Using Elephas Inbuilt Offline Models

Elephas now comes with inbuilt offline AI models, giving you the ability to use Elephas without an internet connection. With these models, you can run chat and indexing locally on your machine, ensuring complete privacy and faster performance.

You need Apple Silicon (M1 and later) to use this feature.

Creating a Brain with Offline Models

The primary way to leverage Elephas offline models is through Brain creation. Here's how to set up a Brain using offline models:

1. Open the Create Brain window.

2. Under Mode, select Offline.

   

3. Choose your models:

   • Indexing Model → Select from offline embedding models (e.g., multilingual-e5-large). multilingual-e5-large offers better quality results than small variant.

   • Default Chat Model → Select from offline chat models (e.g., llama3.2:3b). llama3.2:3b offer good quality results. Uses around 2 GB of memory when running.

     

4. Click Create Brain to finish.

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When you create a Brain with an offline model, Elephas takes care of the heavy lifting for you. If the model isn’t already on your machine, it will automatically download and start in the background — no extra clicks needed. Just set it and go!

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Offline Model Indicator

Once your Brain is created, if it uses Elephas Offline for indexing and chat, an Offline badge will appear at the top-left corner near the Brain name:

This confirms that all indexing and chatting are occurring fully offline, keeping your private data secure and local.

File Indexing in Offline Brains

Once your offline Brain is created, the next step is to index your files.

Let’s take Apple Notes as an example — one of the most sensitive apps on your Mac. With Elephas offline indexing, you can securely connect and search your notes, all processed privately on your device.

Here’s how easy it is:

• Open the Brain you just created.