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Kiln
One‑click desktop suite for building AI systems.
Kiln provides free, one‑click desktop apps to build, fine‑tune, evaluate, and deploy AI models with RAG, agents, and synthetic data, all while keeping data local.
Overview
Rapid, No‑Code AI Development
Kiln targets product teams, data scientists, and subject‑matter experts who need to prototype AI solutions quickly. Its cross‑platform desktop apps (Windows, macOS, Linux) let users create datasets, run evaluations, and launch fine‑tuned models without writing code, while supporting over 100 model providers.
End‑to‑End Capabilities
The platform bundles state‑of‑the‑art evaluators, zero‑code fine‑tuning (including Llama, GPT‑4o, etc.), Retrieval‑Augmented Generation, multi‑actor agents, and an interactive synthetic‑data generator. Collaboration is built‑in via Git‑style version control, enabling QA, PM, and non‑technical contributors to label, rate, and iterate on data. All processing runs locally, so Kiln never accesses your proprietary information, and you can bring your own API keys or use local Ollama models. Deployment is serverless and automated, turning a fine‑tuned model into an API endpoint with a single click.
Highlights
Intuitive one‑click desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Zero‑code fine‑tuning with automatic serverless deployment
Built‑in Retrieval‑Augmented Generation and multi‑actor agents
Privacy‑first local execution with Git‑style dataset collaboration
Pros
- Free and open‑source with MIT‑licensed library
- Wide model support across major providers and local runtimes
- Collaborative UI that bridges technical and non‑technical teams
- Data never leaves the user’s machine, ensuring privacy
Considerations
- Requires a desktop environment; no native web‑only interface
- Local resource limits may affect large‑scale fine‑tuning
- Advanced custom workflows may still need code or scripting
- Reliance on external API keys for many cloud models
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Fit guide
Great for
- Rapid prototyping of AI products without coding
- Teams that need secure, on‑premise data handling
- SMEs and startups looking for a cost‑free AI toolkit
- Cross‑functional collaboration between engineers and domain experts
Not ideal when
- Enterprise pipelines demanding fully managed cloud orchestration
- Projects requiring headless server deployment only
- Use cases with massive real‑time inference at scale
- Organizations that cannot install desktop applications on all users
How teams use it
Customer‑support chatbot with RAG
Integrate company knowledge bases into a conversational agent that answers queries using up‑to‑date documents.
Domain‑specific LLM fine‑tuning
Generate synthetic training data, fine‑tune a base model, and deploy it as a private API endpoint.
Model evaluation with LLM‑as‑Judge
Run automated quality assessments on model outputs and collect human ratings for continuous improvement.
Cross‑team dataset creation
Enable product managers, QA, and SMEs to label and rate data collaboratively, syncing changes via Git.
Tech snapshot
Python70%
Svelte22%
TypeScript7%
Shell1%
HTML1%
JavaScript1%
Frequently asked questions
Which operating systems does Kiln support?
Kiln offers native desktop applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
How does Kiln protect my data?
All processing runs locally; Kiln never sends your data to external servers unless you explicitly use a cloud model API.
Do I need an API key to use Kiln?
You only need API keys for the external model providers you choose; local models like Ollama work without any keys.
Can I fine‑tune custom models not listed in the UI?
Yes, you can import any model compatible with the supported APIs via the Python library or custom configuration.
Is there a hosted cloud version of Kiln?
Currently Kiln is delivered as a free desktop application; there is no separate cloud‑hosted service.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 4,584
- Watchers
- 4,584
- Forks
- 337
Repo age1 year old
Last commit12 hours ago
Primary languagePython
Last synced 5 hours ago