Project · In development

REF

A private, local-first AI ecosystem.

REF is a private, local-first AI platform that runs on its owner's own computer: chat on local models, scoped memory, a coding agent that never merges anything by itself, a studio of thirteen creative and office apps, files, notes and a calendar, and its own desktop browser. It is not available for download.

Why it exists

Most AI assistants live on someone else's servers. REF is an experiment in the opposite direction: one personal system that runs locally and belongs entirely to the person using it.

The problem

Personal tools are scattered across apps and services, each holding a fragment of the context. REF brings them into one private suite, on one machine.

What was built

  • Chat on local models: Streaming chat with Chat, Think, Write and Code modes, stop and continue, regenerate, edits that keep their history, search and automatic titles in Dutch or English.
  • Nexus: One assistant on two local engines, a small always-on model and a larger GPU model. Every reply records which engine answered and why.
  • Memory with scopes: Global, project and chat memory, kept apart by the database itself. Recall combines keyword search with local embeddings, and you can preview what REF would recall before it does.
  • Forge, a careful coding agent: Works in throwaway copies of a project, runs tests only in an offline, locked-down container, and waits for a person to approve, discard or roll back. Nothing merges by itself.
  • Studio: thirteen apps: Documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDF, design, vector, photo, publishing, audio, video, effects, darkroom and CAD, with validated edit operations the assistant can use. The editors run on open-source ArtCraft engines (MIT and Apache-2.0).
  • REF Design: The Figma-like editor in REF Studio: frames, layers, properties and prototyping on a canvas, with PNG and SVG export. Screens can be created from a structured description and then edited layer by layer, and every change is a version that can be undone.
  • Files, notes and calendar: One file library with versions, undo and trash. Capture-first notes and a calendar with offline sync and conflict choices; suggestions are never applied silently.
  • REF Browser: A Chromium-based desktop browser with vertical or horizontal tabs, private windows, ad blocking, split view, a PDF viewer and a side panel for asking about the page.
  • Review-first import: Chat exports, Markdown and JSON come in through a review step with redaction, deduplication and rollback.

Still in development

  • REF keeps its own evidence-backed roadmap: of 106 target areas, 3 are verified, 1 is implemented, 37 are in progress and 65 have not started (its status record of 27 October 2026).
  • Image generation is off by default and not verified.
  • REF is a local integration candidate. Nothing is merged, deployed or downloadable, and REF AI is not integrated into the candidate yet.
  • Three coding-agent checks need Docker and are waiting for a rerun; live-model behaviour wasn't tested in the candidate run.

Verified status

Local integration candidate (commit e1b0e80), not a release · Implemented · Status as of 2026-11-05

  • Files and infrastructure (Integrated into the candidate): Tested
  • Notes and calendar (Integrated into the candidate): Tested
  • Browser (Integrated into the candidate): Tested
  • Studio (Integrated into the candidate): Tested
  • Coding-agent verification (Not in the candidate yet): Blocked
  • REF AI (Not in the candidate yet): Planned
  • Staged engines (Not in the candidate yet): Planned
  • Merge into the main line (Not in the candidate yet): Planned

The owner's integration report for candidate commit e1b0e80 (4 November 2026), with the branch tip and commit confirmed read-only on 5 November 2026. No source code, credentials or private data.

Technology

  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Vite
  • Express
  • SQLite
  • Ollama
  • Docker
  • Playwright
  • .NET
  • Chromium (CEF)

In the Journey

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