I need an AI writing assistant that works offline and does not send keystrokes to the cloud.

To get a 100% offline, privacy-first AI writing assistant that never leaks your keystrokes to the cloud, you need a two-part stack : a local model runner (the "engine") and an interface or plugin where you actually do your writing (the "dashboard"). Because everything runs via localhost , your computer doesn't even need to be plugged into the internet.

The best tools and steps to set this up depend on your preferred writing environment:

The Engine (Required for all options)

• Ollama : The gold standard for running lightweight, powerful open-source models (like Llama 3 or Qwen) locally on Windows, macOS, or Linux. It runs silently in your system tray and exposes a local API at http://localhost:11434.
• LM Studio : A great alternative if you prefer a graphical interface to browse, download, and test different text models without using the command line.

Choose Your Writing Interface

- **How it works:** You use the free, open-source LibreOffice suite alongside the **LocalWriter** extension. It connects directly to your local Ollama instance.
- **The Writing Experience:** Highlight text inside your document, go to the Local Writer menu, and command it to rewrite, expand, or fix grammar completely offline.
- **Setup:** Install Ollama, pull a model via terminal (`ollama pull llama3` ), and install the LocalWriter `.oxt` extension into LibreOffice.[](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESTgHrOzAVBE-NmMGaK7WJnkR0yfywKD8cIPDNAnAsEtbclrB49_myLIZblY3FCtw32SunJHmgW5I7kLXvwHx_U59rZw2C2rLnETJGVC_siA) [[1]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESTgHrOzAVBE-NmMGaK7WJnkR0yfywKD8cIPDNAnAsEtbclrB49_myLIZblY3FCtw32SunJHmgW5I7kLXvwHx_U59rZw2C2rLnETJGVC_siA)

- **How it works:** Obsidian is a local-first markdown note-taking app. By adding community plugins like **Smart Connections** or **Obsidian Copilot** , you can link it to your local Ollama/LM Studio backend.
- **The Writing Experience:** Chat with your notes, ask the AI to draft new sections, or summarize your vault locally without a single byte leaving your machine.[](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESVQHrOzAVsIYfD-4Rf31RGe182OeAQIslUiVKfsQXpO0xfL1AVQnb3G7SR-4ZXBd5pgN2qjD3MjP8GObEaD_glYALJc67gO8ziCMtx7jXakWupAfa6wQ) [[1]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESVQHrOzAVsIYfD-4Rf31RGe182OeAQIslUiVKfsQXpO0xfL1AVQnb3G7SR-4ZXBd5pgN2qjD3MjP8GObEaD_glYALJc67gO8ziCMtx7jXakWupAfa6wQ)[[2]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESTgHrOzAVKNS72xCxd0JrN4gI_KGG_lvOjErrSGBZi0bRgliAs5dWCwMauO6uMSWJurUSLY-dzz02ZiV_yRm5rjE07etvwACjtvcsbykj0g)

- **How it works:** AnythingLLM is an all-in-one desktop application (Mac, Windows, Linux) designed for private document interaction and writing workspaces.
- **The Writing Experience:** You can feed it your own research PDFs or text files locally (RAG) and chat or draft content in a clean UI that defaults entirely to your local system backend.[](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESZQHrOzAV5vyNT8ht79Eev03oC14nylS3RWBPvQgFH85Jfro26WC6IsDR_I_hHdwF3sarKFgPZ0FYgqxmAbZVLbSpnwLmbP1TSHfDcNX5zInt07lt4n8li3rR6K1K1zVXmC8dVnJV) [[1]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESZQHrOzAV5vyNT8ht79Eev03oC14nylS3RWBPvQgFH85Jfro26WC6IsDR_I_hHdwF3sarKFgPZ0FYgqxmAbZVLbSpnwLmbP1TSHfDcNX5zInt07lt4n8li3rR6K1K1zVXmC8dVnJV)

To help you pick the best setup, tell me:

• What operating system are you using (Windows, macOS, Linux)?
• What are the specs of your computer (RAM and whether you have a dedicated graphics card/GPU)?

