Hotel chatbot SaaS costs $200-2,000/month with per-message fees and vendor-locked data. I built a free, self-hosted alternative.

Jack The Butler is an AI concierge that handles guest communication across WhatsApp, SMS, email, and web chat. Single Docker container, single SQLite database, deploy in 5 minutes.

Tech stack: Node.js, TypeScript, Hono, SQLite + sqlite-vec for embeddings, React dashboard. Supports Claude, GPT, Ollama, or fully local AI via Transformers.js (zero API costs).

Key design decisions: - SQLite for everything including vector search (sqlite-vec) — no Postgres, no Redis, one file to backup - Kernel/adapter architecture — core logic is channel-agnostic, channels and AI providers are swappable adapters - Setup wizard — hotel managers (non-technical users) need to go from docker run to working chatbot in under 5 minutes - Escalation engine — AI handles the easy 80%, smoothly hands off the hard 20% to staff with full context

One-click deploy on Railway/Render/Zeabur, or:

    docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -v jack-data:/app/data ghcr.io/jackthebutler/jackthebutler:latest

Would appreciate feedback on the architecture and UX. Happy to answer questions.

> Of course! I've extended your reservation in room 412 through Thursday. Same rate applies.

"And I won't bother to verify you. I am just going to trust you're that customer, because no-one would ever try to trick me into messing with another customer's booking!"

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