Project AICO
Your private AI companion. Local-first, built to remember you
AICO by Boeni Industries is an open-source, local-first AI companion engineered for real‑world use: strong privacy, encrypted local storage, and a modular architecture for memory, emotion, and agency. It runs entirely locally on consumer hardware – like your MacBook Pro – and, after initial setup, doesn’t rely on a permanent internet connection. Your data stays under your control while AICO learns, remembers, and becomes a long‑term partner in your work and life.
Join as a contributor, early adopter, or partner and help shape AICO’s future.
What is AICO?
AICO is a local-first AI companion that runs entirely on hardware you control – from a single laptop to your own small server – instead of a distant cloud. Built in Switzerland, it is designed to be emotionally present, technically serious, and privacy-first: an AI that doesn’t just answer questions, but remembers you and evolves with you, even without a permanent internet connection.
Companion, not chatbot – built for long-term conversations, emotional awareness, and continuity, not just one-off prompts.
Runs on your own hardware – from a laptop to a home server, with no always-on cloud dependency after setup.
Local-first & private – your conversations, memories, and logs stay encrypted and under your control.
Production-grade architecture – message bus, modelservice, memory system, and databases engineered for real use.
Extensible & open-source – customize personalities, plugins, and infrastructure to your needs.
Product Line
AICO Core
Open Source Foundation
For builders, tinkerers, and researchers who want the real thing running on their own machines.
Full open-source platform: backend, modelservice, CLI, Flutter frontend, memory and knowledge systems.
MIT-licensed, self-hosted, and fully under your control.
Runs on your own hardware (from a laptop to a home server) or your cloud – no always-on SaaS.
Ideal if you enjoy running your own stack and contributing as AICO evolves.
AICO Pro
Guided Deployments & Collaboration
For serious individuals and small teams who want help getting from repo to reliable companion.
Guided setup and configuration on your hardware or cloud, tailored to your context.
Opinionated “production-ish” defaults for models, security, observability, and backups.
Direct collaboration with the maintainer on architecture and operations.
AICO Enterprise
OEM & Custom Integrations
For organizations embedding AICO into their own products or critical internal systems.
Architecture and integration design (on-prem, VPC, hybrid) to embed AICO into your products and systems.
Governance & compliance options: SSO/SAML/OIDC, RBAC, audit trails, multi-team setups.
Commercial licensing and SLAs for long-term, mission-critical use.
Key Capabilities
Remembers what matters, not just what was said.
Three‑tier memory architecture inspired by how human memory works: fast working memory, long‑term semantic memory, and a structured knowledge graph.
Runs on your own machines, not in someone else’s cloud.
Local‑first deployment on your laptop, home server, or private cloud—with all data staying in environments you control.
Speaks to you, even when the internet is off.
Text‑to‑speech (TTS) and encrypted local storage so AICO can talk and recall context without a permanent connection.
Understands your relationships, not just your prompts.
Graph‑based “social relationship intelligence” that models people, roles, and how they connect over time.
Feels things over time, not just per message.
Emotion simulation based on the Component Process Model (C‑CPM), with multi‑stage appraisal and a persistent emotional state.
Grows into a character, not a generic assistant.
Configurable personalities like Eve, defined with traits and thinking styles that stay consistent across conversations.
Carries your life as a story, not a pile of chats.
Conversation‑level and message‑level memories with summaries, tags, and emotional tone that AICO can revisit.
Keeps your memories encrypted, close, and under your control.
End‑to‑end encryption across databases, message channels, and local caches on hardware you own.
Shows you what it’s thinking, instead of hiding behind a black box.
Exposes inner state and history through diagnostics and APIs, so you can inspect how it reached its responses.
Learns your rhythm and preferences, instead of resetting every time.
Adaptive memory and behavioral learning that adjust retrieval and behavior as patterns repeat.
Engineered like infrastructure, not a weekend demo.
Message‑driven core, scheduler, plugin system, and a full command‑line interface for operating AICO as a real service.
Open source from the ground up, not just a thin wrapper around a model.
Backend, modelservice, frontend, memory system, and tools all live in the public repository.
Primary conversation screen in voice mode.
Primary conversation screen in text mode.
The inner monologue (thinking) view shows AICO's inner state.
The emotion history shows AICO's emotional state over time.
The memory album shows user-curated replies or conversations to remember (card view).
The memory album's timeline view.
The memory album's story mode view.
Who AICO is for
AICO is for people and teams who care as much about where their AI runs as what it can do. If you want a serious companion that lives on your own machines, respects your privacy, and can grow with you over time, AICO may be a fit.
Individuals & power users
“You’re a builder, tinkerer, or power user who wants a serious AI companion for your own work and life – research, writing, planning – without sending your notes to a cloud chatbot.”
Small teams & startups
“You want a shared AI companion for your team—living next to your tools and docs, not inside someone else’s SaaS—and you’d rather ship features than wrestle with infra and upgrades.”
Organizations & enterprises
“You’re exploring AICO as a companion inside your own products or critical workflows—not a generic assistant—and need help with architecture, integrations, governance, and long-term SLAs.”
Built in Switzerland. Privacy-first by design.
AICO is built by Boeni Industries AG in Switzerland. It is designed for European-style privacy expectations: local-first, encrypted, and under your control. You run AICO on your own infrastructure or cloud accounts – not a black-box SaaS.
Swiss-based – built in Switzerland, aligned with strong European privacy norms.
Local-first – self-hosted; your conversations, memories, and logs remain in environments you control.
Transparent & inspectable – open-source core so developers and security teams can review how things work under the hood.
Getting Started With AICO
Two clear paths:
1. Explore AICO Core
(Free & Open Source)
Start by cloning the GitHub repository, following the quickstart, and running AICO on your own machine. You’ll get a feel for the memory system, emotion model, voice, and UI—as well as how the infrastructure fits together—and you can dive into the code whenever you’re curious.
2. AICO Pro & Enterprise
If you’re exploring AICO for a team or organization and want help planning, deploying, or embedding it into your own products or workflows, reach out via the contact form or email contact@boeni.industries and we’ll figure out what makes sense together.
Built In The Open
AICO is developed as an open-source project. The code, architecture docs, and roadmap are public, and the community is invited to help shape where it goes.
AICO is an open‑source project by Boeni Industries AG, Switzerland (MIT‑licensed core, see GitHub for details). Website content and the AICO brand © 2025 Boeni Industries AG. All rights reserved.