The crawler that will index /.well-known/freehold.json beacons automatically is still in development (see what's coming, below). Until it ships, this is a hand-checked starting list of local-first AI tools, grouped by where they sit in the stack. Inclusion here means a tool runs locally or self-hosts and keeps your data on your own hardware. It is the curated version, not yet the formal freehold verification, that arrives with the beacon. No ads, no rankings, no pay to play.

01 · Runtime the engine that runs a model on your own machine

Ollama

Run open models from one command, with a local API. Pulls and serves Llama, Mistral, Gemma, Qwen and more.

MITOfflineMac / Win / Linux

llama.cpp

The inference engine most local tools build on. Runs quantised GGUF models on CPU or GPU.

MITOfflineCross-platform

LM Studio

Desktop app to find, run and chat with local models, with an OpenAI-compatible server built in.

Free / closedOfflineMac / Win / Linux

Jan

An open-source offline ChatGPT alternative. Runs models on-device with an OpenAI-compatible API.

Open sourceOfflineCross-platform

GPT4All

Nomic's desktop app for running local models, including private chat over your own documents.

MITOfflineCross-platform

LocalAI

A self-hosted, OpenAI-compatible API for local inference across text, audio and images.

MITSelf-hostDocker

vLLM

A high-throughput serving engine for running models efficiently on your own GPUs.

Open sourceSelf-hostLinux / GPU
02 · Interface the window you talk to a model through

Open WebUI

A self-hosted, ChatGPT-style web interface that pairs with Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible backend.

Source-availableSelf-hostNeeds a backend

LibreChat

A self-hostable chat interface that works across many local and remote model backends.

MITSelf-hostNeeds a backend

AnythingLLM

An all-in-one app for chatting with your own documents using local models, with retrieval built in.

Open sourceDesktop / Docker
03 · Knowledge & memory where your own notes and files live, locally

Obsidian

A local-first Markdown knowledge base. Your notes are plain files on your disk, with optional AI plugins.

Free / closedOfflineCross-platform

Logseq

An open-source, local-first outliner that stores everything as Markdown files on your machine.

Open sourceOfflineCross-platform

Reor

A local-first AI note-taking app that runs models on-device and links related notes automatically.

Open sourceOfflineDesktop
04 · Personal AI an assistant that knows you and runs on your hardware (emerging)

Khoj

A self-hostable AI that searches and chats over your own notes and documents, scoped mainly to your files.

Open sourceSelf-hostDesktop

Odysseus AI

A free, self-hosted AI workspace from PewDiePie. Chat, autonomous agents, tools, model serving, email, research and documents in one private interface that runs on your own hardware. Connect local models or your own API endpoints.

Open sourceSelf-hostNo telemetry
Ours

LocalGhost

A fleet of small Go daemons for notes, memory, voice, vision and adversarial review, running on hardware you own with no cloud dependency. Early-stage and in active development, not yet a finished product.

MITSelf-hostIn development
Specialised local-first tools for one domain, beside the assistant stack

Rotki

A local-first, privacy-preserving portfolio and accounting tracker. Your financial data stays on your machine.

Open sourceOfflineDesktop

whisper.cpp

Fully offline speech-to-text on your own hardware. Transcribe audio with no upload.

MITOfflineCross-platform

ComfyUI

A node-based interface for running image-generation models locally, with full control of the pipeline.

Open sourceOfflineGPU

> WHAT'S COMING

> WHAT STILL NEEDS TO BE BUILT

See something missing from the ecosystem? We've mapped the gaps, the critical infrastructure, the tools that don't exist yet, and where help is needed most.

[ VIEW THE ROADMAP → ]