The lively little light on your desk that grows up with you.
Lumini is a privacy-first desktop companion — a small character with a face, a voice, and a sense of timing, running entirely on your own machine. One founder. One clear bet. Nothing that leaves your desk.
A one-person studio with a clear focus
Lumini is a pre-launch studio, born in Europe, with one founder and one mission: build a warm, lively companion that puts privacy first — not as a promise, but as a property of the architecture.
The idea is straightforward. AI companions are getting richer and more capable — but nearly all of them route your data through a cloud. Your expressions, your screen, your conversations: sent somewhere you don't control. Lumini is the opposite. In v1, there is simply no cloud to send your data to. Everything runs locally on your own computer.
That constraint is the feature. It's also what makes this buildable by one person. No data pipeline to secure. No cloud infrastructure to maintain. Just the software — and the belief that a little desk companion that knows you, stays with you, and never exposes you is something people genuinely want.
Software first. Hardware optional.
Lumini sells the soul — the face, the voice, the sense of timing. The body is open hardware you already own or can buy in an afternoon.
Lumini v1 is two parts. First: a desktop application — the brain and the personality. It runs a local model, does all the thinking, and drives the companion. Second: an off-the-shelf StackChan kit — the physical face and gestures. You buy it from open-hardware sellers and assemble it yourself. We make the software, not the hardware.
This split is a deliberate strategy, not a shortcut. Building a custom robot means a ground-up hardware company — chassis, motors, certification, returns. That's out of reach for one person working responsibly. StackChan is open-source, widely available, and assembles in an afternoon. Lumini connects to a kit you already own.
That also means no inventory, no shipping, and no manufacturing risk. The studio can stay focused on what actually matters: the companion's character.
What is StackChan?
An open-source desktop robot kit — a small screen "face" on a body that can turn its head. Widely available from open-hardware sellers. Assembles in an afternoon. Lumini is the software that brings a compatible kit to life.
What Lumini stands for
Three things the studio will not trade away.
Privacy is dignity
Not a promise — an architecture. In v1 your emotions, your screen, and your conversations never leave your machine, because there is no cloud to send them to. Lumini's light shines on you, never exposes you.
Evolution is memory, not magic
Lumini gets more useful over time by building a private picture of how you work — your topics, your rhythm, your preferences. You can inspect and delete everything it remembers, because it is all stored locally.
Warm and lively
A soft word when you're low. Quiet company when you're focused. A small celebration when you break through. Never intrusive, always there — a companion that feels alive without demanding attention.
Honest by design
Lumini is pre-launch. There are no user counts to show, no press logos to display. Here is what the studio can actually stand behind.
Privacy by architecture
Everything runs locally. In v1 there is no cloud to send data to — that is a property of the design, not a pledge the founder might break later.
Open and compatible
Runs on off-the-shelf open-hardware StackChan kits. Bring your own open-source model. Nothing proprietary you are locked into.
Inspectable memory
What Lumini remembers is stored locally, viewable, and deletable by you — always. No hidden model updates, no opaque profiles.
Free to start
Download the app free. No purchase needed to evaluate it. The planned Lumini Pro tier is described openly; nothing is for sale yet.
Scope is strategy
The "deliberately not in v1" list is published, not hidden. These aren't failures — they are the funded-team roadmap, earned by proving people love a local, private companion first.
No custom mobile robot (yet)
A robot that drives itself around your desk means a ground-up hardware company — chassis, motors, certification, returns. Out of reach for one person. v1 uses a stationary off-the-shelf kit. That constraint is honest, and it still delivers the core: a face that reacts to you.
No cloud sync or cross-device roaming (yet)
It would contradict the local-first privacy promise. Cloud sync is the right paid feature to add only after end-to-end encryption is built and audited. It's on the roadmap — not this version.
No third-party marketplace or mental-health services (yet)
Regulated activity and third-party vetting are a compliance burden a solo founder cannot carry responsibly yet. Revisit with a team and proper counsel.
Where this is going
Honestly scoped — short term and long.
Short term
A few thousand people who genuinely love using Lumini every day, and clear evidence that people will pay for a local, private companion. Prove demand with software before risking a cent on hardware.
Long term
With proof and a team, grow toward the full vision — an open, secure, and warm AI-companion ecosystem, so that everyone who feels lonely in the digital age can have, right on their desk, a spark of light that stays steadfastly by their side.
On every desk, a spark of light that understands you, accompanies you, and helps you grow.
That's the long bet. v1 is the first step — a small, honest, private companion. Everything else follows from proving that works.
Be there from the start
Lumini is in active development. Join the waitlist to get the early build, the DIY StackChan guide, and honest progress notes — no spam, no sharing.
Questions or feedback? The founder reads every message.