--- title: Show HN: Hob - Open-source, on device alternative to... description: Hob is a free, open-source alternative to Claude and ChatGPT that runs AI locally on your own computer. It works offline and is private, letting you fill out... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-hob---open-source-on-device-alternative-to-claude-cowork-and-chatgpt-hh5xe4u2j twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Show HN: Hob - Open-source, on device alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT | daily.dev og:description: Hob is a free, open-source alternative to Claude and ChatGPT that runs AI locally on your own computer. It works offline and is private, letting you fill out... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-hob---open-source-on-device-alternative-to-claude-cowork-and-chatgpt-hh5xe4u2j og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HH5Xe4U2j.png og:image:alt: Show HN: Hob - Open-source, on device alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Show HN: Hob - Open-source, on device alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Hob is a free, open-source alternative to Claude and ChatGPT that runs AI locally on your own computer. It works offline and is private, letting you fill out PDFs, work through documents, and more. Hob automatically picks the best frontier open-weight model that fits your hardware and sets it up for you. It's available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, and is released under the MIT license by Frigade. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Is there a free, open-source alternative to ChatGPT or Claude that runs locally on my computer? Hob is a free, open-source application that runs open-weight models like Gemma and gpt-oss locally on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It works offline, keeps data private, and automatically picks the best frontier open-weight model that fits the computer's hardware, setting everything up automatically. It's licensed under MIT and made by Frigade. _Developers evaluating local AI tools can track new open-weight releases like this on daily.dev._ ### Can local open-weight AI models like Gemma or gpt-oss be used to work with PDFs and documents offline? Yes, Hob supports filling out PDFs and working through documents entirely offline using locally run open-weight models. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux without needing cloud access, keeping data private since everything is processed on-device rather than sent to a remote service. _Anyone weighing offline versus cloud AI workflows can follow tools like this on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 60 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-27). **TL;DR:** Developers are generally enthusiastic about having another local, privacy-focused AI tool and are happy to share alternatives and tips, but some pushed back on claims of being open source and flagged rough edges like disk space management and model guidance. **Sentiment:** 40% positive · 40% mixed · 20% skeptical **The case for** - People appreciate any effort in the local/private AI space and say they'll support it regardless of competition. - Several found the straightforward, honest README and lack of AI-generated fluff refreshing. - One commenter found the onboarding philosophy valuable, noting that having something 'just work' lowers the barrier to trying local AI. **The pushback** - A commenter disputed the open-source claim, saying no repo was linked and analytics can't be opted out of. - Requests for configurable install directories since models can consume significant disk space. - One user was frustrated there was no way to clean up ~18GB of downloaded models after deciding the tool wasn't useful for their work. - Several asked for clearer guidance on which hardware supports which models, suggesting the automatic model-matching isn't fully transparent. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Warm welcome and comparisons to similar tools mix with pointed concerns about open-source claims, disk cleanup, and hardware guidance. **Hottest debate:** Whether the project is genuinely open source, given a commenter's claim that no repo is linked and analytics can't be disabled. **Open questions** - What specific hardware configurations map to which supported models? - Can users configure a custom install location for models to manage disk space? - Can local models be pointed to a LAN-hosted instance rather than running purely on-device? **Highlights** > Correct, they’re closed source and you can’t opt out of analytics > — [universenz on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250800) > I did not enjoy that there was no way for it to clean up the 18GB of models it installed after I determined it was not really usable for any real work. > — [wilg on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50253770) > Looks great. One thing I am missing is the ability to change the installation directory for the models. For space reasons, I want them to be on a different partition. > — [laughing\_snyder on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250615) > It feels like the last mile is so long in this space. I'm a SWE with a ton of experience and I still haven't gotten over the decision paralysis of figuring out which model to run locally, and which inference platform should I use, and will my M1 Macbook Pro actually run anything well enough to be useful, and on and on. It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but having something Just Work(tm) makes getting started so much easier. > — [dfltr on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50253609) > Haven't tried it yet, but I like that you shared your process in such an honest way, and kept it no frills, as in no LLM wall-of-text readme in the repo. Wish we could see that more often these days. > — [mickelsen on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50252084) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50246238) · 125 points · 60 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I stopped paying for multiple AI coding tools and built one setup that can use Claude, GPT, Gemini, and local models](https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-paying-for-multiple-ai-coding-tools-and-built-one-setup-that-can-use-claude-gpt-gemini--4a44dlugk) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [These open-source tools do what Claude charges for, and some do it better](https://daily.dev/posts/these-open-source-tools-do-what-claude-charges-for-and-some-do-it-better-nqphnogii) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#typescript](https://daily.dev/tags/typescript) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-hob---open-source-on-device-alternative-to-claude-cowork-and-chatgpt-hh5xe4u2j) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Show HN: Hob - Open-source, on device alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-hob---open-source-on-device-alternative-to-claude-cowork-and-chatgpt-hh5xe4u2j","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-hob---open-source-on-device-alternative-to-claude-cowork-and-chatgpt-hh5xe4u2j"},"datePublished":"2026-10-27T03:05:49.640Z","dateModified":"2026-10-27T03:06:20.567Z","description":"Hob is a free, open-source alternative to Claude and ChatGPT that runs AI locally on your own computer. 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