AICO is built less like an app and more like a small local platform: a CurveZMQ‑encrypted message bus connecting FastAPI backend, dedicated modelservice, Flutter frontend and admin tooling, all sitting on top of encrypted libSQL/LMDB/ChromaDB stores and a three‑tier memory system. The architecture separates “what AICO can think and say” from where it runs, so the same companion can roam between laptop, home lab and self‑hosted cloud while keeping its memories, emotion state and agency intact. A CLI‑first operational surface with 15+ command groups makes the whole system inspectable, scriptable and maintainable like real infrastructure rather than a black‑box chatbot.

Local‑first AI is not just an architectural choice. For me, it’s the foundation for something I’ve been thinking about since childhood: a persistent virtual companion that feels present, remembers the bigger story of a life, and isn’t trapped in someone else’s cloud. In this essay I describe why I’m building AICO as a local‑first, memory‑centric companion – and what it means to treat an AI as a confidante rather than a disposable tool.