FAQ
Fair questions, straight answers.
Is it actually private, or "private" with an asterisk?
Actually private — and verifiable. All inference, voice, and media generation run on your GPU. Exactly two optional features touch the cloud (Wispr Flow speech-to-text and a stock-upload helper), both clearly flagged in the app, and both hard-blocked when Privacy Mode is on. Every network decision is written to a plain-text log you can open yourself.
Do I need an account or an API key?
No account, no API key, no sign-in, no telemetry. Download it, run the installer, drop in a model file, done.
What does it cost to run?
Electricity. There's no per-message or per-token billing because there's no cloud service behind it — the model is a file on your disk.
Can I use a different model?
Yes. ABSOL runs any .gguf model through KoboldCpp. It ships tuned around Hermes-3 Llama-3.1 8B, and an upcoming Workshop edition will add a full LoRA fine-tuning kit to train the persona onto your own model.
What are Sentinels?
Four autonomous defensive agents — VANGUARD, AEGIS, CIPHER, and ORACLE — that activate the moment you let ABSOL reach the internet. They watch network traffic for anomalies, scan every response for PII before it reaches you, correlate prompt-injection attempts across conversations, and verify the audit log hasn't been tampered with. They never store the sensitive content they flag, only metadata, and they stand down cleanly when you re-engage local-only mode. Core keeps you private by staying closed; Sentinel keeps you guarded when you choose to open the door.
Does it work in my language?
Yes — a first-run picker lets you choose from 20 languages (Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, and more), and ABSOL chats, speaks, and takes dictation in your pick. Honest caveat, shown in the app too: the local model is strongest in English; other languages work but can be less polished.
What's with the avatar?
ABSOL renders as a Metatron's Cube — the sacred-geometry figure — with a fox companion badge. It isn't decorative idle animation: its color, flicker, and motion are driven by the agent's real state and a seven-emotion classifier, so you can see at a glance whether it's idle, working, or raising an alert.
Windows says the installer is unrecognized.
Expected for a small independent app without a code-signing certificate. The package is plain batch + Python you can read before running — nothing is obfuscated.