Trying to build a "Jarvis" that never phones home - on-device AI with full access to your digital life (free beta, roast us)
Posted by ipav9@reddit | LocalLLaMA | View on Reddit | 68 comments
Hey r/LocalLLaMA,
I know, I know - another "we built something" post. I'll be upfront: this is about something we made, so feel free to scroll past if that's not your thing. But if you're into local inference and privacy-first AI with a WhatsApp/Signal-grade E2E encryption flavor, maybe stick around for a sec.
Who we are
We're Ivan and Dan - two devs from London who've been boiling in the AI field for a while and got tired of the "trust us with your data" model that every AI company seems to push.
What we built and why
We believe today's AI assistants are powerful but fundamentally disconnected from your actual life. Sure, you can feed ChatGPT a document or paste an email to get a smart-sounding reply. But that's not where AI gets truly useful. Real usefulness comes when AI has real-time access to your entire digital footprint - documents, notes, emails, calendar, photos, health data, maybe even your journal. That level of context is what makes AI actually proactive instead of just reactive.
But here's the hard sell: who's ready to hand all of that to OpenAI, Google, or Meta in one go? We weren't. So we built Atlantis - a two-app ecosystem (desktop + mobile) where all AI processing happens locally. No cloud calls, no "we promise we won't look at your data" - just on-device inference.
What it actually does (in beta right now):
- Morning briefings - your starting point for a true "Jarvis"-like AI experience (see demo video on product's main web page)
- HealthKit integration - ask about your health data (stays on-device where it belongs)
- Document vault & email access - full context without the cloud compromise
- Long-term memory - AI that actually remembers your conversation history across the chats
- Semantic search - across files, emails, and chat history
- Reminders & weather - the basics, done privately
Why I'm posting here specifically
This community actually understands local LLMs, their limitations, and what makes them useful (or not). You're also allergic to BS, which is exactly what we need right now.
We're in beta and it's completely free. No catch, no "free tier with limitations" - we're genuinely trying to figure out what matters to users before we even think about monetization.
What we're hoping for:
- Brutal honesty about what works and what doesn't
- Ideas on what would make this actually useful for your workflow
- Technical questions about our architecture (happy to get into the weeds)
Link if you're curious: https://roia.io
Not asking for upvotes or smth. Just feedback from people who know what they're talking about. Roast us if we deserve it - we'd rather hear it now than after we've gone down the wrong path.
Happy to answer any questions in the comments.
P.S. Before the tomatoes start flying - yes, we're Mac/iOS only at the moment. Windows, Linux, and Android are on the roadmap after our prod rollout in Q2. We had to start somewhere, and we promise we haven't forgotten about you.
sammcj@reddit
It looks to have a hard dependency on running Ollama locally - do you plan on supporting standard llama.cpp or openai compatible API endpoints as most of the community here will already be running those locally.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Ollama is just a wrapper around llama.cpp under the hood, so yes - eventually we'll package it directly into the desktop app to skip that extra install step. Cloud AI providers are already built in too - you can switch on demand when you need heavier inference for complex tasks or when your query does not intersect with sensitive data you don't want to share. Best of both worlds to say.
sammcj@reddit
It's not actually that simple - They've been shifting away from llama.cpp's libraries to their own inference engine (I'm a contributor to both projects).
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Really cool to cross paths! and thank you for contributing to open source that people like us can build on and bring to a wider audience. That work matters!
We're building on top of local LLM tooling regardless - if llama.cpp doesn't prove to be on par, we'll keep leveraging Ollama.
sammcj@reddit
Why not just use any OpenAI compatible API provider? Then you get Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio, llamaswap, and all the proprietary providers if folks want to use them without having to support any one special API.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
For the same reason many use Signal or WhatsApp, not iMessage or Telegram - to be 100% sure all your data remains yours by technology, not by service providers' promise.
sammcj@reddit
Just FYI if that is the reason - not all of Ollama's models are local, they're now offering up cloud models.
