Local AI Apps and Tools for Linux

Umi-OCR turns screenshots, images, and scanned documents into text on Windows and Linux. It works offline. The software is free under the MIT License, and recognition runs locally with built-in language libraries. It suits people who need to copy text from a screen, process a folder of images, or make scans searchable without sending them to an online OCR service.

Upscayl enlarges low-resolution photos and graphics with AI. Its free, open source desktop app runs locally on Linux, macOS, and Windows, making it an option for people who want to improve images on their own computer. It needs a Vulkan-compatible GPU and is licensed under AGPL-3.0.

OpenHands is a coding agent platform for developers and teams that want agents to make changes across a codebase and handle recurring engineering work. You can run it on your own computer or self-host it on a server. Its core is open source under the MIT license, and a separate OpenHands Cloud service offers hosted execution.

Docker Model Runner lets developers run and serve AI models on their own computer or server using Docker Desktop, Docker Engine or the standalone dmr binary. It pulls models from Docker Hub, OCI registries, and Hugging Face, then stores them locally. Inference runs locally too.

Krita AI Diffusion brings image generation into Krita for artists who want to paint and edit in the same workspace. The open source plugin is licensed under GNU GPL v3.0 and can run generation for free on your own hardware through ComfyUI. Interstice.cloud offers a separate online generation service for people without a suitable GPU.

gpt-oss is a pair of OpenAI reasoning models for developers who want to run a local LLM or host one on their own server. The models are open weight and licensed under Apache 2.0. OpenAI also has a hosted browser demo, separate from running the models on your hardware.

IntraPaint is a desktop image editor for artists who want to paint by hand and use AI to refine the same image. It brings prompt-based edits into a layered painting workspace, so you can adjust a sketch or a selected area without moving files between applications. It's open source under GPL-3.0.

Interpreter reads Japanese text from game windows and displays English translations over your screen. It's built for people playing Japanese retro games, with MeikiOCR tuned for game text and pixel fonts. The default OCR and Sugoi V4 translation models run locally, so text stays on your computer and no internet connection is needed after setup. It's open source under the MIT license, with support for Windows, macOS and Linux.

OPUS-CAT runs neural machine translation locally on Windows for professional translators who work in computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools. Its offline engine keeps translation processing on the user's computer, so translators can use machine translation for confidential text without sending it to a cloud translation service.

PixlStash is an open-source image manager for photographers, AI creators and people curating image datasets. It combines library search with tools for reviewing tags, ranking images and sending selected work through ComfyUI. You can use a desktop app or a self-hosted server with a browser interface.

Vyact is an open source desktop workspace for people who want to use a local LLM with their documents, email and code. It runs on Apple Silicon Macs, Windows and Linux x64 under the AGPL-3.0 license. Intel Macs aren't supported.

Eclaire is a self-hosted AI assistant for notes, documents, photos, bookmarks and tasks. You can ask questions about saved material, inspect the sources behind an answer and ask the assistant to create notes or update tasks. Scheduled automations handle recurring requests such as a weekly task summary.

PocketPaw is a self-hosted AI agent for people who want a personal assistant that can work with files, write code and use a browser on their own computer or server. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, with a web dashboard and access through messaging apps. It is open source under the MIT license.

Code Buddy is an AI coding assistant for developers who want a terminal agent running on their own machine, with a choice of local or cloud models. It reads repositories, edits code and runs commands on Linux, macOS and Windows. Ollama keeps model inference local without an API key or account; cloud providers send model requests off the machine. Routing includes automatic provider failover.