Otis

A personal AI agent to help you think, create, and get things done.
Powered by open models, on your computer or in the cloud.

Download for macOS and Linux · Terminal install · Tour · Docs

Otis is an AI agent for research, writing, documents, and code. It sets up a local model for your hardware, or connects to the models you already run.

• Local models, without the setup work. Otis recommends a model for your hardware, downloads it, and runs it for you. No account, no telemetry, and it works offline.
• Local or hosted, your call. Run local models without per-token fees, or use hosted models with your own Fireworks, Together AI, Baseten, or Prime Intellect key. Pick the model. Keep the work.
• Shows its work. Thinking, every command, every edit as a diff, and an approval before anything risky. Up to four sessions side by side, with documents open beside the conversation.
• Your history stays yours. Conversations and saved artifacts live on your disk. Hosted inference and web search connect directly to their providers.

Install

Desktop app. triangllabs.ai/otis or GitHub Releases. macOS and Linux, arm64 and x64. On Linux, mark the AppImage executable and keep it apart from the terminal command, for example at ~/.local/bin/otis-desktop; its launcher entry should point there.

Terminal.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/triangllabs/otis/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash
otis

Update an existing CLI installation with otis update.

A session, start to finish

otis exec "Explain this repository"
otis exec --continue --auto "Run the tests and fix the failure"
otis exec --file requirements.pdf --file notes.docx "Compare these documents"

How it works

Desktop app / OpenTUI terminal / headless CLI
  └─ Otis shared application runtime
      ├─ Conversation lifecycle, tools, permissions, and coworkers
      ├─ Private local configuration, sessions, diffs, and stats
      ├─ llama.cpp ── Otis-managed local GGUF inference
      ├─ NVIDIA PAIR ── routing across your local AI cluster
      ├─ oMLX · any OpenAI-compatible server ── user-managed inference on loopback
      ├─ Fireworks · Together AI · Baseten · Prime Intellect ── hosted inference and model discovery
      └─ Parallel Search MCP ── web search and page reading

Work on another machine

A machine that stays on can run the Otis runtime as a daemon and the desktop app can work on it:

otis serve --host <private address>

otis serve hosts the same runtime the desktop app runs in-process — sessions, models, API keys, skills, memory and Canvas documents are that machine's — and prints the addresses it is reachable at (the Tailscale one among them) and a pairing token, created once and reused. In the desktop app, Settings → General → Another machine takes the address and the token; the app restarts onto the daemon and shows which host it is working on. Switching back to this machine keeps the pairing, so reconnecting later needs no token, just Connect. Appearance settings stay with the window. The daemon listens on loopback unless --host names an interface; reach it over a private network such as Tailscale rather than exposing it to the internet. A client that disconnects leaves the daemon's work running. The terminal panel is not available over a connection yet.

Models

Managed local. Setup opens a hardware-aware catalog, downloads a curated, checksum-verified GGUF, and runs it through an Otis-managed llama-server on 127.0.0.1. For a good experience use Apple silicon with at least 24 GB of unified memory, or Linux with at least 24 GB of RAM; compatible NVIDIA GPUs use CUDA and other Linux GPUs use Vulkan. See managed local inference.

Local servers. Connect Ollama or LM Studio through NVIDIA PAIR, which routes each request to an eligible computer in your cluster, an oMLX server on Apple silicon, or any OpenAI-compatible server you run — vLLM, llama.cpp, NInfer, your own.

Hosted. Fireworks, Together AI, Baseten, or Prime Intellect with your own API key, entered during setup, from /settings, or from the environment:

export FIREWORKS_API_KEY=fw_your_key   # or TOGETHER_API_KEY, BASETEN_API_KEY, PRIME_API_KEY
export PRIME_TEAM_ID=team_id           # optional: bill Prime Intellect to a team wallet
otis

Each provider you add gets its own section in /model; type to search the list.

/model in the terminal, or the model chip in the desktop composer, switches between all of them.

Terminal commands

The desktop app has the same under Settings → Inference (a switch per hosted model), and Settings → Usage shows token usage by day and model. | /skills | List loaded Agent Skills; install, update, or remove Git collections | | /memory | See what Otis remembers for this workspace; add or forget a fact | | /fast | Toggle Fast serving when the current model supports it | | /compact [instructions] | Summarize older conversation and free context | | /thinking | Toggle model-provided thinking traces | | /exit | Exit Otis |

Drag text files, PDFs, DOCX documents, or images into the terminal or the desktop composer to attach them to the next message. Only image attachments need a vision model.

Documents and artifacts

Otis reads PDF and Word files from their original bytes, edits DOCX text in place without flattening the document, fills PDF forms, and generates new PDF and Word files through the bundled documents skill. Finished deliverables are published as immutable, versioned copies that survive later edits and restore with the session. Publishing a file outside the workspace always asks for permission for that exact file. See document workflows for capabilities and limits.

Local data and privacy

Otis writes private configuration and append-only sessions to standard platform user directories; set OTIS_HOME to keep everything under one location. A desktop app paired with otis serve works on that machine's data; what crosses the wire is the conversation, Canvas content and settings the window shows, never a provider key. Provider keys are never written to sessions, transcripts, tool results, or usage records. Managed inference stays on loopback, hosted prompts go directly to the provider you selected (Fireworks documents Zero Data Retention for open-model inference by default; check the others' data policies), web requests go directly to Parallel, and PAIR owns traffic within your cluster.

Otis keeps a small memory it never puts in the prompt: facts the agent or you save with remember land in Otis' data folder, in a memory.md beside the working folder's sessions or in one for everything that holds everywhere; nothing is written into your project. The agent reads them only when it calls recall, which also searches your past sessions in every workspace. Memory is for the project and your tooling, not for people: the agent is told not to save personal details, and credentials, email addresses, phone, card and national-id numbers are stripped from anything saved or recalled. Both files are plain Markdown you can edit; the Extensions settings tab lists and edits them too. What recall returns goes to whichever model is answering, so with a hosted model it leaves your machine like the rest of the conversation.

Read local data and privacy for paths and retention, the architecture guide for runtime boundaries, and SECURITY.md for private vulnerability reporting.

Documentation

• Desktop app and downloads — native macOS and Linux builds
• Managed local inference — hardware fit, downloads, context, and model deletion
• User-managed servers — oMLX, NInfer, Strata, and any OpenAI-compatible server: connection, keys, model metadata
• NVIDIA PAIR — endpoint setup, routing, inventory, and metadata
• Headless execution — output formats, limits, sessions, and attachments
• Document workflows — reading, editing, generating, and publishing documents
• Agent Skills — authoring, precedence, Git-backed collections, and trust
• Tool permissions — modes, rule syntax, and policy precedence
• Local data and privacy — storage, secrets, sessions, and network boundaries
• Architecture — implementation ownership and runtime boundaries

Development

Bun is the runtime and package manager.

git clone https://github.com/TrianglLabs/otis.git
cd otis
bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run dev          # OpenTUI terminal interface
bun run dev:desktop  # Otis Dev, alongside the installed app
bun run dev:demo     # the desktop app with simulated sessions, for UI work

Desktop development uses a separate otis-dev profile that imports your installed configuration on first launch and reuses complete model downloads; later changes are independent. OTIS_DEV_USER_DATA overrides the profile location and OTIS_HOME overrides Otis's data location. Read CONTRIBUTING.md for source boundaries, testing guidance, and the verification checklist.

License

Otis is released under the MIT License. Copyright © 2026 Triangl Labs.

See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for bundled third-party license notices.