Building my own private ChatGPT/Claude

🦦 Otter AI Project, Building My Own Local AI Dashboard!

Over the past month or so I've been building something I'm really proud of which I call Otter AI, a fully self-hosted AI command center that I built from scratch for my own personal use.

The idea? A private, local alternative to ChatGPT or Claude that runs entirely on my own machine. No subscriptions, no data leaving my network, no cloud dependency. Just a powerful AI dashboard built exactly the way I want it.

✅ What's built so far:

• Multi-turn AI chat with streaming, voice input, and file/image uploads

• An integrated suite of terminals connected to your device such as PowerShell, CMD, and SSH with Cisco switch and Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro support as well as other devices.

• Gmail integration with AI email summaries and draft replies

• Multi-persona AI debate panel with the ability to create new personas (yes, I made Moobly the Greedy Goblin and Aldric the Arcane Sysadmin to argue about how to solve my IT problems)

• Deep research mode that autonomously searches the web and writes cited reports

• RAG document indexing, the AI can read and reference any files I give it and past conversations. I uploaded all of my conversations with ChatGPT and Claude into it to get it up to speed.

• n8n workflow automation integration

• Full settings panel with 16 color themes, custom branding, and voice input

• Weather widget, draggable and customizable dashboard, and a ton more

🔜 What's coming next:

• Electron packaging, turning it into a real .exe desktop app

• Client Manager panel for MSP work

• Script library for PowerShell/bash

• Image generation support

• Multi-user profiles so friends can run their own instance

The goal is to eventually package this up and include a how to document to setup some other dependencies so anyone can run their own private AI dashboard, no technical knowledge required.

Built with Node.js, Ollama, SearXNG, and a lot of late nights ☕

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Building my own private ChatGPT/Claude