Open source · Local-first · Community-run

Your data. Your rules. Your community.

Freehold keeps your data on your own devices, lets your own AI work on it, and enforces your rules with maths rather than promises. Run it yourself, or with your local library, co-op or neighbourhood.

See it work I'm a builder

How it works · Freehold, not leasehold

Sovereign by default.

01
Your data stays home
Encrypted on your own devices, or on your community's server. Never in a datacentre you'll never see.
- Encrypted local storageDeveloper preview
- Sync between your devicesIn development
02
Your AI, your choice
An AI assistant that runs on hardware you or your community control. Pick the open model you want. It works for you and reports to no one.
- Personal AI agentDeveloper preview
- Choose your own open modelDeveloper preview
03
You set the terms
When a service wants something, your rules decide what it gets. You prove facts about yourself without handing over the details, using a fresh one-time identity each time, so nobody can follow you around or build a profile of you. You can still prove it was you if you ever need to.
- A language for your privacy rulesDeveloper preview
- Zero-knowledge proof serviceDeveloper preview
- One-time identitiesDeveloper preview

Developer preview

Prove you're over 21. Keep your birthday.

A shop asks for your age. Instead of a photo of your ID, your device answers with a proof that says "yes, over 21" and nothing else.

Developers can run this flow today in the Freehold demo. The developer preview runs on a local test setup, so some steps, like generating the proof, are simulated.

Run it locally

The shop
"Are you over 21?"
The shop sends a request for one fact, not your ID.
Your device
You approve the request.
Your agent reads your date of birth from your encrypted store. It never leaves your device.
Your device
A proof is made.
A zero-knowledge proof says "over 21" is true, without saying anything else.
What the shop receives
Over 21?
Yes, proven
Date of birth
not shared
Name
not shared
Address
not shared
Can it track you?
No: a one-time ID, new every time
In the full design, your rules can also require the shop to keep nothing. That part is planned.

Illustration of the demo flow

Community-owned compute

The datacentre is yours.

Big AI datacentres are being built near towns like ours. The town gets the noise and the extra demand for power and water. The profits, and the data, mostly go to a handful of large American tech companies.

Freehold turns that around. A node in your local library, co-op or village hall is a datacentre your community owns, runs and decides about.

Their datacentre compared with your community node
	Their datacentre	Your community node
Who owns it	Big tech companies and their investors, mostly American: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, OpenAI and the like	Your local library, co-op or neighbours
Where the money goes	To shareholders, mostly in the US	Stays local
Where your data goes	Wherever they send it	Nowhere you haven't agreed to
What your area gets	Noise, and more demand for power and water	Shared skills and a say in how it runs
Who decides	Their boards and investors	Members

A datacentre can be bought back one day. Your data can't.

Adapted from AI Growth Zones: gift horse or Trojan horse? by Peter Wilson

Get involved

Three ways in. Pick yours.

For you

Take your data back

Start here

For communities

Host a node

Libraries, co-ops, clubs and families
One shared server, many members
Your community, your rules

Interested in hosting? Talk to us

Coming soon Watch on GitHub

For builders

Build with it

Open source, Apache-2.0
TypeScript and Python, runs on your machine
Spec and design decisions in the open

Build with Freehold

How we're doing

Built in the open. Here's how we're doing.

Developer preview

In development

Sync between your devices
Local model out of the box
Untraceable funding for one-time IDs

Planned

Prove it was you, anonymously
Verified identity credentials
One-click install
Agent on your phone
Community node kit
Ready-made privacy policies
Rules for where your data is processed

Developer preview: runs from the repo today, not ready for everyday use yet.

Communities already run their own infrastructure

Guifi.netA community-built network with tens of thousands of nodes, Catalonia
El Servidor del BarriA neighbourhood server for email, files and calendars, Barcelona
Community BoxLocal cloud services for rural communities, UK

These projects inspire Freehold. They are not affiliated with it.

Why now

The biggest AI companies want to hold your context and rent it back to you. The tools to keep it yourself exist today. The window to make that normal is now.

Read the manifesto