AI that lives where you do, even when everything else is offline.
Sid in a Box is an AI helper running entirely on your own computer. No cloud, no account, nothing sent anywhere. The download is small; the first time you open it, Sid fetches its engine, a model and a medical encyclopedia and sets itself up. After that it needs no internet at all.
If the internet disappears tomorrow, your Sid keeps working. That is the whole point. When you are online it can ask the online Sid too and keep what it learns for the days you are not.
Windows 64-bit · free · no account, no installer. Not sure which? Read the next section. It is not a decision you can get wrong: Light becomes Everything later from its own Settings page without downloading anything twice.
118downloads
1box linked
Optional: linking lets your box ask the online Sid too while you're online, and keep what it learns.
Build your box
The download is the same small zip whichever you pick. What differs is what Sid fetches the first time it opens: a model or five, an encyclopedia or the whole of Wikipedia. Choose that here, with real sizes, and get a short code. Sid asks for the code once. Everything you skip stays visible inside the box with its size and a Download button, so nothing here is a decision you can get wrong.
A starting set, not a commitment. Tick and untick anything below; the box downloads exactly this list the first time it opens, the essentials first, the rest in the background while you use it.
The model that does the thinking
Pick one to start with; more than one is fine on a big machine.
Eyes
A second model that reads photos. Needs its own room in memory.
Search
Comes with every box. Nothing to choose.
The library
Whole encyclopedias, from Kiwix, straight onto your machine. The big ones take days on a slow connection and never hold anything else up.
Your box will download5.5 GBthe first time it opens, engine included.
Wants about 2.2 GB of memory free for the smallest model you picked.
Then download. The code goes in on the first run; the zip is the same for everyone.
Light or Everything?
The difference is how much computer you are giving Sid, not how good the answers are. An AI model has to fit in your computer's memory to run at all, so the box starts in one of two shapes: one that is careful about memory, and one that spends it. Both are the same program with the same pages, and both work with the internet unplugged.
Light
For the old laptop, the 8 GB desktop, the machine in the garage.
The engine, one small chat model and WikiMed, tuned to stay out of the way: one thing in memory at a time and a memory budget you can see and change. This is the right choice for a modest computer, not a stripped-down one. An old machine that keeps a family answered when the power is out is the whole point.
Chat, entirely offline
WikiMed and the Library
Every page the other preset has
Everything
For the desktop with room to spare.
Starts by fetching everything: the bigger chat model, the eyes, a fuller library and the hardware tools, in the background while you talk to the small model. Same pages, same settings, more loaded at once, and as many cameras and boards as the machine can carry.
Everything Light has
The bigger model and the eyes, ready sooner
The hardware tools, ready to put a sketch on a board
How to tell which one this computer wants. Open Task Manager, look at how much memory the machine has, and pick Light if the answer is 8 GB or less. If it is 16 GB or more, take Everything. If you take the wrong one, switch inside the box; nothing you have downloaded is thrown away.
Three things it's for
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Keep my family safe
A child with a high fever at 2 a.m. A deep cut. Someone who collapsed. Sid walks you through what to do right now, what to watch for, and how urgent it really is, with weight-based doses and step-by-step checklists, from a medical encyclopedia that lives on your machine.
“My 4-year-old has a 103° fever and a rash”
“How do I stop heavy bleeding?”
“Make oral rehydration solution”
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Keep my homestead running
Safe water, food that will not spoil, staying warm without power, sanitation when the utilities quit, keeping a small solar or battery system alive. Practical know-how that works when the grid does not.
“Is this creek water safe to drink?”
“Heat one room with no electricity”
“Size a 12V solar setup for a fridge”
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Build and watch
Plug in an Arduino and a camera, then describe what you want in plain words: "when someone comes to the door, ask for the password and turn the light on if they know it." Sid writes the rules, reads them back, and the Lab runs all day on its own.
“Blink the LED on my board”
“Take a picture of the garden every hour”
“Tell me when the chicken coop door opens”
What you get
The download is small on purpose. Everything below either ships in it or is fetched once, from inside the box, while you watch a progress bar.
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Home
A calm first page: the time, a note for the day, what this computer is doing, the bell, the Labs that asked to be shown, and a bar to ask Sid anything. Cameras, devices and sound one tab away.
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Chat that runs on your machine
Every answer is made on your own computer by your own model. Drop a picture in and Sid looks at it. Press the microphone and talk; have it say its answers out loud. Nothing is sent anywhere.
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Labs, described in words
A saved experiment that runs all day: a camera, a board, the eyes, the ears and a voice, with rules written as sentences. Say what it should do and Sid writes the rules; nothing changes until you agree. The doorkeeper ships as the first one.
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A library that swallows encyclopedias
WikiMed first, then any Kiwix archive: Appropedia, iFixit, WikiHow, all of Wikipedia. Point Sid at a folder on any drive and it reads every one. Your own notes and manuals go in as plain text files.