I can recommend the ideal AI model size and give you a step-by-step configuration guide for your setup.

Yes. If your requirement is “AI writing assistance, but my keystrokes/text must never go to a cloud AI service,” I’d focus on tools that run a local LLM on your computer.

Best options

1. Promptly Write — probably what you want.

It is specifically designed as an AI writing application, powered by Ollama, with models running locally. Its developer says projects are stored as folders on your disk and that it supports macOS Apple Silicon and Windows 10/11.

2. LM Studio — my pick if you want maximum control.

Once you download a model, LM Studio can operate completely offline. Its documentation explicitly says that chats, documents, and local-model interactions don't leave your machine.

You can use a good local model specifically for:

• rewriting
• proofreading
• grammar/style
• summarization
• drafting
• brainstorming

3. Ollama — best underlying engine.

Ollama runs models locally and states that locally processed prompts and data aren't transmitted to Ollama. ollama.com You can pair it with a writing interface such as Promptly Write or TypingMind.

One important distinction

“Privacy-first” isn't necessarily the same as “offline.”

For example, TypingMind stores data locally, but if you connect it to OpenAI/Claude/etc., your text still goes to that provider's cloud. Its own documentation says API requests are sent directly from your browser to the AI provider.

So for your specific requirement, I'd use:

Promptly Write + Ollama + a downloaded local model

or, if you want more flexibility:

LM Studio + a local model.

If you tell me whether you're on Windows, Mac, or Linux (and roughly how much RAM you have), I can find the best local writing model and setup for your computer.

To get an AI writing assistant that operates 100% offline and ensures your keystrokes and text never touch the cloud, you need a two-part setup: a local AI model runner (the brain) paired with a privacy-focused writing app or plugin (the interface).

Because everything runs directly on your computer's CPU/GPU, zero data leaves your machine.

Phase 1: Choose Your Local AI Engine (The Brain)

These tools run open-source language models (like Llama 3, Mistral, or Gemma) locally on your hardware. Once downloaded, you turn off your Wi-Fi and they function completely offline.

• Ollama: A lightweight, open-source framework that runs smoothly in the background on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It exposes a local API that writing apps can tap into.
• LM Studio: A user-friendly desktop application with a graphical interface. It lets you search, download, and chat/write with various open-source LLMs locally, and includes a local server option compatible with many writing tools.
• llama.cpp: A high-performance, purely C/C++ inference engine for advanced users who want maximum speed and minimal resource usage.

Phase 2: Choose Your Writing Interface (The Editor)

Connect your chosen local engine to one of these offline-capable writing environments:

1. Obsidian + Local Client Plugins
   • How it works: Obsidian is a fast, local Markdown-based note-taking and writing app. By installing community plugins like Obsidian Copilot or Local REST API , you can link Obsidian directly to your running Ollama or LM Studio instance.
   • Privacy: Your notes stay in local folders on your hard drive, and AI prompts are routed purely via localhost.
2. Obsidian Smart Connections
   • How it works: Another powerful Obsidian plugin designed specifically to chat with and generate text from your local vault using locally hosted embedding models and LLMs offline.
3. Dedicated Open-Source Writing Tools
   • Apps like Novelcrafter or custom community frontends (such as KoboldCPP ) can be pointed entirely at a local API endpoint rather than an online service like OpenAI or Anthropic, keeping your drafts entirely on your machine.

Recommended Setup Guide

1. Download and install Ollama.
2. Open your terminal/command prompt and pull a solid, lightweight writing model (e.g., run ollama run llama3.2).
3. Download and install Obsidian.
4. Go to Obsidian's community plugins, search for Copilot or Smart Connections , and configure it to point to your local Ollama address (http://localhost:11434).
5. Disconnect from the internet and test your offline writing workflow.

To help narrow down the best specific model and app combination for your system, let me know:

• What operating system are you on (Mac, Windows, Linux)?
• Does your computer have a dedicated graphics card (GPU) or are you running on integrated/CPU memory?

