cobolt

MCP.Pizza Chef: platinum-hill

A free desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux that runs open-source models locally through Ollama, so your questions and documents never leave the machine. It remembers details about you between conversations, and you can plug in the same add-ons Claude Desktop uses by pasting them into a settings file. Two honest caveats: small models running on your own hardware are noticeably weaker than cloud assistants, and the project still calls itself an early, unstable release, with no new download published since June 2025.

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Use This MCP client To

Ask questions about my own notes without uploading them Run an AI assistant offline with no internet connection Keep a private assistant that remembers my preferences Try open-source models without paying a monthly subscription Reuse the tool connections I already set up in Claude Desktop

README

Cobolt

📥 Download Latest Release

_{This is an early release which is expected to be unstable and change significantly over time.
For other platforms and previous versions, visit our Releases page}

🎯 Overview

Cobolt is a cross-platform desktop application that enables you to get answers, and perform actions on the data that matters to you. Cobolt only stores data on your device, and uses locally running AI models. Cobolt can also remembers important details about you, and use it to give you personalized responses.And yes! your memories are stored on your device. You can connect to your favourite tools and data sources using the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Feel like every query to a big tech AI is an automatic, non-consensual donation to their 'Make Our AI Smarter' fund, with zero transparency on how your 'donation' is used on some distant server farm? 💸🤷

cobolt FAQ

Is this still being actively developed?

Only barely. The last downloadable release, version 0.0.6, came out in June 2025, and since then the code has seen just a handful of small fixes, so treat it as an early experiment.

Do I have to pay for anything?

No. The app is free and the models run on your own computer, so there is no subscription, no usage bill, and no sign-up key.

Does my data leave my computer?

Not if you stay on local models. Your chats, memories, and documents stay on the device, though any add-on you connect can still reach out to its own service.

Can I use this to ask questions about my private files?

Yes, that is the main draw. Add a file or folder connection and you can ask about your documents without uploading them anywhere.

Will it answer as well as ChatGPT or Claude?

No. It starts you on a small three-billion-parameter model, and even the bigger ones it supports are clearly weaker than the big cloud assistants.

How hard is it to install?

There is a normal installer, but first you run a setup command in the terminal: Homebrew on Mac, a script on Linux, or the Windows package manager.

Can I add my own connections?

Yes. It reads the same configuration format Claude Desktop uses, so you paste entries into a file and reload the app.