Trilogix@reddit
Congrats for the cool project, I still dont understand though what did you really build.
How does it run locally, does it come with the models incorporated? Then is it like some assistant oncall in the background or just click to voicechat?
It is impossible to give feedback if there is not an opensource/sourcecode or at least the app to try in other environments other then mac.
The project fits the need but there are many questions, can a mobile phone afford computing power in the long run, (especially using long term memory). Also you mention weather and search so practically internet access.... ?
Is too much theoretical in my opinion. I will see where this goes, and good luck.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the questions! Let me clarify the architecture:
We leverage desktop local LLM models to run all the heavy lifting - your phone essentially becomes a window into your desktop's AI compute power. Mobile devices are far from reliable for serious LLM inference, so we treat them as interfaces, not compute nodes.
Currently Atlantis operates in text mode (voice interaction is on the roadmap) - the voice you hear is just text-to-speech for messages/briefings.
The AI Core runs 24/7 on your desktop, processing your connected tools, document vaults, emails, etc. It can access internet when needed to pull data (like fetching new emails or search - coming soon), but the actual AI processing stays local.
We're planning to open source after public release. And, unfortunately, it's Mac/iOS only for the pilot - had to start somewhere.
Thanks for the thoughtful questions! Hope you'll find it useful when we expand platforms ;)
Exos9@reddit
So if I’m understanding right, my desktop runs the LLM server and my phone just “phones home” to it?
If so, this is definetly interesting, however my home server runs Proxmox, so Linux support would be an awesome addition. My desktop doesn’t run 24/7, my server does.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Glad someone caught the distinction! "Phones home" = sending data to cloud servers. In our case, mobile talks to your desktop via encrypted packets through a relay that just passes blobs we can't read, we don't store or process on our end (nonsense for encrypted data).
On Linux - Mac app runs a Python core, so porting to Linux is on the roadmap right after prod. Your always-on server setup is exactly the use case we're building toward but for a wider audience
Exos9@reddit
Awesome! I’ll have to check it out then. Regarding the private relay that is hosted on your servers, will there be a way to self-host it as well? I don’t necessarily want to connect to your relay nor do I want to need my VPN connected 24/7.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1p6mmb1/comment/nqrp4tp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button more on topic. Shortly - ultimate goal - have no server in the middle, open source relay code so you could host it yourself if needed. For now - you can just sniff the packets and see all content exchanged is e2e encrypted
Trilogix@reddit
This may actually work (ofc, if taking for good your answer). I would try it certainly, how bad can it be? It must be better for sure then all other AI services combined (copilot, siri, chatX, google, services, even the damn notepad, for god sake) that I call literally a malware. Hope there is no python involved.
Best of luck
ipav9@reddit (OP)
That's exactly what we're aiming for - handle all the configs and coding so local LLMs are accessible to anyone who can't or doesn't want to open a terminal
pseudopseudonym@reddit
Zero Knowledge as in ZK or as in buzzword?
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Good catch - not ZK proofs. We mean zero-knowledge architecture- e2e encrypted, private keys stored only on physical devices, all processing happens locally.
pseudopseudonym@reddit
Feels deceptive for that not to be spelled out clearly. Zero Knowledge is a *very* specific term.
Southern_Sun_2106@reddit
I took it for a spin. To be honest, there are so many buttons and options, I think the app lacks focus. As a user, I was kinda confused where to start, and what to do with all that stuff. Also, asking me to give you access to everything AND a keychain (where passwords are stored)? Seriously? There might be a good reason why the app needs it, but that's an immediate red flag for most people. Long story short, I am not sure what your app does better than all the other apps out there. You either need to communicate it more clearly from the get go (so that people are motivated to deal with the ocean of buttons), or refocus the app so that that feature is super-visible and straightforward. Good luck!
ipav9@reddit (OP)
All fair - UX is our second weakest point after UI 😅
We aimed to showcase future capabilities while giving beta users access to the essentials. Probably too much too soon.
