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Deployment Options

My Independent AI is designed to be flexible, supporting setups ranging from a single laptop to a multi-device distributed ecosystem.

If you are only using one device (e.g., your laptop or a single desktop), using Docker Compose is the fastest way to get started.

  • How it works: One docker-compose.yml file spins up the Dashboard, Ollama, and Qdrant.
  • Benefits: Instant setup, no manual configuration of backing services, all data stays in the local Docker volume.
  • See Guide: Setup locally

2. Multi-Device Setup (Distributed)

Status: WIP

If you want to access your AI and sync data across multiple devices (e.g., MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, and a NAS), a distributed approach is required.

  • How it works:
    • Use Google Cloud Storage (GCS) as a central sync hub for your data and importer states.
    • Central Resources: The following components must be accessed centrally (e.g., via GCS/Litestream sync) to ensure consistency:
      • Vector DB: A shared Qdrant instance (either on a dedicated VM or a primary device).
      • Privacy Mapping: The PII mapping.db SQLite database.
      • Importer State: The importer.db which tracks the state of imported files.
      • System Settings: The admin-dashboard.db (WIP - will replace config.yaml to centrally manage all settings).
    • Manual installation (uv sync) on each node.
  • Benefits: Seamless access from any device, centralized data sovereignty.
  • Note: This setup currently requires more manual configuration (Work In Progress).

3. Offloading to the Cloud (For Low-End Hardware)

Status: WIP

If your local hardware is not powerful enough to run modern LLMs or embeddings efficiently, you can offload heavy compute tasks to Google Cloud Platform.

  • How it works:
    • Use Terraform to provision a GCP VM for the Vector DB (Qdrant).
    • Optionally use Vertex AI for generating embeddings and inference.
  • Benefits: High performance even on weak local hardware, "Scale to Zero" support to minimize costs.
  • Note: This is an advanced setup (Work In Progress).