Savant Documentation
Savant is a local-first desktop AI client. One app connects you to every major LLM — Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, and local models via Ollama — with the tools real work needs: knowledge bases, agents, scripting, a calendar, email, databases, and rich content generation.
Your data lives on your machine. Conversations, settings, artifacts, scripts, and knowledge bases are plain files (YAML / SQLite) you can read, back up, and version-control. The only thing that leaves your computer is what you send to the AI provider you chose, plus sign-in and billing traffic.
Start here
- Quick Start — get access, install, and have your first conversation.
- The Interface — a tour of the sidebar and panels.
- Projects — the workspace everything lives in.
The vocabulary
A few terms appear throughout the manual. Learn these once and the rest follows.
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Project | The container for everything you work on — conversations, knowledge, artifacts, calendar, email, scripts, databases, and settings. One project is active at a time. See Projects. |
| Conversation | A chat with an AI model, saved as a file in the active project. See Conversations. |
| Context Memory | Facts and instructions the AI remembers across every conversation in a project. See Context Memory & Instructions. |
| Corpus | A knowledge base — your documents, web pages, and videos the AI can search. See Corpus. |
| Artifact | A piece of content the AI generates — an image, video, document, chart, or research result. See Artifacts. |
| Agent | A reusable prompt template with variables you can run, or expose as a tool. See Agents. |
| Tool (MCP) | An ability the AI can use beyond chatting — search the web, read files, query a database. See Tools & Smart MCP Selection. |
| Credit | The single unit you spend on cloud AI. Local models (Ollama) and local tools are free. See Credits & Pricing. |
| Media Studio | A form-based UI for generating images, video, and audio. See Media Studio. |
| Calendar & Tasks | A per-project calendar and task list the AI can manage. See Calendar & Tasks. |
| Database | A local SQLite database you and the AI can query and edit. See Using Databases. |
| Connected mail accounts where the AI prepares drafts you send. See Connecting Email. | |
| Script | A small JavaScript program the AI writes and runs, optionally exposed as a tool. See Scripting. |
| Flashcards | Spaced-repetition decks, saved as artifacts. See Flashcards. |
How this manual is organized
- Getting Started — install and your first steps.
- Core Concepts — projects, memory, models, credits, corpus, artifacts, tools.
- Working with Data & Services — email, databases, calendar, files, research, flashcards.
- Creating Content — Media Studio, documents, charts, presentations.
- Automation & Power Features — agents, scripting, external MCP servers, the CLI.
- Account, Privacy & Help — usage, search, privacy, troubleshooting.
Need help?
- Check the FAQ for common questions.
- Contact us at support@usesavant.com.