Persistent AI chat
Conversations saved to your database. Folders, bookmarks, renameable titles, and history that survive closing the app — unlike that browser tab you lost during a demo.
Local-first · Business-ready
AI chat that stays
on your infrastructure.
DeskMate is a ChatGPT-style desktop app that runs on your own computer or company server, instead of someone else's cloud. Chat with AI, ask questions about your own documents, and message colleagues — with everything kept private and stored where you control it.
01
What is DeskMate?
DeskMate AI is a ChatGPT-style chat app you install and run yourself — a desktop app for everyday conversations with AI, backed by a server and database that your own organisation (or a technical colleague) sets up and controls.
Your team gets a familiar chat experience: AI chat, document Q&A, and staff chat rooms. Your organisation keeps control of the data, the AI models used, and who can access what. No per-seat subscription bill for the privilege of pasting internal documents into someone else's cloud.
Desktop app
The chat window your team uses every day
Server
Runs on your infrastructure, handles logins and responses as they're typed
Storage
Your database, holding conversations, documents, and activity logs
AI models
Run AI fully offline (Ollama), or use OpenAI or Gemini when you want a bigger model
02
Features
Document Q&A
Upload PDF, TXT, or Markdown files. Type / in chat to attach a document, then ask questions or request a summary. Private by default, or share with everyone. Download the answer when you need it offline.
Staff chat
Real-time rooms for colleagues — including private rooms, invites, archive, and rename. Need a quick fact mid-conversation? Type /ai and get an assistant reply posted back into the room.
Knowledge & tools
Publish reference material the chat can search automatically. It can also pull live info from your own systems and databases — so answers come from what's true today, not a training set that peaked years ago.
Admin panel
Manage users, permissions, AI providers, and knowledge from a simple web page. The sort of control panel cloud vendors charge extra for and then hide behind three support tickets.
Streaming responses
Tokens stream to the desktop as they're generated. Cancel with Escape when the model starts writing a novel. No staring at a spinner while the server finishes a paragraph you'll edit anyway.
Your servers
Run the whole thing on infrastructure you own — your office server, your cloud account, wherever you like. It's designed to be set up with a few standard commands, no special software required on the host machine.
Local models
Point at Ollama on the host for fully local inference. Use OpenAI or Gemini when you need a bigger model — on your terms, with your keys.
Company-ready desktop
Ship a packaged app to staff. On first launch they connect to your server URL — or IT drops in a config file so nobody has to type a hostname before coffee.
03
Why local-first?
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Your data stays yours
Customer records, uploaded contracts, and half-finished strategy decks don't need a round trip through a third-party workspace to get a summary. DeskMate keeps prompts, documents, and history on infrastructure you control.
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Predictable costs
Cloud AI subscriptions add up quickly — especially when everyone in the office discovers "just one more question." Run Ollama locally for routine work and reserve paid APIs for when you actually need them.
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Compliance-friendly
Audit logs, user management, private staff rooms, and on-prem deployment options for organisations that can't put "we pasted it into ChatGPT" in the risk register.
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No vendor lock-in theatre
Switch models, providers, or hosting without migrating a year's worth of threads from a proprietary workspace. It's your database. Standard PostgreSQL.
04
Built for teams
DeskMate is designed for small and mid-sized teams who want AI assistance without handing the keys to someone else's platform. Whoever sets it up gets full control over the server. Admins get a proper panel. Everyone else just gets chat, documents, and staff rooms — without needing to know anything about how AI works.
Getting it running is a short, well-documented process for anyone comfortable setting up a server: download the software, start it up with one command, and point the desktop app at it. From there, add users, upload documents, and add knowledge at your own pace. Staff just install the desktop app, connect once to your company's address, and log in.
Ready to keep AI on your side of the firewall?
Download from BitbucketDeskMate ships alongside Terminal AI from The Great Unwashed. Same company. Different audience. Fewer jokes about Skynet.