Introduction
Elmo is an open source AI visibility platform that tracks how AI search engines talk about your brand.
What is Elmo?
Elmo is an open source Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) platform. It monitors how AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews mention your brand in their responses.
Unlike proprietary alternatives, Elmo is fully self-hosted — you own your data, control your infrastructure, and can customize everything.
Key Features
- AI Visibility Tracking — Monitor your brand's presence across ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews
- Citation Analysis — See which sources AI models cite when discussing your brand
- Competitor Intelligence — Track how competitors appear in AI responses
- Prompt Management — Configure and track prompts relevant to your brand with an AI-powered wizard
- Automated Reports — Generate comprehensive AI visibility reports
- White Label — Deploy under your own brand with full multi-org support
How It Works
Elmo runs as a Docker Compose stack on your infrastructure. The CLI sets everything up in minutes:
npm install -g @elmohq/cli
elmo init
elmo startOnce running, the platform periodically queries AI models with your configured prompts and tracks how they mention your brand, competitors, and cited sources over time.
Architecture
Elmo consists of three main components:
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Web | The main dashboard for monitoring AI visibility, managing prompts, and viewing reports |
| Worker | Background job runner that queries AI models and processes responses on a schedule |
| CLI | Command-line interface for initializing and managing your Elmo deployment |
These run together via Docker Compose, backed by a PostgreSQL database.
Next Steps
Quick Start
Install the CLI and get Elmo running in minutes.
User Guide
Walk through the complete setup — from brand creation to visibility tracking.
Configuration
Configure AI models, deployment modes, and environment variables.
Contributing
Set up a development environment and contribute to Elmo.
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