Hi HN,

I’m the solo developer behind *Tandem*, a local-first, zero-trust AI workspace.

I built this because I was tired of "renting my intelligence" to cloud providers. I wanted a workspace that felt like a real tool, not just another chat wrapper—one where my "second brain" actually lived on my machine, fully encrypted, and under my control.

While big tech is releasing closed, Mac-only tools (like the recently announced Anthropic Cowork), I believe the future of AI productivity should be open, transparent, and cross-platform.

*What makes Tandem different?*

* *Local-First "Brain":* It’s not just an API client. It has a built-in vector database (`sqlite-vec`) and a long-term memory engine running locally in Rust. * *Zero-Trust Security:* Everything is stored in an encrypted "Vault" on your drive (using Argon2/AES-GCM). No telemetry, no data leaking to training sets. * *Modular "Packs" System:* This is the coolest part—you can "install" domain expertise. I built a system where Markdown/YAML configs turn the app into a specialized tool (e.g., a Bio-informatics researcher, Legal analyst, or Screenwriter) with one click. * *Full MCP Support:* It supports the Model Context Protocol out of the box. You can connect any local or remote MCP server to give the AI direct access to your internal tools and databases.

*The Tech Stack:* * *Core:* Rust (Tauri v2) * *Frontend:* React + Tailwind + Vite * *Data:* SQLite + Vector Extensions

I’ve been working on this solo and would love your feedback on the architecture, especially the "Packs" system.

*You can download the latest installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux here:* https://github.com/frumu-ai/tandem/releases

*Repo:* https://github.com/frumu-ai/tandem *Docs:* https://tandem.frumu.ai/

Thanks for checking it out!