RoachNetLocal AI, archive and code
What it does
Open RoachNet and you get a handful of panes, each for one kind of work:
| Pane | What it's for | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Home | The command grid: start a chat or a project, open a map or browse the Vault. | |
| RoachClaw | Chat with models that run on your Mac's GPU, with no Ollama inside. | RoachClaw |
| Dev | The native coding workspace. RoachBrain remembers the project, and RoachClaw pairs with you. | |
| Vault | Your library, offline: notes, courses, books, saved web pages and anything you install from RoachNet Apps. | The Vault |
| Maps | Offline maps from the map packs you install. | Maps |
| Org | A company of AI agents, with roles and budgets. Hires and budget overrides wait for you. | The Org |
| Runtime | The engine room: what's running, what's downloading, and where a problem is hiding. |
Other tools can use the same models. The model server answers the Ollama, OpenAI and Anthropic APIs on your Mac, and the local API covers the rest.
What stays on your Mac
Everything RoachNet keeps is in ~/RoachNet/storage: your Vault, models, maps, Org, settings and traces. It's a plain folder, so you can open it in Finder and back it up like any other. Folders and files lists what's inside.
RoachNet collects no analytics. Its local servers listen on 127.0.0.1, so nothing else on your network can reach them; Cluster, which is off until you turn it on, is the one exception. An account is optional. It keeps your RoachClaw web conversations, the apps you save in RoachNet Apps and a short list of the devices you sign in from, and never anything in ~/RoachNet.
When it goes online
RoachNet isn't sealed off from the internet. It goes online to fetch what you ask for (models, maps, packs and archives), to check GitHub for its own updates, to refresh the catalog lists, and for the features you turn on, such as RoachTail or your Claude and ChatGPT plans. Once something is on your Mac, it keeps working without a connection. Network and privacy has the full list.
What it isn't
- Not a cloud service. It's a Mac app, and its models run on your Mac. Cloud providers, web chat and your Claude or ChatGPT plans are there if you turn them on. Web chat is RoachClaw on roachnet.org: it answers from your Mac when you connect your Mac to it, and otherwise from a small hosted model, SmolLM2 135M, on roachnet.org's servers. Each reply says which one answered (RoachClaw on the web).
- Not for every computer. It needs an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later. Intel Macs aren't supported, and there are no Windows or Linux builds.
- Not from the App Store. You download it from GitHub or install it with Homebrew. RoachNet 1.1.4 is ad-hoc signed and not Apple-notarized, so macOS asks you to approve it once.
- Not a second copy on your phone. The iOS companion talks to RoachNet on your Mac; the models and the Vault stay there.
Where to start
Open RoachClaw and pick a model. Setup suggests one that fits your Mac's memory.
Pair your iPhone, if you have one: install the iOS companion.
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