Offline Operation
Atlas runs on your own machine. Once it’s set up, you can turn off your Wi-Fi, pull the network cable, and keep working — the AI included. This page explains exactly what works offline, the two one-time things that need a connection, and the optional features that reach the network only when you ask them to.
What works with no connection
Section titled “What works with no connection”After the first-run setup described below, everything Atlas does happens on your device. Disconnect from the internet and all of this keeps working:
- AI chat — the local language model generates every answer on your machine.
- Voice — push-to-talk, hands-free conversation mode, and the “Hey Jarvis” wake word all run on-device (Whisper Base handles speech-to-text, Kokoro handles spoken replies).
- Search — semantic and keyword search run against your local index.
- Notes and vault — writing, editing, linking, tags, and templates.
- Agent tools — the built-in actions that read and write your notes.
- People and network — contacts, organizations, topics, and the network graph.
- Memory — identity files, long-term memory, and session history.
- Daily notes and tasks.
- Automation — scheduled tasks, reminders, and Drumbeat.
There’s no feature that quietly stops working when you go offline, apart from the optional network features listed further down — and those are ones you turn on yourself.
The two things that need the internet — once each
Section titled “The two things that need the internet — once each”Atlas needs a connection in exactly two situations, and both are one-time:
- Activating your license. The first time you enter your key, Atlas checks it online and binds it to this computer. After that the app runs fully offline — it does not phone home on every launch. See License & Activation for details.
- Downloading the AI models. The installer itself is small; the language, speech, and voice models come down the first time you launch the app — roughly 3–8 GB depending on which model you choose. Downloads are resumable, so a dropped connection picks up where it left off. See Local AI Models.
Once your license is activated and the models are downloaded, you can disconnect and stay disconnected for good if you like.
Optional features that use the network
Section titled “Optional features that use the network”A few features reach the internet, but only when you enable them and only for what they need. None of them send your notes or conversations anywhere.
| Feature | What it connects to | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Weather | Open-Meteo | The get_weather tool fetches a forecast for a location you configure. |
| Web search | DuckDuckGo (or Brave, if you add your own API key) | The web_search tool looks up current information — only when you explicitly ask. It can be turned off entirely in Settings. |
| Google Calendar / Contacts | Google, directly from the app | Optional calendar sync and one-time contacts import. The requests go straight to Google; nothing routes through a server we run. |
| Checking for a new version | GitHub releases | Manual only — Atlas never auto-updates. You check when you want to, and each new version is a manual download. |
If you never turn any of these on, Atlas makes no network connections at all after setup.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Privacy & Data — where your data lives and why nothing is uploaded.
- Hardware Requirements — what your machine needs to run the local AI.
- FAQ — quick answers on data, privacy, and offline use.