On keychain - you're only granting access to a specific silo Atlantis reserves for storing its private keys, not your whole keychain. Other apps using keychain on Mac prompt you the same way. But you're right - without a proper tutorial, it's an immediate red flag. Noted for the prod-ready version.
For now, if you want to see the core value: try the morning briefings (keep the Mac app running in background overnight, you'll get a push notification). You can also chat with your files, manage emails, set reminders, etc. But the main catch - nobody does it 100% private on mobile like we do.
Thanks for the honest feedback - we'll pass it to our UX designer once we hire one ;)
Southern_Sun_2106@reddit
Off the bat, can we have LM Studio? That works better than Ollama tbh. Thanks!
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Interesting - what specifically makes it work better for you?
darkdeepths@reddit
how do the apps talk? do you have some gateway deployed? i personally have a vps + wireguard setup.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Apps talk through an message transport relay right now.
For the MVP, we used ElevenLabs API to showcase the voice feature - same deal as the cloud LLM toggle, use it or not based on query sensitivity. Ultimately moving to local TTS/speech-to-speech models.
On metadata guarantees: put a middleman between your devices and home router, sniff the packets - all content is encrypted end-to-end. Only the physical devices in your possession hold the private keys (stored in your device keychains). We literally can't read what's passing through even if we wanted to. That's our main bet in this game.
Dry_Fly_6692@reddit
To be honest, I'm building a same app with this, even with the.same idea ——Local "Jarvis".
And I am also planning to start with Mac and iOS……
The most worst thing in side project……
Personally, I think its impossible to keep things totally free in a long time. And it's not my purpose to make a side project unprofitable.
I hope the market is big enough for all three of us. :)
ipav9@reddit (OP)
With privacy concerns reinforcing (especially in the EU) and AI adoption exploding YoY worldwide - I've never believed a competitor doing the same thing is a blocker. Throw any product at me and I'll find a dozen alternatives already out there. Rising tide lifts all boats.
We're betting on a B2D model - community building custom plugins/workflows for Atlantis that they can sell down the line. Hiding essential functionality behind a paywall would be a shot in the knee for that vision. Need the ecosystem first.
Market's big enough for all of us. Good luck with your build!
JacketHistorical2321@reddit
You can achieve the same level of functionally using a VPN into your home network. You haven't really done much. Very little innovation.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
You're not wrong - technically you can. But "can" and "will" are different things for most people.
We're not claiming to innovate - just packaging local LLM capabilities for people who don't want to touch a terminal. If you can set it up yourself, respect. We're building for everyone who can't or won't.
One thing we haven't seen elsewhere though: a 100% private solution that puts desktop AI compute power in your pocket via mobile. Our bet - we can't access a SINGLE BYTE of your data or messages by system design (see technology page on our website to learn how), still provide you with ChatGPT-grade experience, and a little on top ;)
StealthyAnon828@reddit
What your advertising is exactly what I and many others do want, however If this can't run in a vacuum (and something other than Mac) it's a worthless to me and most others in this sub and I wish you luck competing with all the other non-local Ai assistants.
Comparing/claiming your productis superior to tools like Ollama or LM Studio when you don't have a finished product, a product that would benifit greatly from allowing an OpenAi Api to be piped in from those applications, is very disappointing. Also I get what your going for on the site with the crookedness but ew.
Man you're getting a flying tomato regardless of your plea to hold them. Limiting your product to only Mac and iOS users during your core development phase is...something. No one is worried you'll forget about the other 75ish% of users, it's that they will be getting a half assed port of an apple first application yet again if even at all.
The inability to get local communication working without a cloud server then proudly advertising it as "A sophisticated three-layer architecture designed for maximum privacy, performance, and flexibility." doesn't exactly scream that your planning on ditching that layer.
