{
  "kind": "primer",
  "title": "Start here: local AI in plain words",
  "html": "https://insidethemachine.ai/start-here",
  "md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/start-here.md",
  "parts": {
    "model": "The AI itself. One big file you download.",
    "ollama": "The engine that loads and runs the model. Free.",
    "app": "The window you talk to (Open WebUI, LM Studio, OpenCode, Hermes)."
  },
  "usable_memory_rule": "About 75% of a Mac's memory is usable for models. On a PC with a graphics card, VRAM counts.",
  "examples_by_memory": [
    {
      "gb": 8,
      "usable": 6,
      "name": "Qwen3.5 4B",
      "b": "4",
      "needs": 5.8,
      "file": 3.3,
      "pct": 23
    },
    {
      "gb": 16,
      "usable": 12,
      "name": "K2 Horizon 7B",
      "b": "7",
      "needs": 8.6,
      "file": 5.78,
      "pct": 36
    },
    {
      "gb": 32,
      "usable": 24,
      "name": "Qwen3.8 27B",
      "b": "27",
      "needs": 22.7,
      "file": 18,
      "pct": 59
    }
  ],
  "frontier_name": "Claude Opus 5.5",
  "speed_examples": {
    "slow": {
      "machine": "a Raspberry Pi 5 (CPU only)",
      "model": "llama3.2 3B",
      "tok": 5.6
    },
    "fast": {
      "machine": "an M5 Pro Mac",
      "model": "gpt-oss-20b",
      "tok": 76.6
    }
  },
  "words": {
    "Token": "A piece of a word. 100 tokens is about 75 English words.",
    "Context": "How much text the model can read at once: your chat, files and instructions. More context needs more memory.",
    "Q4 (4-bit)": "A smaller copy of a model. It keeps most of the smarts and needs less than a third of the space. The sizes on this site are Q4.",
    "Open weights": "The maker lets you download the model file. Check its licence before you use it for business.",
    "Harness": "Another word for the app around the model. It can read files, use tools and remember things.",
    "GPU": "The part of the computer that does the maths fast. On a Mac it shares the normal memory. On a PC it is the graphics card."
  },
  "recipes": [
    {
      "id": "chat",
      "title": "A private ChatGPT",
      "what": "Chat, write and brainstorm. Nothing leaves your computer.",
      "min_gb": 8,
      "good_gb": 16,
      "minutes": 10,
      "tools": [
        "ollama",
        "open-webui"
      ],
      "html": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/chat",
      "md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/chat.md",
      "json": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/chat.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "code",
      "title": "A coding helper",
      "what": "An assistant that reads and edits your code.",
      "min_gb": 16,
      "good_gb": 32,
      "minutes": 15,
      "tools": [
        "ollama",
        "opencode",
        "aider"
      ],
      "html": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/code",
      "md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/code.md",
      "json": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/code.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "docs",
      "title": "Chat with your files",
      "what": "Ask questions about your PDFs, notes and documents.",
      "min_gb": 16,
      "good_gb": 32,
      "minutes": 20,
      "tools": [
        "ollama",
        "open-webui",
        "docling"
      ],
      "html": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/docs",
      "md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/docs.md",
      "json": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/docs.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "voice",
      "title": "Speech to text",
      "what": "Turn meetings and voice notes into text, offline.",
      "min_gb": 8,
      "good_gb": 16,
      "minutes": 10,
      "tools": [
        "whisper-cpp",
        "handy"
      ],
      "html": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/voice",
      "md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/voice.md",
      "json": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/voice.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "images",
      "title": "Make images",
      "what": "Create pictures from a text prompt on your own machine.",
      "min_gb": 16,
      "good_gb": 32,
      "minutes": 20,
      "tools": [
        "draw-things",
        "comfyui"
      ],
      "html": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/images",
      "md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/images.md",
      "json": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/images.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "agent",
      "title": "An agent that does tasks",
      "what": "It remembers you, uses tools and learns new skills.",
      "min_gb": 32,
      "good_gb": 64,
      "minutes": 30,
      "tools": [
        "hermes-agent",
        "mcp-servers"
      ],
      "html": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/agent",
      "md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/agent.md",
      "json": "https://insidethemachine.ai/do/agent.json"
    }
  ],
  "next": {
    "runbook_md": "https://insidethemachine.ai/start.md",
    "runbook_json": "https://insidethemachine.ai/start.json",
    "models": "https://insidethemachine.ai/models.json",
    "machines": "https://insidethemachine.ai/machines.json"
  }
}