Local-first, with the route in your control
Noema is a native AI workspace for Apple devices. Local models, conversations, document indexes, and many tools can stay on your hardware and continue working without an internet connection.
Some features intentionally use a network: Web Search, model and dataset downloads, remote endpoints, Constellation, remote Autopilot routing, enterprise services, and configured speech or tool providers. Noema shows and controls those paths instead of pretending they do not exist.
Constellation can use an awake Mac’s models from another personal device. Noema prefers the local network, a configured Private Link, or an encrypted direct path; Noema Bridge and private CloudKit exchange are fallbacks when those routes are unavailable.
What works offline
- Chats with an installed GGUF, MLX, ExecuTorch, Core ML, or supported on-device Apple Foundation Model.
- Retrieval over downloaded documents, datasets, and Knowledge Packs after an embedding model has indexed them.
- Local tools including Python, Memory, Calculator, Unit Converter, Charts, and supported device integrations.
- Local Whisper transcription and optional local neural voice after their models are installed.
What requires a deliberate connection
- Searching or reading public web sources.
- Sending a turn to a remote endpoint or stronger Autopilot model.
- Using Constellation to sync chats or reach an awake Mac model.
- Downloading models, datasets, voices, embeddings, or Knowledge Packs.
- Using a remote speech engine, enterprise workspace, or external tool server.
Off-grid Mode
Turn on Settings → Off-grid Mode when you want Noema to block external HTTP and HTTPS requests made through its network stack. Local generation, retrieval, and local tools remain available; network-backed features stop or fall back locally when possible.
Off-grid Mode does not sandbox separate software or operating-system services. Review the privacy page for those boundaries.