Your computer doesn’t think — it asks someone else.Without a connection, it falls silent.
Everything you type leaves your home.The system that answers you may be thousands of miles away,inside a building you have never seen,charging for every answerwithout showing you where your data ends up.
ANCLA reverses the order. It works locally first.
Its own operating system, ANCLA OS. Its own intelligence, ALTAR — local AI designed for a 15-watt power envelope and passive, on-device cooling. The essential tools live inside; nothing is rented.
ANCLA brings local intelligence, offline knowledge, private operation, local communications and low-power computing into one system.
Comparison of ANCLA with other device categories
A laptop
An offline server
A local AI box
ANCLA
The intelligence lives inside
No
No
Yes
Yes
The knowledge lives inside
No
Yes
No
Yes
No one knows what you do with it
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Communicates without Wi-Fi
No
No
No
Yes
Runs on 15 Watts
No
Yes
No
Yes
It thinks inside. It knows inside. It doesn’t report what you do. It talks without Wi-Fi. And it draws less than a lightbulb. ANCLA One ‘Prometheus’ is the first.
Why now
Four shifts already under way.
0 of 23
Electric grids face a new demand curve. NERC identifies resource-adequacy challenges in 13 of 23 North American assessment areas over the next decade, as new large loads add pressure to generation and transmission.
The web is disappearing. Pew found that 38% of webpages available in 2013 were no longer accessible a decade later. What you rely on today may not be there tomorrow.
Automated traffic now outnumbers human traffic. Imperva reports that automated systems generated more than half of web traffic in 2025. The public web is also fragmenting into closed platforms.
Source
Imperva (Thales), Bad Bot Report 2026: automated traffic exceeded 53% in 2025, up from 51% the year before.
0 ml
Cloud AI has a water footprint. A widely cited study estimated that GPT-3 could consume about 500 ml of water for roughly 10–50 medium-length responses, depending on when and where it runs.
Source
Li et al., “Making AI Less Thirsty” (UC Riverside, 2023; Communications of the ACM, 2025): an estimate for GPT-3 of one 500 ml bottle per roughly 10–50 medium-length responses, depending on when and where it runs.
How it thinks
Local first. The wider world when you choose.
The intelligence, library, maps, your documents and applications live on the device. A network connection is optional — not a requirement for useful work.
ANCLA OS
The system that makes everything else possible.
ANCLA does not run Windows or macOS. It uses ANCLA OS, built on Armbian Linux so its foundations can be inspected.
Its code can be reviewed. It has no product telemetry. It can update offline, and local AI workloads stay on the device.
Your hardware. Your system. Your intelligence.
What is inside every ANCLA?
The pantheon. Every core module works offline.
The core
ALTAR
The intelligence layer. It answers, drafts, translates and reasons with you on-device. It can use the documents you choose to add, expanding the local knowledge available to it.
The library
Alexandria
Wikipedia offline, plus your own PDFs and EPUBs for reading, annotation and reference. Each book you add expands the material ALTAR can work with.
The territory
Atlas
Maps, routes and coordinates stored on disk, so you still know where you are when there’s no signal and no data.
The eyes
Argos
Collects news whenever it has a connection and keeps it available to read offline later.
The sky
Orion
ANCLA’s planetarium: a local reference for exploring, studying and teaching astronomy.
The body
Salus Corpus
A layered 3D anatomy model for study and explanation. It is educational software, not a medical diagnostic tool.
The workshop
The Void
A workspace for planning and programming, with ALTAR available alongside your projects and code.
The office
Scriba
Documents and spreadsheets stored on your own disk, without requiring a cloud account.
The agentsIn development
Specialized agents
Planned modules for water, energy and code that can monitor and optimize local systems alongside ALTAR.
The archiveIn development
ANCLA manuals
A planned offline collection for preserving practical knowledge, from basic preparedness to technical manufacturing references.
The pantheon is not a closed set. New modules install from a USB stick, and founding members propose and vote on what gets built next.
The pantheon is designed to keep expanding.
