ChatGPT
AI conversational assistant for answering questions, writing, and coding help
Leon
Open-source personal assistant that lives on your server
Leon is a privacy-focused personal assistant you can host yourself. Talk or text with him, build custom skills, and keep your data offline.
Overview
Your Self-Hosted Personal Assistant
Leon is a personal assistant designed to run on your own server, giving you full control over your data and privacy. You can interact with Leon through voice or text, and configure him to operate completely offline—no third-party services required.
Extensible Skills Architecture
Built around a modular skills system, Leon allows developers and enthusiasts to create custom capabilities that integrate seamlessly into a single core. Instead of building separate projects for every automation idea, you can extend Leon with new skills and share them with the community. The project is evolving to incorporate transformer-based models and a hybrid approach combining LLMs, classification, and NLP techniques for optimal speed and accuracy.
Who Should Use Leon
Leon is ideal for developers who want a hackable assistant framework, privacy advocates seeking offline AI capabilities, and tinkerers interested in building personalized automation. The project is actively maturing toward an official release that will introduce foundation models, improved TTS/ASR engines, and a community skill registry—think npm for personal assistant capabilities.
Highlights
Self-hosted architecture for complete privacy and data control
Voice and text interaction with offline operation support
Modular skills system for custom capabilities and community sharing
Hybrid AI approach combining LLMs, NLP, and classification techniques
Pros
- Full control over data with optional offline mode
- Extensible skills framework encourages customization
- Active development with transformer models and modern AI integration
- One-click cloud deployment via Gitpod for quick testing
Considerations
- Documentation currently outdated due to major ongoing changes
- Development branch may be unstable; older versions lack foundation models
- Limited contributor activity due to solo maintainer constraints
- Skill ecosystem still maturing; registry platform planned but not yet available
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Fit guide
Great for
- Developers building custom automation workflows and personal tools
- Privacy-conscious users wanting self-hosted AI without cloud dependencies
- Tinkerers interested in experimenting with modular assistant architectures
- Teams seeking a hackable foundation for internal assistant capabilities
Not ideal when
- Users expecting polished, production-ready consumer software today
- Non-technical users uncomfortable with server setup and CLI tools
- Organizations requiring enterprise support and SLA guarantees
- Projects needing stable APIs during active core refactoring phases
How teams use it
Personal Productivity Automation
Build custom skills to manage daily tasks, send reminders, and integrate with personal tools—all running privately on your hardware.
Privacy-First Voice Assistant
Deploy a voice-controlled assistant that operates entirely offline, ensuring sensitive conversations and commands never leave your network.
Developer Workflow Integration
Create skills that interact with development environments, CI/CD pipelines, and project management tools through a unified conversational interface.
Community Skill Sharing
Contribute reusable skills to the ecosystem, enabling others to benefit from your automation ideas without rebuilding from scratch.
Tech snapshot
TypeScript39%
Python36%
JavaScript22%
SCSS2%
HTML1%
Frequently asked questions
Can Leon run completely offline?
Yes. You can configure Leon to operate offline for text interactions, and voice capabilities can also work without third-party services, protecting your privacy.
What programming languages are supported for building skills?
Leon supports skills written in Python via a dedicated bridge, with the core server built on Node.js. The modular architecture accommodates multiple languages.
Is the current version stable for production use?
The development branch is undergoing major changes and may be unstable. The master branch offers an older, more stable version, though it lacks newer foundation model features.
How do I install and run Leon?
Install the Leon CLI globally via npm, then run 'leon create birth' to set up the project. Use 'leon start' to launch the server, accessible at localhost:1337.
Will there be a skill registry for sharing capabilities?
Yes. A skill registry platform similar to npm or pip is planned, allowing the community to publish, discover, and install skills easily after the official release.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 16,916
- Watchers
- 16,916
- Forks
- 1,416
LicenseMIT
Repo age6 years old
Last commityesterday
Self-hostingSupported
Primary languageTypeScript
Last synced 48 minutes ago