# thunderbird/thunderbolt

AI You Control: Choose your models. Own your data. Eliminate vendor lock-in.

Repository: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbolt
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/thunderbolt
Homepage: https://thunderbolt.io
Language: TypeScript
License: MPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: ai, ai-agents, llms, on-device-ai
Last push: 2026-08-26T17:09:32+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 80/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 84, longevity 29
- inputs: {"age_days": 406, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 28, "gap_med": 1.0, "n_releases_24m": 93}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4767, forks 329 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:59.314889+00:00)

## What it is
Thunderbolt is an open-source, cross-platform AI client from Thunderbird that lets users connect any OpenAI-compatible model or ACP-compatible agent while self-hosting their data. It targets enterprise on-prem deployments and is still early, under active development and security audit.

## Use cases
- self-host an open-source AI chat client on my own infrastructure
- use local models with Ollama or llama.cpp instead of vendor APIs
- deploy an on-prem AI assistant for my enterprise
- avoid vendor lock-in for AI chat and agents
- connect MCP tools and ACP agents to a unified AI client
- run one AI client across web, desktop, and mobile

## When to choose
- you need data sovereignty or air-gapped AI deployments
- you want a model-agnostic client supporting OpenAI-compatible APIs and ACP agents
- you need MCP integration with your own systems
- you want an open-source alternative to closed frontier AI stacks

## When to avoid
- you need a production-ready, fully supported product today
- you want a fully offline-first experience right now
- you need a hosted inference endpoint with no setup
- you want a lightweight consumer app rather than a self-hosted deployment

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: experimental
- function: chat-interface, agent-framework, mcp, llm-inference, self-hosted
- domain: artificial-intelligence, large-language-models, self-hosted, cross-platform
- platform: windows, self-hosted
- tags: ai-client, data-sovereignty, on-prem, openai-compatible, acp-agents, enterprise-ai, typescript, ai-agents, web-server, macos, linux, ios, android, docker

## Member repositories
- thunderbird/thunderbolt (main) score 80

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:59.314889+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:18:50.292067+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbolt (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:59.314889+00:00, sha 3fdfd1f3db21)
  - homepage: https://thunderbolt.io (fetched 2026-08-29T09:02:29.438760+00:00, sha 7350d311bdb5)
  - site_page: https://www.thunderbolt.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T09:02:29.447936+00:00, sha cbf262c993db)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.