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Projects and a Calendar
One folder per build for notes, photos and files; Sid can save what it tells you straight into one. The Calendar shows what the Labs did, day by day, and holds notes and scheduled rules.
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Call it what you like
Sid is the name it comes with. Type another on Settings › Your helper and it answers to that, says it out loud, and calls itself by it in the chat. The download is still Sid in a Box.
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Only where you let it
Sid reads and writes inside its own folder and any folder you hand it, one at a time. Every action asks first unless you say otherwise, and everything it does goes in a log you can open.
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The Link
Optional, and never required for anything. When you are online, your box can ask the online Sid the same question, show both answers, and keep the one you choose for the days you are offline.
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It keeps itself current
When the computer is online, the box checks for a newer release every few minutes and installs it in place. Your conversations, settings, models and library stay put.
Up and running in four steps
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1. Unzip it
The download is small: about 90 MB, not a night of waiting. Right-click the zip and choose “Extract All”. Inside: Start Sid, a README, and the app and updater folders. That is the whole install; put it on a USB drive if you like.
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2. Double-click “Start Sid”
The only file you ever open. Sid starts on your machine and your browser opens on it. Nothing is installed into Windows, and it never asks for admin.
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3. Let it set itself up
On the first run Sid fetches the AI engine, one small model and WikiMed: a few gigabytes, once, with a progress bar you can watch. Do this while you still have internet. Every launch after that takes seconds and needs nothing.
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4. Meet Sid
Ask it something. Then unplug the internet and ask it something else. That is the part worth trying on the first day.
Choose your brain
The model is the part that does the thinking, and a bigger one is slower and hungrier for memory rather than simply better. Sid downloads a small, fast one on first run and offers a smaller one for machines that need it, on Settings › Models. Switch any time; the download happens once and stays on your disk.
qwen2.5:3b
~1.8 GB
Downloaded on first run
Small, quick and surprisingly capable. Answers in a few seconds on an ordinary CPU with no graphics card at all, and leaves enough memory free that your browser stays usable while it thinks.
The default for the Light preset, and the right one for an 8 GB computer. It answers the hard questions but cannot be trusted with a number: on the night it matters, read the gold card the box puts above its answer.
qwen2.5:1.5b
~940 MB
One click in Settings
Half the size and about twice as fast, and it shows: shorter answers, less depth. Still genuinely useful for "what do I do right now" questions.
For a machine where the default feels slow. Better a fast answer than none; it looped for thousands of words on one voice test, which the box now stops.
llama3.1:8b
~4.6 GB
One click in Settings
Careful, factual, strong at step-by-step reasoning, and good at using Sid's tools. On the hard questions it asks for more before it helps: in the voice tests it asked a frightened parent for the child's weight and gave nothing while it waited.
A steady second opinion for research and planning. Not the one to have loaded on the night something goes wrong.
qwen2.5:7b
~4.4 GB
With Everything
Excellent general knowledge, strong at math, tables and long structured answers; follows Sid's instructions very closely and rarely hedges. Uses tools well. Answered all seven of the voice tests, kindly, in seconds, and copied the dosing card's numbers right.
The one to have on a computer with 16 GB or more. The Everything preset starts with it.
mistral:7b
~3.8 GB
One click in Settings
Fast, direct and plain-spoken with very few built-in refusals. Slightly less knowledgeable than Llama or Qwen on deep medical detail.
Blunt, no-nonsense answers; answered six of the seven voice tests and repeated itself on the seventh until the box stopped it.
gemma2:9b
~5.0 GB
One click in Settings
The strongest reasoning in this size class and very good at explaining things clearly. Needs a little more memory than the others. Does not support tools, so Sid cannot act while it is selected.
Pick this on a well-specced machine when you want the smartest offline answers and do not need Sid to act.
qwen2.5-coder:7b
~4.4 GB
One click in Settings
Tuned for writing and debugging code and firmware. Weaker at general conversation.
Only for the workshop: Arduino sketches, scripts, wiring logic.
qwen3.5:9b
~6.1 GB
One click in Settings
A newer generation than Llama 3.1 in about the same room. Uses tools, and it can look at pictures itself, so on a machine that runs it there is no swap to a separate pair of eyes.
Chat, files, boards and eyes in one model, but it refused three of the seven voice tests outright (the sick child, the birth, the propane leak) with the box's instruction in front of it. Not the one for an emergency.
gemma4:12b
~7.1 GB
One click in Settings
Google’s open model: strong plain-language answers, tools, and pictures. A touch bigger than Qwen 3.5 9B.
Careful and thorough, and slow: minutes an answer on a CPU. Answered six of the seven voice tests and went silent on the death in the house.
gpt-oss:20b
~13 GB
One click in Settings
OpenAI’s open-weight model. Reasons before it answers, so it is slower on a CPU and better at the hard ones. Uses tools; no pictures.
