FAQ: the questions everyone asks first
The questions that come back most often, answered briefly and honestly. Each answer points to the tutorial that goes further.
Getting started
Do I need a powerful graphics card? Not to start. A homelab of services (photos, passwords, documents) runs on an old PC or a mini PC with no graphics card at all (see Homelab 1). For local AI, a card with 12 to 16 GB of memory runs useful models; see the hardware guide.
Where do I start? Read the manifesto, then pick one path: the homelab if you want to leave subscriptions, local AI if you want your own models, the agent stack if you code.
I am a beginner. Is this for me? Yes: every tutorial shows its level and its time at the top, what to read first, and the glossary explains the words. Start with the ones marked "Beginner".
Cost
Is it free? The software is free and open source, and the tutorials are free. It is not free of cost: you need the hardware, and it uses electricity. In exchange, there is no monthly bill per user or per token, and the machine is yours.
Will it replace my AI subscription? For everyday work, local models do a lot. For the hardest tasks we still use a hosted agent, only when it is worth it (see hybrid by escalation).
Does a server at home use a lot of power? It can sleep when nobody uses it and wake on demand (see sleep and wake).
Privacy and safety
Is my data safe? It stays on your machines, which is the point. But you become responsible for it: backups (tutorial), passwords in a vault (tutorial), and nothing published on the internet that does not need to be (reach it privately).
Do these pages track me? No: no tracker, no cookie, no third-party font.
About this site
Can I reuse these tutorials? Yes, under CC BY-SA 4.0: share and adapt, with credit and the same licence.
Are the numbers real? Yes. Every figure here was measured on our machines, and the tutorials say when something is not measured. See our findings and the lab notebook.
Can you set it up for me? Yes: configure, build, set up or redesign, on your own hardware. Write to us from the help page.
Found this useful? Tell us what to measure next.