Askimo

The pitch is straightforward: one desktop app, your own keys, your own files, your own machine. What makes Askimo more than an Electron chat shell is the combination of local RAG, MCP tool calling, chained AI Plans and agent subprocesses in a single free package. RAG indexes source code, PDFs, MS Office documents, emails and text files locally, retrieves relevant content before every response and names the specific files it used — the docs frame this as project workspaces with indexed documents and code. Because retrieval runs on-device and API keys are AES-256 encrypted locally with zero telemetry, the model provider sees your prompt but Askimo itself does not sit in the middle of your data. The automation layer is where heavy users will spend their time. MCP servers add real capabilities — browse the web, run terminal commands, query databases, call APIs — through one configuration that any connected model can use. AI Plans chain prompts so each step hands its output to the next, with built-in plans for research reports, competitor analysis and job applications, a plain-English plan generator, a follow-up field so you can refine a result without rerunning the whole workflow, and export to PDF or Word. Agent Skills go furthest: point an agent at a folder and Claude Code, Codex CLI or Antigravity CLI reads, edits and runs commands until the job is done. The Script Runner executes Python, Bash and Node.js with packages auto-installed, and the same engine is reachable from a CLI for CI/CD and DevOps use. Weaknesses are worth stating plainly. You supply and pay for your own provider keys, so costs land on your OpenAI or Anthropic bill, not Askimo's — there is no bundled credit pool and no managed fallback when a key expires. Everything is desktop-first; there is no browser-based version to open on a borrowed machine. Collaboration features — shared knowledge bases, shared prompt library, RBAC, centralised provider config, audit logs, opt-in encrypted sync and self-hosting — are still roadmap items tied to the H2 2026 Team Edition, and the vendor notes that the Team Edition's collaboration and sync infrastructure will be proprietary even though the core engine and Individual edition stay AGPLv3. Multi-language UI coverage spans English, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Where it fits: solo developers and small technical teams who want model neutrality, file-grounded answers and local agent execution without a subscription. Where it doesn't: non-technical buyers who want a bundled, managed assistant, and organisations that need shared workspaces or admin governance before the Team Edition ships.