Local-first AI

@caisson/local-ai is the Local-first AI edition: a compute seam, a privacy gate, on-device vector search, an offline license check, and a local store. Inference and retrieval run on the machine that holds the data. Your data never leaves the device.

What it does

• Compute seam — one swappable point that decides where a model runs. The default target is the local device; a remote target is an explicit opt-in, never the fallback.
• Privacy gate — the egress boundary. A call that would cross the network is denied unless the policy allows it, so "on-device" is enforced in code, not promised in a README.
• On-device vector search — approximate nearest-neighbor over a local index using sqlite-vec. Embeddings and queries stay in the local store.
• Offline license — license verification that does not call home, so the edition keeps working on an air-gapped machine.
• Local store — the SQLite-backed home for vectors, documents, and the license record.

The guarantee

The privacy gate is the contract: data crosses the network boundary only on an explicit allow. The gate fails closed — with no allow rule, a remote call is denied, not silently downgraded.

import { createLocalAI } from "@caisson/local-ai";
import type { LocalAIConfig } from "@caisson/local-ai";

const config: LocalAIConfig = {
  // The gate fails closed: no network egress without an explicit allow rule.
  privacy: "device-only",
  vector: { backend: "sqlite-vec" },
};

const ai = createLocalAI(config);

// Embeddings and ANN search run on-device against the local store.
const hits = await ai.search("quarterly variance", { topK: 5 });

License

@caisson/local-ai ships under the Caisson Commercial License (LicenseRef-Caisson-Commercial) — own the source, build unlimited products, no redistribution of the kit. The same one-time perpetual model as every other edition; your data never leaves the device.

Next steps