Local-first AI coding
Your repositories, terminals, and AI crews run on your machine — not a vendor's servers. Local-first is the default in Korden, and cloud sync is something you switch on, not off.
What is local-first AI coding?
Local-first AI coding means the tool runs on your own computer and keeps your code there — your repositories, terminal sessions, and the AI's working copies never leave your machine unless you explicitly choose to sync them.
It's the opposite of the common cloud model, where your repository is uploaded to a vendor's servers so their agents can work on it. With a local-first tool, the work happens where the code already lives.
Why local-first matters
Local-first matters for three reasons: privacy (your proprietary code isn't sitting on someone else's servers), security (a vendor breach can't leak what was never uploaded), and cost (no per-seat cloud compute markup).
Your IP stays yours
Source, secrets, and history never transit a third-party cloud during local use.
Smaller attack surface
Code that's never uploaded can't be leaked by a vendor breach.
Easier to approve
"It runs on the developer's machine" is a far shorter security review.
No compute markup
You're not renting a vendor's GPUs to work on your own repo.
How Korden runs an AI crew locally
Korden is a desktop app that runs real terminals, real git, and a crew of AI agents directly on your machine. AI requests go straight from your computer to the model you connect; Korden never proxies or stores your prompts or code.
The crew works on isolated git worktrees inside your own repo. Pull requests are created locally. The only thing that ever leaves — and only if you turn it on — is the specific data you choose to sync through Korden Cloud.
Local vs. cloud AI coding tools
Cloud AI coding tools upload your repository to run agents on the vendor's infrastructure; local-first tools like Korden keep the repo and the agents on your machine. The trade-off is control and privacy versus zero-setup convenience.
| Cloud agents | Korden (local-first) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your code lives | Vendor servers | Your machine |
| Works offline | No | Yes (with a local model) |
| Bring your own model | Sometimes | Yes — always |
| Data exposed in a vendor breach | Your repo | Nothing you didn't sync |
Does local-first mean no team features?
No. Local-first is the default, not a limit. Korden Cloud adds shared workspaces, seats, and sync on top — opt-in, off by default — so teams collaborate without giving up local control of their code.
Frequently asked questions
Is my code uploaded anywhere?
Can Korden work offline?
Where do my AI prompts go?
Is local-first less secure than cloud?
Ship with a crew of your own
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