The latest articles on DEV Community by Nik Vora (@nvsudo). https://dev.to/nvsudo https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3821836%2F012a804e-b382-4451-9d3a-812e55eca236.png https://dev.to/nvsudo en Nik Vora Fri, 13 Mar 2026 08:26:22 +0000 https://dev.to/nvsudo/i-shipped-opengates-a-python-runtime-for-filtering-inbound-through-conversation-4i89 https://dev.to/nvsudo/i-shipped-opengates-a-python-runtime-for-filtering-inbound-through-conversation-4i89 <p>I just shipped my first dev-facing release: OpenGates.</p> <p>OpenGates is a source-available Python runtime for filtering inbound through conversation.</p> <p>The core idea is that “inbound” is becoming its own systems problem. As outbound gets cheaper and easier to automate, the problem shifts from generating messages to judging them well. I wanted a small runtime that could take a gate definition and manage the actual thread: decline it, ask a bounded follow-up, or escalate it.</p> <p>What OpenGates includes:</p> <p>a file-based gate bundle<br> a local-first runtime<br> a FastAPI reference UI<br> a starter gate<br> a CLI<br> a PyPI package<br> The gate model is intentionally compact. A gate is mostly a few files:</p> <p>focus.md<br> standards.md<br> voice.md<br> examples.md<br> optional gate.yaml<br> From that, OpenGates runs a thread with three outcomes:</p> <p>decline<br> clarify<br> escalate<br> You can try it with:</p> <p>pip install opengates<br> opengates serve<br> Repo: github.com/nvsudo/opengates<br> PyPI: pypi.org/project/opengates</p> <p>A few things I’m especially interested in hearing from developers:</p> <p>does the gate-bundle abstraction feel right?<br> does the local-first setup make the runtime easier to trust?<br> what would you want before building on top of it?<br> It’s source-available under ELv2, so commercial internal use is allowed, but it is not OSI open source.</p> ai automation python showdev