Everything below is verified against xAI's own announcement (Aug 2026). No fluff, no fake links.
Free app that runs AI models on your own computer. No account, no card, nothing leaves your machine. This is the engine for the setup below.
ollama.com ↗Claude Code is a terminal agent: it reads files, edits code, runs commands. Point it at your own computer instead of the paid API and it runs on the free model you installed with Ollama. Three lines:
// 1. install Ollama, then grab a coding model: ollama pull qwen2.5-coder // 2. in settings.json, point Claude Code at your machine: "env": { "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:11434" } // 3. that's it. nothing to pay, nothing leaves your desk.
Honest limit: the free local model fits in about 4 GB. Great for small jobs (renames, single functions, explaining code). It will struggle when a task needs many files at once.
Open-source automation you run yourself. Chain triggers, apps, and AI steps into agent-style workflows (watch inbox, summarize, reply, file). The self-hosted version costs nothing.
github.com/n8n-io/n8n ↗Free tools, honest feedback on your work, and people who answer. Job hunters, builders and learners.