version supports multiple users and permission management, allowing teams to separate workspaces and knowledge access by user or group.

Business Use Cases

Internal knowledge and document assistants: Answer questions, summarize information, and extract data from company policies, product materials, training documents, contracts, and reports.
Research and document organization: Combine internal documents, web information, and tool calls to collect, organize, and analyze information.

Selection Guidance

AnythingLLM is better suited to individuals, small teams, or companies that want to pilot a private AI assistant within a department first. Even without dedicated AI developers, teams can start quickly with document Q&A and information organization. If the main goal is to let AI use internal knowledge securely rather than build complex business workflows, it is a lighter-weight option.

10. RAGFlow

Website: https://ragflow.io/

GitHub: https://github.com/infiniflow/ragflow

GitHub Stars: 89.7K

Related documentation

Agent guide: https://github.com/infiniflow/ragflow/tree/main/docs/guides/agent

Product Overview

RAGFlow is an open-source RAG and AI Agent platform focused on complex document processing and enterprise knowledge retrieval. Compared with simpler knowledge-Q&A tools, it is better suited to scenarios with complex document types, large knowledge volumes, and stronger requirements for retrieval accuracy and source traceability.

Core AI Capabilities

Complex document understanding: Process PDF, Word, PPT, spreadsheets, images, and long documents, extracting information that can be used for retrieval and analysis.
High-accuracy RAG: Combine vector retrieval, keyword search, reranking, and metadata filtering to improve retrieval accuracy and traceability.
Agent workflows: Use a visual canvas to combine retrieval, models, conditions, loops, classification, and other steps. More complex patterns such as multi-Agent workflows, planning, and reflection are also supported.

Tools and data-source integration: Agents can call external tools and support MCP. Enterprise knowledge can also be synchronized from Confluence, S3, Notion, Google Drive, and other sources.

Business Use Cases

Complex enterprise knowledge bases: Build a unified knowledge retrieval system across large collections of policies, technical manuals, reports, and professional materials.
Legal and compliance analysis: Retrieve supporting evidence from regulations, contracts, cases, and internal materials, then generate analysis with sources.
Research and decision support: Combine internal data and external materials so Agents can retrieve, analyze, and generate reports.

Selection Guidance

RAGFlow is suitable for teams with large knowledge volumes, complex documents, and some technical resources. In legal, manufacturing, technical support, research, and similar settings, it has stronger advantages when materials contain many long documents, tables, images, or specialized content and when retrieval accuracy and source evidence matter significantly.

Conclusion

Many AI Agent products are beginning to overlap in functionality. Visual workflows, knowledge bases, MCP, and tool calling are now available on more and more platforms. In practice, teams need to consider whether these capabilities can fit smoothly into existing work and how much additional operational and maintenance overhead they will introduce.

Hopefully, this article helps narrow down the options. Feel free to share it with friends or teams that are also looking for AI Agent tools.

If you want to build similar enterprise applications with AI and NocoBase, these complete examples may be useful:

👉 Build a CRM with AI + NocoBase

👉 Build an Enterprise IT Operations System with AI + NocoBase

Related reading:

Weekly Updates: Improvements and Bug Fixes

NocoBase — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 08:33:13 +0000

Summarize the weekly product update logs, and the latest releases can be checked on our blog.

NocoBase is currently updated across three branches: main, next, and develop.

main: The most stable version to date, recommended for installation.
next: Beta version, contains upcoming new features and has been preliminarily tested. There might be some known or unknown issues. It is mainly used to collect feedback from test users and further optimize features. Ideal for test users who want to experience new features early and provide feedback.
develop: Alpha version, contains the latest feature code, may be incomplete or unstable, and is mainly used for internal development and rapid iteration. Suited for technical users interested in cutting-edge product capabilities, but not recommended for production use.

main

v2.2.6

Release date: 2026-09-02

🚀 Improvements

[Migration manager] Displayed migration file sizes with readable binary units instead of raw byte counts by @hongboji