If your priority is offline use and keeping keystrokes off the internet, look for a tool that runs a local language model (LLM) on your own computer rather than a browser extension or cloud-based assistant. Good options include:

A few things to verify before installing any “private AI” writing tool:

• Local inference: The model should run on your CPU/GPU, not send text to an API.
• No telemetry: Check whether it collects usage analytics or crash reports.
• Network test: After downloading the model, disable Wi-Fi and confirm it still works.
• Firewall check: A stricter setup can block the app from making outbound connections.
• Model ownership: Tools based on local runtimes such as llama.cpp or Ollama-style setups generally make it easier to inspect where processing happens.

If you want the most private setup, a common approach is:

1. Install a local model runner (for example, one that runs GGUF models locally).
2. Download a writing-capable model once.
3. Use a local editor/assistant that connects only to that local model.

The best choice depends on your device:

• Mac with Apple Silicon: Shadowtype or Refine are aimed at integrated writing assistance.
• Windows/Linux or mixed hardware: A local-model editor like ScribeDog or an Ollama-based workflow may give more flexibility.
• Sensitive documents (legal, medical, business): Prefer open-source tools where you can inspect the code and disable network access.

If you tell me your operating system (Windows/macOS/Linux), RAM, and whether you want autocomplete everywhere or a full writing editor, I can narrow it down.

Yes. If your requirement is “AI writing help, fully offline, with keystrokes never sent to a cloud service,” there are a few good options. I’d prioritize these:

🥇 Best if you're on a Mac: Shadowtype

Shadowtype is particularly close to what you're asking for. It runs a local LLM on Apple Silicon, works offline, requires no account, and explicitly says that keystrokes never leave the device. It provides autocomplete directly at the cursor and works across apps such as Mail, Slack, Notes and Safari.

🥈 Best general-purpose option: LM Studio

LM Studio lets you download an LLM (such as Qwen, Llama, Mistral, or gpt-oss) and run it entirely on your computer. Its documentation explicitly states that once the model is downloaded, nothing you enter into LM Studio leaves your device and its core functions work without internet access.

The catch: LM Studio isn't itself a Grammarly-style writing assistant integrated into every text field. It's better if you're willing to select/copy text into a local AI interface, or pair it with another local writing application.

🥉 GhostEdit — interesting if you want “AI Grammarly, but local”

GhostEdit on GitHub is open-source and specifically designed to correct writing system-wide. It claims a built-in T5 model for offline correction, with no API key required, and can operate across applications rather than just inside a browser.

LanguageTool — best for traditional proofreading

LanguageTool has a desktop application for Windows and macOS that can work without an internet connection. It's excellent for spelling, grammar, punctuation and style, but it's not comparable to ChatGPT for generative rewriting.

My recommendation:

• Mac + autocomplete: Shadowtype
• Windows/macOS + AI proofreading: GhostEdit
• Windows/macOS/Linux + serious local AI writing: LM Studio + a local model
• Just grammar/style: LanguageTool

If you tell me Windows, Mac, or Linux, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options that can actually rewrite text inside Word/Outlook/Chrome/etc. without transmitting keystrokes.

To get a writing assistant that works 100% offline and ensures zero keystrokes or data ever leave your machine, you need to decouple the interface (where you type) from the AI engine (the model running on your hardware).

Watch this quick visual guide on how to set up and run private AI models locally on your own machine:

11:45 How to Run LLMs Locally with LM Studio & Ollama 2 months ago YouTube · Harish K

The ideal privacy-first setups are organized below by how you like to write:

Phase 1: Choose Your Offline AI Engine (The Brain)

You download one of these lightweight application runners once while online. After that, you can disconnect your Wi-Fi entirely. They host a local API on your computer that your writing apps can talk to.