What model are you using to back up this claim of a "chatgpt-grade experience"?
ipav9@reddit (OP)
On the cloud layer: our roadmap includes moving to direct device-to-device connections. Here's how we're approaching it: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1p6mmb1/comment/nqrp4tp/
On Mac-only: the desktop client is essentially a wrapper around a Python AI core that we already run from terminal for dev purposes. Porting to Linux/Windows isn't a massive lift - it's coming right after production rollout. Same story for iOS to Android - it's just a client, roughly 20% of the total work already done. Not a half-assed port situation, it's just a two of us right now... we just had to start somewhere.
On models: you can select based on your hardware config. Even 14-32B Ollama models at base quantization have proven solid for the use cases we're covering. "ChatGPT-grade" isn't about matching GPT-4 on benchmarks - it's about making local models actually usable for everyday tasks. Turns out proper agent/context/memory engineering can shorten the gap toward having more parameters on board.
Appreciate the detailed feedback - genuinely helpful even with the tomatoes :)
j17c2@reddit
seems like rather important, largely scoped application to have no monetization plan for...? I'm concerned about how this'll hold up in like three months
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Freemium forever once we're out of beta, core stays free. Long-term: developer community building custom workflows as paid add-ons, plus B2B private cloud deployments for PII-sensitive companies. But first - making something people actually want to use.
Evening_Ad6637@reddit
Then stop using this sub as an advertising platform.
"Freemium forever" is just a damn buzzword used by people who don't give a shit about local, let alone Open Source (which is the actual spirit and whole point of this sub).
The only thing missing to complete the bs bingo is "no credit card needed."
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Fair pushback. Not here to argue - just to share what we're building and get feedback.
For what it's worth, we don't think wrapping local LLM tech and making it accessible to a wider audience hurts the community. If anything, more people using local models seems like a net positive for the ecosystem. The Llama team open sourced it hoping people would build on top of it.
When we go live, core functionality stays free - chatting with your data, search, notes, mobile access to desktop compute. No bait and switch.
Totally understand if this isn't for you though. Appreciate you taking the time to comment either way.
Fit_Advice8967@reddit
very intersting. drop the github we can star it
ipav9@reddit (OP)
No public repo yet - we want to make sure our architecture is bulletproof before we open it up. Currently in early pilot, but we do plan to open source it so anyone can verify the Atlantis Trust Model works as defined. Stay tuned, and kudos for checking in!
P.S. If you can't try it yet, you can still help us shape the roadmap - would love your input: https://roia.io/customer-interview
Fit_Advice8967@reddit
When it's opensource i ll check it out. Hopefully you don't change the license frequently like a certain popular frontend..
daynighttrade@reddit
Which one changed?
Fit_Advice8967@reddit
Owui
daynighttrade@reddit
Wow, they did not even go for the agpl route.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
🤞😊
shotbyadingus@reddit
AI slop
jazir555@reddit
You're on a AI sub complaining AI generated code. The absolute irony.
Evening_Ad6637@reddit
Complaining the slop, not the code. And anyway, the code isn’t open
ubrtnk@reddit
Looks interesting. I'll be ready to test when the Linux support comes as thats where all my big models that have the intelligence for this kind of stuff is.
GregoryfromtheHood@reddit
I'm interested in the architecture. I'm in the process of building a similar thing just for personal use as a home/personal assistant running 24/7 on a solar powered "AI Core" computer that I can also call on my phone as well. Trying to get all the pieces right, a solid short term and long term memory system with vector databases, vision models for looking at cameras and facial recognition to know who is where, the ability to do all those good things like process documents, web search etc.
Also trying to implement a sandbox area where it can build and test tools to effectively improve itself and add capabilities using coding models, that part is going to need a lot more work though and I'm just working on it on and off.
I know there's definitely going to be a bunch of people building similar systems, would be cool to have a solid open source project for a base system that does all these things.
Problem is, like Jarvis from Iron Man, each person will probably have personalised use cases and very specific environment setups for this assistant, so I feel like a single one size fits all agentic system is pretty tricky. My project already has a bunch of pretty specific stuff for my setup.
