Open-source Python framework for building LLM applications as explicit state machines — actions, state, transitions, plus a bundled UI for execution tracing and debugging. Apache Software Foundation incubating.
Open-source Python framework for building LLM applications as explicit state machines — actions, state, transitions, plus a bundled UI for execution tracing and debugging. Apache Software Foundation incubating.
Apache Burr (currently incubating at the ASF) is a Python framework that models LLM applications as state machines — explicit Actions, State, and Transitions instead of the chained-call abstractions favored by LangChain or the graph-of-nodes pattern in LangGraph. Burr's pitch is operational: state management, replay, debugging, and persistence are framework primitives rather than escape hatches, which is why production teams cite it specifically for getting from prototype to deployed. The cookbook covers concrete patterns: counter and 'choose your own adventure' toys; GPT-like multimodal chatbots; conversational RAG (often paired with Hamilton); divide-and-conquer agent patterns; web-server deployment; provisioning and monitoring; guardrails; hyperparameter tuning; simulations. The framework ships a bundled Burr UI for post-hoc state-machine visualization and execution trace monitoring — debugging surface that Reddit's LocalLlama community and engineers at Peanut Robotics, Watto.ai, Paxton AI, and Provectus specifically called out in public testimonials. Integrations include Hamilton, Streamlit, OpenTelemetry, Traceloop, Langchain, Pydantic, Haystack, and Ray. Burr is free and open-source under the Apache 2.0 license, with optional paid hosting from DAGWorks for teams that don't want to run telemetry infrastructure themselves.
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Apache Burr (Incubating) establishes a clear paradigm for AI application development by treating every workflow as an explicit state machine. Its bundled telemetry UI, pluggable persistence, and framework-agnostic design make it a compelling choice for teams prioritizing observability and reliability. The trade-off is a smaller ecosystem and more upfront design effort compared to larger frameworks.
Define applications as explicit state machines with decorator-based actions and conditional transitions, then inspect and replay executions through the built-in Burr UI's trace viewer and state inspector.
Works seamlessly with any LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, local models) and Python library, with no vendor lock-in or required abstraction layers.
Every installation includes a local web UI for step-by-step execution traces, state inspection, and time-travel debugging — no external services or accounts required.
Pluggable persistence backends support in-memory, SQLite, PostgreSQL, Redis, and custom stores for checkpointing, recovery, and long-running workflow state.
Deploy applications as web services with built-in FastAPI support, enabling straightforward scaling and integration into existing service architectures.
Currently incubating at the ASF, benefiting from its proven governance model with vendor-neutral oversight, transparent development, and community-driven roadmap.
Deep introspection capabilities allow examination of state at every step, enabling reproducible debugging and comprehensive audit trails for compliance.
Seamlessly manages state containing text, images, embeddings, and structured data across actions and transitions in complex AI pipelines.
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Apache Burr's most significant 2025–2026 milestone is its acceptance into the Apache Software Foundation Incubator, establishing vendor-neutral governance. The project has added streaming support, async execution, improved multi-agent patterns, and Burr Cloud beta for hosted observability.
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