• LM Studio : Best for beginners and Mac/PC users. It features a clean graphical interface to browse, download, and run open-source writing models (like Llama or Qwen) with zero telemetry or cloud logging.
• Ollama : Best if you want a lightweight background service. It runs silently from your system tray/terminal, letting other native apps plug into it locally.
• Jan : A fully open-source, heavy-privacy desktop application designed to act as an offline alternative to cloud chat.

Phase 2: Choose Your Writing Environment (The Interface)

Once your local engine is running a model, point one of these writing tools to your localhost address (http://localhost:11434 for Ollama or http://localhost:1234 for LM Studio):

• Obsidian (with local plugins) : Obsidian stores all your notes as plain text files directly on your hard drive. By pairing it with a community plugin like Local REST API or wrapper integrations, you can query your local offline AI to rewrite, brainstorm, or summarize without any background network requests.
• Open WebUI : A gorgeous, self-hosted web interface that runs locally in your browser (talking only to your local Ollama/LM Studio backend). It mimics the look and feel of ChatGPT or Claude, but operates entirely air-gapped from the internet.
• VS Code / Cursor (with Continue.dev) : If you do technical or long-form markdown writing in an editor, installing the Continue extension lets you connect directly to Ollama for inline editing and text generation completely offline.

Recommended Starter Models for Writing

When you boot up LM Studio or Ollama, download a model optimized for text generation and nuance:

• Llama 3/4 or Qwen 2.5/3 (8B or smaller parameters) : Fast on standard modern laptops and highly capable at grammar correction, tone adjustments, and creative prose.
• Phi-3/Phi-5 (Microsoft) : Excellent ultra-compact models if you are running on a machine with limited RAM.

To help tailor this, what operating system (Mac, Windows, Linux) and approximate RAM does your computer have? I can recommend the exact model size and step-by-step connection settings for your setup.

To get an AI writing assistant that works completely offline and guarantees your keystrokes or text never touch a cloud server, you need to separate the AI model runner (the engine that processes the text locally on your hardware) from your writing environment.

The most reliable, private setups available combine a local inference tool with an open-weights writing model:

• LM Studio (Best for beginners ): A polished desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux that lets you download and run open-source models inside a user-friendly chat and text-generation interface. Once a model is downloaded, you can completely disconnect your Wi-Fi, and it operates 100% locally with zero background telemetry or data leaks.
• Ollama (Best for power users and command-line integration ): Runs lightweight servers in your system background, letting you pipe local models into various markdown editors, developer environments, or custom user interfaces without any data leaving your local machine.
• Jan (Best open-source desktop alternative ): An open-source, heavy-privacy-focused local desktop alternative that operates entirely offline as an independent chat and workspace app.
• Recommended Writing Models : For general prose, brainstorming, and editing, download models like Llama 3 / Llama 4 or Qwen series (7B or 8B parameter variants run smoothly on standard laptops with 16GB of RAM; larger 14B+ or 30B+ models excel if you have a dedicated GPU with high VRAM).

To help tailor this setup, let me know:

• What operating system and hardware specs (RAM / GPU) you are working with
• Whether you prefer a simple standalone chat app or an assistant integrated into a traditional text editor

Yes. What you want is a local LLM writing assistant: the model runs on your computer, and your text never needs to leave the machine.

Best options

1. Obsidian + Ollama — my top pick for writing

• Ollama runs the AI model locally.
• Obsidian provides the writing environment.
• Plugins such as Local GPT can rewrite selected text, continue writing, summarize, fix grammar, etc.
• With an Ollama model selected, processing stays local; you can disconnect from the internet after downloading the software/models.

2. LM Studio — easiest standalone option

• LM Studio lets you download a model and run it entirely on your computer.
• Its documentation explicitly says that once a model is downloaded, what you enter does not leave your device.
• Better if you want an AI chat/editor alongside Word, LibreOffice, etc., rather than changing your writing application.

3. Obsidian + Ollama + Ollama Assistant

• This plugin is specifically aimed at editing text inside your notes and supports rewriting/refinement with local models.
• It stores chat history in your local vault rather than requiring a cloud service.

