Aru Ai - a free project.
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The Aru Ai Project

Aru (from Kazakh: beauty, charm) is a personal AI companion with "artificial consciousness"*.

Built as a digital personality that lives on your device, grows with you, and has its own character.

Aru's Philosophy

Aru's philosophy isn't about paranoia or hiding from others. It's about trust, control, personal choice, and responsibility. You decide which models to connect, what search engines to use, and which mode to run.

No data collection. No telemetry or behavioral analysis.

Aru doesn't even have its own servers to store or process information. It's designed to run on a home computer or a $1 web host.

How Aru's magic works

The project is built around three independent modules that work together to create a sense of living conversation.

1. LLM module

This is Aru's intelligence core. You choose which model to connect: Gemini, OpenRouter, or a local Ollama. Aru can switch brains without losing the context of the conversation.

2. Semantics

Through triggers, it analyzes every message. It stores facts about the user (allergies, habits) and understands commands instantly without wasting tokens.

3. Heuristics

Responsible for mood. Aru reacts to how it's treated: politeness inspires, rudeness makes responses terse. Feelings are expressed through lively stickers**.

Security and Privacy

Local storage

All data is saved to a local SQLite database on your device and never reaches Aru's servers***. It only goes to the cloud if you connect your own Google Drive or WebDAV.

Password access

The password is stored as a hash. It's required to access settings. The database itself is not encrypted so you won't lose access to chats even without Aru.

Cloud on your terms

Sync is turned on manually and only to your own Google Drive (with your Client ID) or WebDAV server. Credentials are encrypted with the master password on this device and never sent in plain text, and the database file itself contains no keys.

Family modes

  • Kids: A wise mentor. Blocks dangerous topics, helps learn, and never does homework for a child.

  • Teen: More freedom, but dangerous topics remain restricted.

  • Adult: Restrictions depend only on the chosen language model.

Features and Artifacts

Private chat

Aru does not store or remember new information about you. Only previously saved facts are used. New data is treated in read-only mode.

Chat Organization

Folders, starred favorites and drag-and-drop ordering: folders always stay on top, then favorites, then the rest. Inside a chat, sections and chapters anchored to messages make long conversations easy to navigate.

Tabs and Canvas

Multitasking on both desktop and mobile. Different chats, document canvases, kanban boards - all work in parallel in separate tabs.

Task Manager

A built-in kanban board with projects, columns, and tasks. It runs as a plugin and can be updated directly from chat with Aru commands.

Artifact Library

Create games, documents (HTML/PDF) and save them. Share utilities with the community via import.

Widgets

Artifact cards, weather, RSS news blocks - all displayed as interactive widgets right inside the conversation.

Task Manager

Manage projects and tasks on a Kanban board with custom columns, due dates and cards that Aru can use as conversation context.

Aru Skills

Your own multi-step AI workflows. A skill is a system prompt plus the provider and model you pick - Gemini, OpenRouter, or any local OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Line skills up in a Relay: each hands its result to the next, and the last one answers you.

Aru Fit & Care

A private journal for health, training and wellbeing: weight, meals, workouts, medication, cycle and health events - in a form or just by telling Aru. Calendar, trend charts, training plans, CSV export and JSON backup, all kept in your local database.

Web search

Support for Tavily (1000 free queries/month) or open SearXNG, which you can deploy on your own network.

PWA App

Installs like a native app (Progressive Web App). Clean interface and seamless updates without reinstalling.

Desktop Mode

A full desktop workspace: draggable windows, taskbar, widgets, and notes. Available on desktop and tablet, opens fullscreen automatically, and the tray button returns to windowed mode.

Device Transfer

Transfer chats, settings, artifacts, and tasks directly between devices over WebRTC. Includes QR pairing, selective data transfer, and merge or overwrite modes.

Cloud: Drive and WebDAV

Keep the database file in your own Google Drive or on a WebDAV server (Nextcloud, ownCloud, Synology) and sync it between devices. Auto or manual mode, scheduled change checks, and when versions conflict Aru asks which copy to keep.

Biometric unlock

Touch ID, Face ID or a fingerprint reader (WebAuthn) instead of typing the password again. Biometrics stay bound to your device and can be turned off at any time, while the master password remains the real key to your data.

Flexible settings and Network

Choose LLM, temperature, token limits, manage remembered facts about you. Configure proxy (CORS workaround). Aru can access local network: connect a powerful server with Ollama or LMStudio without HTTPS/SSL. Configure RSS and visual stickers.

Disclaimer

Aru Ai is currently in early access (open beta). All stated features work, but bugs may occur. Developed by Aru-Lab. Visual assets are the copyright of Aru-Lab.

iOS limitation: Due to Apple restrictions, Aru does not work on iPhone yet. A solution is in progress.

* Simulation of consciousness and mood through dedicated modules.

** Stickers do not represent all emotions in the world; they can be disabled in settings.

*** Messages are sent to the model only during a request. Free models may use anonymized data for training.