Goat_bless@reddit
Good luck ! Interesting project but of a complexity that no one has yet solved. To criticize there are people but to carry out joint projects there is no one left I have an agent almost ready to control a computer (all locally) if you are interested I can share it with you
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Appreciate it! Would genuinely love to check it out - if it's built on LangChain workflows/tools or a local MCP server, there might be a path to integrate it into what we're building. Will shoot you a DM
GregoryfromtheHood@reddit
Oh yeah no, it is way too complex, but a fun side project. I have parts of it working well, but it definitely feels like the kind of project that I'm going to be tweaking and adjusting forever, something extremely hard to turn into something someone could just run off the shelf. Computer control is something I haven't even started looking into yet, but am very interested!
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Sounds like we're on the same path! Catch is - an assistant only gets truly personal when it knows EVERYTHING about you - that's when it tunes its character, output format, and actually becomes useful. We believe one can reach such trust when it's built by design.
We're building it so you can configure what's essential - build long-term memory around what matters, ignore what doesn't. If you grab the iOS app, you can see the full toolkit we're planning - pick the tools that fit your setup and build workflows from there.
Would love to hear how your self-improving sandbox evolves - that's a rabbit hole we're watching closely.
p.s as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, open sourcing is the goal, but we want to get the architecture bulletproof first... need to polish it to the point it's flawless (to the reasonable extent, lol)
GregoryfromtheHood@reddit
I'm fully expecting to never get that self-improving bit right, but it is a fun project nonetheless!
RoyalCities@reddit
Okay. So is this a local configuration?
How is this different than say a local AI through home assistant?
I.e. https://youtu.be/bE2kRmXMF0I?si=K0UBqhD1z00LcN9E video Repo: https://github.com/RoyalCities/RC-Home-Assistant-Low-VRAM
I can see the rag being different because that requires external tooling but what is the fundamental value here aside from just doing a local voice AI through HA?
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Voice assistant is just a feature. The core value is an AI engine running 24/7 - analyzing data streams from your connected services (Obsidian, docs, email, etc.) and surfacing actionable insights from patterns it finds.
The demo on our landing page shows this with the morning briefing workflow if you want a concrete example (AI briefs you on the weather, calendar, sleep data, suggest amendments, finds conflicts, and let you further interract with this information, e.g. ask to set a reminder, draft an email, check traffic, etc)
Plus standalone tools like semantic search across everything. Need your tenancy end date? Just ask, instead of hunting through folders.
Bigger picture: we're packaging local LLM capabilities for people who don't want to set up models, vector storage, embeddings, and retrieval pipelines themselves. Just a simple way to interact with your whole digital footprint - no terminal required.
SureDevise@reddit
This is what Apple is looking to do with the next generation of Siri, it's a very difficult problem. Hence the delays and failure to launch. I hope you get your angel investors before Siri gets there.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
AI personas is definitely a hot topic right now - probably only beaten by AI desktop agents that run as overlays on your screen (and quietly spy on your Zoom calls, etc.), check Cluely. Anyway, personas - definitely on the radar.
On Siri - funny enough, looks like it'll be powered by Google's Gemini but running on Apple Private Cloud: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/05/apple-siri-google-gemini-partnership/
OpenAI is also hiring for their Private Computing team: https://openai.com/careers/software-engineer-private-computing-san-francisco/
So the big players are clearly betting that Privacy-First AI is the next big game.
Appreciate the thoughtful feedback - and who knows, maybe we do pivot to something weird in few months. That's half the fun
SureDevise@reddit
Have you seen this approach? https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTCoding/comments/1p5n8ld/zo_the_intelligent_cloud_computer/
ipav9@reddit (OP)
Hadn't seen this - thanks for sharing! Really like the messenger-as-client idea for on-the-go access. Smart. We actually built our first mobile interface the same way, but then shifted to a privacy-first architecture and moved to our own app.
We're aligned on rethinking how people interact with files. Different bets on architecture - they're cloud-based personal server, we're fully on-device. Cool to see the space evolving from multiple directions.