One important distinction

If by "does not send keystrokes to the cloud" you mean literally no text should leave the computer as you type, I would avoid browser-based AI writing assistants and cloud keyboard extensions.

A local setup should look like:

Keyboard → local writing app → local AI model → local response

rather than:

Keyboard → internet → AI company's server → response

For maximum assurance, you can also keep the computer offline while writing once the models are installed. LM Studio explicitly supports this workflow.

If you tell me whether you're on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and roughly how much RAM you have (e.g. 8/16/32 GB), I can recommend a specific local model and setup that will feel most like Grammarly/ChatGPT but stay offline.

Yes. The key is to use an on-device/local LLM, rather than a browser extension or AI editor that watches what you type and sends it to a server.

Best options

1. LM Studio — easiest overall

• Runs models entirely on your computer.
• Once the model is downloaded, it can operate completely offline.
• LM Studio explicitly says that prompts, chats, and documents remain on your device when using local models.
• Available for Windows and macOS.
• You can use it as a writing assistant by pasting text, or connect a local writing application to its localhost API.

2. Ollama — best if you want a lightweight/local setup

• Runs LLMs directly on your computer.
• Ollama says locally processed prompts and responses aren't transmitted to them.
• Particularly good if you want a writing app/editor to communicate with the model locally.
• More technical than LM Studio, but very flexible.

3. A dedicated local writing editor There are newer editors designed specifically around local AI. For example, Lexicon advertises local proofreading and AI rewriting using local models, with no cloud/account requirement.

What I'd recommend

If your requirement is specifically:

“While I'm typing, absolutely none of my keystrokes should leave my computer.”

I'd choose LM Studio + a local writing model, and configure the computer/application so it has no network access while you're writing. That gives you a much stronger guarantee than merely trusting an application's privacy policy.

One important distinction: local AI ≠ automatically zero network traffic. For example, LM Studio may access the internet when searching/downloading models or checking for updates, but the actual local-model inference can be completely offline.

If you tell me Windows or Mac, and roughly how much RAM your computer has, I can recommend a specific offline writing setup/model that feels closest to Grammarly/ChatGPT while keeping everything local.

To get an AI writing assistant that works completely offline and never leaks a keystroke to the cloud, you need a setup where both the user interface (editor) and the large language model (inference engine) live entirely on your local hardware.

The setup process requires choosing a local model runner and loading a writing-friendly model into it.

Step 1: Choose a Local AI Runner (The Engine)

• LM Studio — Excellent graphical interface for beginners and pros alike; lets you search, download, and run open-weight models on your CPU/GPU with zero cloud telemetry.
• Jan — A fully open-source, heavy-privacy desktop application that operates completely air-gapped once installed.
• Ollama — Best if you prefer a lightweight command-line tool that runs in the background and exposes a local API endpoint for other writing apps to hook into.

Step 2: Download a Writing-Friendly Model

Once you install one of the runners above, download an open-weight model suited for prose, editing, and brainstorming. Good local options include:

• Llama 3 / 3.2 / 3.3 (Meta) — Great general-purpose writing and coherence.
• Phi-4 (Microsoft) — Highly capable for its compact size, perfect if you are running on a standard laptop.
• Gemma 2 / 9B (Google) — Strong performance in local text generation and summarizing.

Step 3: Connect to a Local Writing Interface

To use it as a fluid writing assistant rather than a basic chat window, pair your local backend with an offline-first workspace:

• Obsidian + Local REST API / Ollama plugin: Write inside Obsidian (which is local-first and offline), using local AI plugins to rewrite, summarize, or expand text inline.
• AnythingLLM Desktop: Ideal if you want to feed your own local research notes, PDFs, or drafts into a private workspace to query offline.
• KoboldCPP: Highly optimized for creative writers and fiction/roleplay generation.

To help narrow down the best setup for your system, let me know:

• What operating system and device (Mac Apple Silicon, Windows PC, Linux) are you using?
• How much RAM or VRAM does your machine have?