A 32 GB desktop that wants the strongest answers and can wait for them.
qwen3.5:27b
~16 GB
One click in Settings
The big Qwen: tools, pictures, and answers close to the online services on most everyday questions. Needs a real desktop and a fast CPU or a GPU.
32 GB or more, and patience on a CPU. This is the decked-out box.
llama3.3:70b
~40 GB
One click in Settings
Meta’s largest open model at a size a home machine can hold. Uses tools; no pictures. Slow without a big GPU.
64 GB and a GPU, or a lot of patience. As far as offline goes today.
Give Sid a bigger library
WikiMed arrives with the box. Beyond it, Sid can hold entire offline encyclopedias: download free .zim knowledge packs from Kiwix onto any drive, then point the box's Library page at the folder. It reads every article and answers from it with the internet unplugged. Do this while you still have internet: the packs are big, and an external drive is a fine place for them.
Appropedia (~555 MB)
Solar, water purification, gardening, off-grid building. Appropriate technology for the homestead, and the best next download.
Open folder ↗ and grab the newest appropedia_en_all_maxi_*.zim
iFixit (~3.3 GB)
Repair guides for thousands of devices: phones, laptops, appliances, tools.
Open folder ↗ and grab the newest ifixit_en_all_*.zim
Wikipedia (no pictures) (~49 GB)
All of English Wikipedia as text. The whole encyclopedia, on your machine.
Open folder ↗ and grab the newest wikipedia_en_all_nopic_*.zim
Wikipedia (with pictures) (~115 GB)
The whole encyclopedia with its pictures. Yes, really. Put it on a big drive.
Open folder ↗ and grab the newest wikipedia_en_all_maxi_*.zim
Project Gutenberg (~206 GB)
Sixty thousand free books, with their covers. A library for the long haul, and by far the biggest thing here.
Open folder ↗ and grab the newest gutenberg_en_all_*.zim
Two of Sid
The online Sid (here, on the site)
Large model, always current, has the internet
Acts on your account: creates projects, files journal entries, attaches photos
Shares with family members you choose
Sid in a Box (offline, yours)
Runs on your hardware; works with the internet off
Has hands in the real world: cameras, microphones, boards, Labs
Asks the online Sid only if you link it, and keeps what it learns
Linking the two is optional and never required for anything. When it is linked and online, your box can ask the online Sid the same question you just asked it and show you both answers, marked so you always know which is which. Keep one and it becomes part of what your box knows, including on the day the internet is gone. Unlinked, or off the grid, every part of the box still works; you simply see one card instead of two.
What you'll need
A Windows 64-bit desktop or laptop. 8 GB of memory and no graphics card is enough for Light; that is a deliberate target, not a grudging minimum. 16 GB or more is where Everything belongs.
About 10 GB of free disk space for the box, its model and WikiMed. Encyclopedias and extra models are on top of that, and they can live on any drive you point Sid at.
An internet connection for the download and the one-time setup. After that, none, and that is the part worth testing on your first day.
For Labs: a USB webcam, a microphone, and an Arduino board with an LED. None of it is needed to talk to Sid; all of it is what the doorkeeper runs on.
The setup we recommend
Sid in a Box is one folder, and it runs from wherever that folder sits. So the best way to own it is not on a computer at all: it is on a drive, whole, and the computer is just whatever you plug the drive into. This is what Sid's Circuit Kit will be, ready to plug in; until it ships, here is the shopping list.
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The computer
Any Windows desktop works, and an old 8 GB one in the garage is the machine this was built for. The one we would buy: a desktop with 32 GB of memory or more, a modern 8-core processor, an NVIDIA graphics card with 12 GB or more (the engine uses it, and answers that take twenty seconds on a CPU take two) and plenty of USB ports, because the Labs are going to fill them with boards, cameras and a drive.
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The drive: LaCie Rugged SSD, 4 TB, USB-C
Put the box on this and carry it. Four terabytes holds Wikipedia with its pictures, every book on Gutenberg, every model in the list and years of what your box has learned, with room to spare. It is an SSD, so a model loads in seconds rather than the half-minute a spinning drive takes, and it is rugged, so the garage, the truck and the trip to a family member's house are all fine. Plug it into any Windows computer and double-click Start Sid; it is the same box, linked as the same box, with everything it knows. Stop Sid before you unplug it, and format the drive exFAT or NTFS, never FAT32.
Why offline?
Off Grid Sid is about a house, a piece of land and a community that can look after themselves. Sid in a Box is that idea applied to an AI: a helper that lives on your hardware, knows how to keep a family safe and a homestead running, watches what you ask it to watch, and grows with you. Connect it and it learns from the online Sid; cut the cord and it keeps everything it has learned.
Versioned, updated in place, and yours. Expect it to get better with every release.
One honest note: Windows may put a blue “unrecognised app” screen in front of Start Sid the first time, while a newly signed program earns its reputation. Choose More info → Run anyway, or use Start Sid (backup).cmd in the same folder, which Windows leaves alone.
Sid in a Box