PraxisOG@reddit
Very cool project, one that's been sorely needed for a while now. I've been wanting to throw together a janky version of this from the linux+android side. I also want data privacy, but part of that to me is running a cloudlike solution on the local server side of things. Having an android client is especially appealing to me since it can be the default assistant.
TheHolyToxicToast@reddit
Seriously you did not just say you have support for health data when you are just feeding a tiny local llm some crappy prompt. This is literally just a vibe coded wrapper around local llm, might as well use openai ZDR API endpoint for a better experience
irodov4030@reddit
the point is about running everything local.
If you trust cloud models / ZDR and accept the risks, why even spend a minute on u/localLLama ?
TheHolyToxicToast@reddit
What I'm talking about is if you are trusting this app with health data you might as well use a more extensively tuned model. It is objectively true that openai's model are more performant than the ones you can run locally. Unless of course they are using a model extensively tuned for health data, which judging from the effort they put in, probably not.
I'm on localLLama because I'm into ML research, there is a lot of applications where a local LLM is better than a cloud one, but I just don't see how in this application it offers any benefit. From what I can see it's not open source, so I would strongly argue that it is less secure than an API endpoint with ZDR
irodov4030@reddit
I understand your point and mostly agree with.
But tiny LLM models with RAG and prompt engineering are fairly decent even without fine tuning.
for apps, it becomes slightly easy to monitor. App stores audit.
On the phone you can still block access to internet and other things.
Not an ideal solution but if some one trusts Android or Apple to have personal data on phone, there is already a weak link
ipav9@reddit (OP)
ZDR = your data still hits OpenAI servers, you're just trusting their policy. We're trusting architecture - it never leaves your devices. Different bet.
We're bringing local LLMs to consumers who want 100% privacy without the hassle of setting up APIs and wrestling with configs. Health data is just one data stream among many we aim to blend - docs, emails, calendar, notes - to surface actionable insights on your digital life patterns, emerging habits, or missed opportunities.
But appreciate the first thought though - keep them coming.
Academic-Lead-5771@reddit
AI coded wrapper for AI. daring today aren't we
I think if an AI "project" has the word Jarvis in the headline it should just be obliterated before it sees the light of day
we don't want GUIs for fuckass microscopic year old text models man get with the program
ipav9@reddit (OP)
ChatGPT is a wrapper on GPT is a wrapper on transformers is a wrapper on matrix math is a wrapper on CUDA is a wrapper on silicon. Turtles all the way down.
Jarvis point taken though, lol.
Academic-Lead-5771@reddit
did you just compare this suite to CUDA? what are we talking about right now?
you are advertising a tool for a niche that is already served by a number of competitors.
your tool also offers nothing for advanced users as under the hood you're running the same binaries as everyone else.
shockingly, according to your own website, you need to use your cloud servers to sync data between desktop and mobile clients.
even assuming zero retention, zero knowledge, encrypted E2E, why is this a necessity? there are many ways to transfer data between desktop and mobile that don't reply on cloud based closed source servers. and this is being advertised in a local AI sub.
I do not think anyone wants what you have to offer but I ask any user to correct me if I am wrong.
ipav9@reddit (OP)
The cloud relay is purely a transport layer for E2E encrypted chunks between your devices - similar to how WhatsApp uses Signal Protocol where messages are encrypted with keys that only exist on your devices, never on WhatsApp's servers. Even though the encrypted data passes through their infrastructure, they can't decrypt it.
Our roadmap includes moving to direct device-to-device connections (WebRTC/local network discovery) to eliminate even this encrypted relay. But right now, the relay solves NAT traversal and device discovery without requiring users to configure routers or deal with dynamic IPs.
To sum up: your actual data is never readable by our servers - they just shuttle encrypted bytes between your authenticated devices. It's the same trust model as Signal or WhatsApp - the transport exists, but the content is cryptographically inaccessible to us.
papaglitchy@reddit
this is why i’m really interested in googles starz paper. In my head if a jarvis system is going to be possible it needs to be updating its own code to solve the problems it’s encountering / in daily performances.
Build up a memory of actions while learning new actions idk though