Nous knows.

Before you ask  —  Nous knows.

37.983°N   23.727°E   —   ATHENS

00  Our vision

Our Philosophy

Nous. The ancient Greek word for the intelligent mind. Not an assistant. Not a product. A mind that lives with you, learns from you, and acts for you — entirely on your own hardware, entirely under your control.

I didn't pick the name randomly either. I chose it because Nous is not a service you rent access to and it certainly isn't a pipeline that sends your life to a server farm somewhere. It's a mind. Yours.

Nous started as a thought in the shower, Could I build a system like J.A.R.V.I.S. from there I added more and more functions until I ended on this project. No company behind it. No funding. No team. Just the conviction that it should exist and the determination to find out if one person could make it real. That question is the engine behind this project.

But there is something bigger underneath it.

We live in a world that has quietly decided your attention, your data, and your habits are products to be harvested and sold back to you in monthly instalments. Every major platform, every AI assistant, every smart device built on the same model. You pay, or you are the payment. There is rarely a third option.

Nous is the third option.

Core Principles
Local-first
All processing runs on your own hardware. Nothing leaves without your permission.
Privacy absolute
No data pipelines. No telemetry. No cloud dependency. Your life stays yours.
Free forever
Not a subscription. Not a premium tier. Free because it should be.
Open source
Inspect every line. Fork it. Extend it. Build on top of it.

It will always be free. Not free until we find a business model. Free because intelligence that serves you should not cost you your privacy to access. This is built on the shoulders of thousands of people who chose to give their work to the world rather than monetise it. The least Nous can do is the same.

Technology has given me more than I could ever put into words. The ability to learn, to build things I didn't think I could. Most importantly for me personally, the ability to connect. Nous is my attempt to give something back, to put real capability in the hands of people who need it, without a corporation standing in the middle taking a cut.

Nous is one project created by one person. But the idea is older than any of us, that knowledge and intelligence belong to everyone.

This is not a product launch. It is a build in progress. I don't know if I can pull it off, but I'm prepared to pour my heart and soul into this project. If you believe intelligence should belong to everyone, come build it with us.

01  Architecture

Five layers.
One mind.

Each layer has a single responsibility. Together they form an autonomous system that perceives, reasons, remembers, acts, and speaks — entirely on your own hardware.

Layer 01
Perception
Microphones, cameras, and motion sensors gather raw input from your environment.
Layer 02
Intelligence
Local LLM, STT, TTS, and vision models process language, voice, and intent.
Layer 03
Memory
Vector database stores patterns and history. Federated learning improves Nous over time without centralizing your data.
Layer 04
Action
Smart home integrations, device control, and app automation execute decisions.
Layer 05
Interface
Voice, mobile app, and web dashboard — the way you talk to Nous.

02  Features

It acts before
you ask.

Nous is not a chatbot you remember to open. It is a system that watches, learns, and moves — silently, locally, privately.

Privacy by architecture
No cloud. No external servers. All data stays on your hardware. Federated learning improves Nous without ever centralising your information.
Proactive intelligence
Nous recognises your routines and acts on them. Focus mode activates at 17:00. The lights soften when you sit down. You don’t ask — it knows.
Always-on voice
Local wake word detection with near-zero latency STT. Full conversation via microphone and speaker, no cloud call required. Works offline.
Full home control
Zigbee lights, IR devices, smart plugs, your laptop — all under one local system. Control everything through voice, app, or web.
Three interfaces, one brain
Voice in the room. Flutter app on your phone. Web dashboard in the browser. All connected to the same local backend, accessible via WireGuard when away.
Free to run, forever
Open source stack. No subscriptions. No API costs. Once the hardware is running, Nous costs nothing. Yours completely.

03  Tech Stack

Open source,
all the way down.

Every component is open source or free to use. The full prototype runs on a single machine with an RTX 3090.

RoleSoftwareNotes
LLM Llama 3.x / Qwen 2.5 via Ollama
STT Faster-Whisper Large-v3 / Turbo
TTS Piper / Coqui XTTS v2 Speed or realism
Vision Moondream2 / LLaVA Always-on VLM
Memory pgvector / ChromaDB Embeddings + patterns
OrchestrationLangChain / LlamaIndex Local agent mode
Home Home Assistant Docker container
Zigbee Zigbee2MQTT SONOFF USB dongle
IR Broadlink RM4 Mini TV, A/C, devices
Wake word OpenWakeWord Fully local
Remote WireGuard / Tailscale Secure tunnel
Web UI SvelteKit / Next.js Dashboard + chat
Mobile Flutter Android first
Containers Docker + Compose Ubuntu Server 24.04

04  Who is Nous for

For anyone who wants
a smarter life.

λ

Tech Enthusiasts

  • A self-hosted AI system you fully own and control
  • Your data never leaves your hardware
  • Extend and customise every component
  • Open source, inspectable, forkable
φ

Limited Mobility

  • Voice-first — no physical effort required
  • Manage your entire environment by speech alone
  • Proactively adapts to accessibility needs
  • Always present, always listening, always responding
ω

Everyone else

  • Learns your habits and adapts over time
  • No technical knowledge required
  • No monthly subscription, no cloud dependency
  • Gets smarter the longer you use it

05  Roadmap

Where we are.
Where we go.

Phase 01
Now — Q3 2026
Prototype — Windows & Android

Core AI stack, voice interface, Home Assistant integration, Flutter companion app.

LLM stack STT + TTS Vision model Voice interface Home Assistant Flutter app Web dashboard
Phase 02
Q4 2026
Linux & Federated Learning

Linux as primary desktop platform. Federated model updates across devices.

Linux support Federated learning Cross-device sync Public beta
Phase 03
2027
macOS, iOS & Community

Full cross-platform support. Open for community contributions and plugin ecosystem.

macOS iOS app Plugin API Community edition Docs site

Open Source  —  Local-First  —  Free Forever

Build it.
Own it.

No subscription  /  No cloud  /  No compromise

Star on GitHub Read the docs