On the outside: two USB ports, one video input, two video outputs, two network ports and power. It connects like a computer because it is one.
The meaning inside ANCLA One ‘Prometheus’
Why ANCLA. Why ALTAR.
ANCLA
From the Spanish word ancla — “anchor” — derived from the Latin ancora. A symbol of stability, resilience, and a fixed point in uncertainty.
ALTAR
From the Latin altare: a place where civilization preserves what it considers sacred. Here, that sacred inheritance is human knowledge — preserved offline for generations.
Power and cooling
15 W
Designed to run from a small solar setup, a portable battery or a standard household outlet.
0 ml on site
ANCLA is passively air-cooled: no on-site water-cooling loop, cooling tower or drain.
The most useful intelligence isn’t the one that consumes the most. It’s the one that’s still there.
The ANCLA mesh
One ANCLA is a computer. Two can become a network.
The planned ANCLA mesh is designed to pass messages between nearby devices over local radio, without relying on the public internet. The first field pilot is scheduled for 2027.
No public Wi-FiNo central serverNo account
Three units communicating locally, with no central server in between.
Who it is for
Built for people who do not want to ask permission.
The off-grid household
A home with solar power and patchy coverage. Homework, health questions and translation that don’t depend on a signal.
The professional with sensitive files
Lawyers, clinicians and journalists who want sensitive drafts and documents processed locally rather than sent to a third-party AI service.
The prepared community
Groups planning for outages, storms or long disruptions, with useful knowledge available when it is needed most.
The sovereign tinkerer
Anyone who wants to understand local AI from the inside, modify the system and run compatible models without an intermediary.
Digital sovereignty
“Sovereignty is not access to intelligence. It is making sure no one can take it away.”
Cloud services can change prices, rules or availability. Digital sovereignty means keeping the system, the data and the off switch on your side.
What it does without
What ANCLA doesn’t need to work with you.
No —
Dedicated GPU
Models optimized for local inference on efficient hardware, without a separate graphics card.
No —
Internet
Core AI and reference functions are designed to work offline — in a blackout, out in the country or at sea.
No —
Subscriptions
The founding edition is sold as hardware. The local functions it ships with carry no required monthly fee.
Roadmap
From founding edition to resilient communities.
August 2026
The Founding Circle
A planned first run of 101 numbered units.
November 2026
First delivery
Target window for shipping the first series.
February 2027
First mesh pilot
Target window for a local-radio pilot in an area with unreliable coverage.
2030 horizon
Sovereign communities
A long-term goal: neighborhoods, cooperatives and towns operating shared local intelligence on their own terms.
The roadmap is a target, not a guarantee; dates and features may change as testing progresses.
The Founding Circle
101 units. 101 names.
The Founding Circle is planned as a limited first series of 101 ANCLA One ‘Prometheus’ units.
01
Your engraved number
A number from 001 to 101 on the chassis, never reassigned or reissued.
02
A voice in the pantheon
Founding members can propose and vote on which module is prioritized next.
03
A direct line
A private channel with the person building ANCLA.
04
The first mesh
The first 101 units are intended to seed the first ANCLA mesh pilot.
No payment and no commitment. One email when preorders open, and nothing else.
You’re on the list. We’ll email you when preorders open.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask before joining.
What can AI do without the internet?+
ALTAR is designed to answer questions, draft, translate, search an offline knowledge library and work with documents you provide. The one thing it can’t do offline is bring you today’s news — that still needs a connection.
Is there really no required subscription?+
The included local functions are planned without a required monthly fee. Software-update terms and third-party component licenses will be published before orders open.
Isn’t this technology only for the privileged?+
The first series will be expensive because it is small. The longer-term goal is to publish enough documentation for local workshops to build and repair future versions.
How does it protect my data?+
The design target is encrypted local storage, no product telemetry and no required cloud account. A security model, supported threat boundaries and software licenses will be published before orders open.
When will preorders open and when will it ship?+
The current target is to open the Founding Circle in August 2026 and begin shipping in November 2026. These are development targets, not guaranteed dates. Joining the waitlist will not be a purchase or reservation.
