# privstory

> privstory is a desktop application that runs an AI character chat entirely on the
> user's own machine. No cloud, no account, and no conversation data leaves the
> device. It is driven by user-provided modules that control character and scene
> creation.

## What it is

privstory lets you create a character from a one-line brief, the app generates a
persona, an appearance, and a portrait, and then open "scenes" (conversation
sessions) with that character. A local Llama-3 chat model role-plays the character
with streaming replies, while a local SDXL image model paints the portrait and
repaints the scene backdrop as the story moves. Everything runs on-device with the
Candle inference stack.

## Modules

privstory ships with no built-in character or scene generation on its own, it is
driven by "modules". A module is a shareable bundle of a chat model, an image model,
and the prompts that generate characters and scenes. Users can build their own module
or import one, download its weights in-app, and then select it when creating a
character. Each character stays bound to the module it was created with.

## Platforms and hardware

- Native app for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
- Apple Silicon uses the Metal GPU backend automatically.
- NVIDIA GPUs use CUDA when built with the `cuda` feature (build from source).
- A CPU fallback works but image generation is slow.
- The default model set fits in roughly 12 GB (chat ~5 GB, portraits ~6.5 GB); the
  two models are never resident at the same time.

## Privacy

- The chat and image models run locally.
- Characters, scenes, and transcripts are stored in a local SQLite database.
- No account is required and there is no telemetry.
- The only network access is the one-time model download and, if a license key is
  entered, a lightweight license validation check.

## Pricing

- Free: one character and one scene, with the full local chat and image generation.
- License: a one-time purchase that unlocks unlimited characters and scenes and can
  be moved between the user's devices. The license key is entered under
  Settings → License in the app. Prices are shown in Swiss francs (CHF).

## Links

- Website: https://privstory.com/
- Download: https://github.com/fabianboesiger/privstory/releases/latest
- Source: https://github.com/fabianboesiger/privstory