🐛 Bug Fixes

[utils] Prevent stored XSS in rich-text fields written through APIs and rendered in display or edit mode. (#10425) by @katherinehhh
[database] Fixed SQL Server string filters failing to match literal square brackets and other LIKE wildcard characters (#10436) by @hongboji
[Collection field: Markdown(Vditor)] Restore table actions in V2 Markdown Vditor fields. (#10438) by @katherinehhh
[File manager] Fixed the missing file storage selector in v2 file collection create and edit forms. (#10439) by @katherinehhh
[File storage: S3(Pro)] Fix S3 Pro multipart upload failures for backup files larger than 5 MB. by @mytharcher

v2.2.5

Release date: 2026-08-31

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Workflow]
- Improve workflow task detail handling on mobile by using a full-width Drawer and responsive task-center presentation. (#10428) by @mytharcher
- Optimized pending workflow job recovery by adding a composite index on job status and ID. (#10427) by @mytharcher
- Fix schedule workflows in static mode running one more time after endsOn (#10411) by @Tespera
[Notification manager] Fix workflow user recipient variables displaying Variable parsing failed and unify user selectors across workflow nodes. (#10432) by @mytharcher
[Workflow: Approval]
- Adapted approval task details and remote forms to narrow mobile viewports. by @mytharcher
- Fix approval assignee variables displaying Variable parsing failed and reuse the shared workflow user selector. by @mytharcher

v2.2.4

Release date: 2026-08-28

🐛 Bug Fixes

[AI: Knowledge base] Fixed AI employees incorrectly reporting no knowledge-base access for root users by @hongboji
[Workflow: Approval] Fixed the approval trigger-variable form not rendering for subflow nodes on v1 workflow pages. by @mytharcher
[DingTalk] Fixed an issue where DingTalk Stream mode synchronization sources could not be submitted in the v1 client. by @chenzhizdt

v2.3.0-beta.6

Release date: 2026-08-31

🐛 Bug Fixes

[Workflow]
- Optimized pending workflow job recovery by adding a composite index on job status and ID. (#10427) by @mytharcher
- Fix schedule workflows in static mode running one more time after endsOn (#10411) by @Tespera
- Improve workflow task detail handling on mobile by using a full-width Drawer and responsive task-center presentation. (#10428) by @mytharcher
[Notification manager] Fix workflow user recipient variables displaying Variable parsing failed and unify user selectors across workflow nodes. (#10432) by @mytharcher
[Workflow: Approval]
- Fix approval assignee variables displaying Variable parsing failed and reuse the shared workflow user selector. by @mytharcher
- Adapted approval task details and remote forms to narrow mobile viewports. by @mytharcher
[DingTalk] Fixed an issue where DingTalk Stream mode synchronization sources could not be submitted in the v1 client. by @chenzhizdt

develop

v2.4.0-alpha.3

Release date: 2026-09-02

🚀 Improvements

[AI employees] Removed the persisted AI context data source settings and selector while keeping direct data source query capabilities. (#10450) by @cgyrock

v2.4.0-alpha.2

Release date: 2026-09-02

🚀 Improvements

[undefined] Corrected the root package license metadata to Apache-2.0 and raised the Node.js requirement to version 22 (#10448) by @hongboji
[DingTalk] DingTalk ActionCard button links can now be configured to open in an external browser. by @chenzhizdt

🐛 Bug Fixes

[File manager] Fixed AI employee workflow nodes failing to access NocoBase permanent file URLs and unnecessarily copying internal files to AI storage. (#10408) by @cgyrock
[AI employees] Fixed an error that prevented business analysis reports containing charts from opening. (#10440) by @cgyrock

v2.4.0-alpha.1

Release date: 2026-09-02

🚀 Improvements

[Migration manager] Displayed migration file sizes with readable binary units instead of raw byte counts by @hongboji

🐛 Bug Fixes

[database] Fixed SQL Server string filters failing to match literal square brackets and other LIKE wildcard characters (#10436) by @hongboji
[utils] Prevent stored XSS in rich-text fields written through APIs and rendered in display or edit mode. (#10425) by @katherinehhh
[Collection field: Markdown(Vditor)] Restore table actions in V2 Markdown Vditor fields. (#10438) by @katherinehhh
[File manager] Fixed the missing file storage selector in v2 file collection create and edit forms. (#10439) by @katherinehhh
[File storage: S3(Pro)] Fix S3 Pro multipart upload failures for backup files larger than 5 MB. by @mytharcher