Hob

People who want to use AI like ChatGPT or Claude often must send their files and data to a hosted service, which raises privacy concerns and requires a subscription or account. The page notes that most existing local AI apps are limited to a chat window that at best pastes a plain text file into a small context window, and many still default to hosted models or push users toward paid plans. This leaves people without a way to do real file-based work such as filling out PDFs, editing documents, or analyzing spreadsheets using AI entirely on their own computer, privately and offline.

Hob is a free, MIT-licensed open-source app that runs AI models directly on the user's computer, automatically picking the best open-weight model (such as Qwen, Gemma, or GPT-OSS) that fits the machine's hardware and setting it up for the user. It can read and edit files and folders, look at images, run code in a sandbox, draw charts, and fill in PDFs, all locally. Users can connect tools like Mail, Calendar, Notion, or Linear, and control exactly which folders and apps Hob can access, with the ability to undo file changes. Hob works offline except for downloading models, updates, or using optional web search and connectors, and it requires no account or subscription.