Questions & Answers
Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers about how Project NOMAD works offline, what the AI does (and doesn't) do, and what it takes to get running.
NOMAD lives on your local network, the same Wi-Fi or router your devices already use. Your phone, laptop, or tablet connects straight to NOMAD, not to the internet, and you open everything in a regular web browser. Think of it as a private slice of the internet that lives in your home. NOMAD is designed to stay connected and up to date while the internet is available, then keep working offline the moment the connection drops.
No. Any device with a web browser and local network access (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) can reach NOMAD, completely offline. No accounts, no apps to install, no cell signal required, just connect and browse.
The AI is 100% optional. NOMAD is a knowledge library first, Wikipedia, books, maps, medical and survival references, and educational content all work without ever touching the AI. If you want a local assistant to help search and summarize that knowledge, you can add it. If you don't, leave it out. Your call.
Nothing leaves your hardware. NOMAD's AI runs entirely on your own machine using open-source models, no API keys, no accounts, and no data sent to any company, unlike ChatGPT or other cloud services. Whatever you ask it stays with you.
Fair point, and it's exactly why the AI is optional. Think of it as a search engine on steroids for your own offline library: it's good at finding and summarizing what's already in your Wikipedia, medical, and survival content when you don't have time to read through it all. It's a tool, not an oracle, your downloaded references stay the source of truth, and you can always read them directly.
Less than most people think. The full English Wikipedia, every article, with images, is about 125 GB. Text-only is far smaller. You choose what to download: a lightweight starter set fits on almost anything, while a full library with maps, courses, and AI models is comfortable on a 1 TB drive. See the Hardware guide for specifics.
You absolutely can do it yourself, if you know how to set up Kiwix, Ollama, OpenStreetMap, Kolibri, and Docker and wire them all together. NOMAD does all of that for you in one command, behind a friendly dashboard your whole family can use. It's the difference between a pile of loose parts and a finished, working system that runs out of the box.
If you can copy and paste two lines into a terminal, you can install NOMAD. The installer handles Docker, dependencies, and configuration automatically, then a setup wizard walks you through choosing your content, no Linux knowledge needed. There's a full written guide and a video walkthrough to follow along.
NOMAD runs on a regular x86 PC with Ubuntu or Debian Linux, a refurbished desktop works great, and more powerful hardware unlocks bigger AI models. It's not built for Raspberry Pi (for that, look at Internet in a Box) and doesn't run natively on macOS. Windows users can follow the WSL2 guide. See the Hardware page for recommended builds.
No catch. Project NOMAD is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license, no subscriptions, no paywalls, no telemetry. Similar pre-built products run $200–$700. NOMAD is funded by the community, so if it's useful to you, you can support it , but you never have to.
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