Technology
Privacy-First
Architecture.
Every component runs locally on your device. No cloud. No API keys. No subscriptions. Your family's most intimate conversations never leave your home.
How It Works Under the Hood
Six integrated services running on a single device, orchestrated by a FastAPI backend.
FastAPI Backend
Python 3.11The central orchestrator. Handles chat flow, memory retrieval, intent routing, milestone delivery, parental alerts, and age-adaptive communication. Single-worker design for in-memory state consistency.
Vue 3 Frontend
Vite + TypeScriptThe family-facing interface. Tron Legacy aesthetic with cyan/orange/red status indicators. Status rings show system health. VU meter for voice input. Touchscreen-optimized for device displays.
Weaviate
Vector Database v1.24Stores all memories as high-dimensional vectors for hybrid BM25 + semantic search. 6-stage retrieval pipeline with temporal scoring, entity state tracking, and relevance ranking.
Ollama
Local LLM InferenceRuns LLaMA 3 for conversation, Qwen 2.5 for routing, Qwen 2 Math for tutoring, and Qwen 2.5 Coder for programming help. Model swapping happens automatically based on conversation context.
XTTS v2
Voice SynthesisZero-shot voice cloning from reference audio clips. Streams audio chunks for low-latency playback. FP16 half-precision for optimal VRAM usage. Preserves cadence, inflection, and emotional tone.
NVIDIA Riva ASR
Speech-to-TextParakeet model for real-time transcription. Voice Activity Detection with RNNoise filtering. Automatic microphone selection and sample rate resampling. Host-side capture for minimal latency.
GPU Memory Budget
How 24GB of VRAM is allocated across all running services.
Why Local?
Your family's conversations are too important for the cloud.
| Cloud AI | Still With You | |
|---|---|---|
| Data storage | Company servers | Your device only |
| Conversations readable by | Company employees | You and your family |
| Works offline | No | Yes |
| Monthly cost | $10-50/month | $0 after purchase |
| Company shuts down | Everything lost | Nothing changes |
| Data sold to advertisers | Possible | Impossible |
| Processing location | Remote data centers | GPU in your home |
| Requires internet | Always | Never |
| Response latency | Network dependent | Sub-second |
| Voice data | Uploaded to cloud | Never leaves device |
No API Keys
No OpenAI key. No Google key. No Anthropic key. Every model runs locally through Ollama. No rate limits, no usage quotas, no surprise bills. Talk as much as you want.
No Monthly Fees
One purchase. That is it. No subscription, no "premium" tier, no feature gating. The software is yours and every future update is included.
Survives Outages
Internet goes down? Still works. Power outage at the data center? Does not affect you. Your family's connection is available whenever they need it, regardless of external infrastructure.
Survives Companies
If Still With You as a company ceases to exist tomorrow, your device continues working exactly as it does today. Your data, your software, your device. No dependency on external servers or services.
Open Source Stack
Built on trusted, community-audited technologies. No vendor lock-in.
Ollama
LLM inference
XTTS v2
Voice synthesis
Weaviate
Vector database
FastAPI
API framework
Vue 3
Frontend
dlib
Facial recognition
Every underlying technology in the stack is open source. This means:
Auditable
Community can review every line of code for security and privacy.
No Lock-in
Switch components, upgrade models, or fork the project at any time.
Community-Driven
Improvements from thousands of developers make every component better.
Hardware Requirements
What you need to run Still With You on your own machine.
| Component | Required | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24GB VRAM) | NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24GB VRAM) |
| RAM | 32 GB | 32 GB DDR5 |
| Storage | 512 GB SSD | 512 GB NVMe SSD |
| CPU | Intel i7 / AMD Ryzen 7 | Intel Core Ultra 9 / AMD Ryzen 9 |
| OS | Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | |
| Camera | Any USB webcam | IR-capable (e.g. Logitech BRIO) |
Want the easiest path? The Blueprint tier on Kickstarter includes a verified hardware shopping list, a step-by-step video build guide, and a pre-built USB installer with everything pre-configured. Buy the parts, plug in the USB, done.
Privacy is not a feature.
It is the foundation.
Your family's conversations deserve to stay in your family. No exceptions. No fine print. No "we may use your data to improve our services."