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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

Berth vs Foundry Local

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do local inference.

Best local AI models and assistants · All 229 local ai comparisons

BerthTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub) · HTTP API B67.6/100#283 of 1218 Foundry LocalMicrosoft · SDK + MCP C60.5/100#579 of 1218

Which one, for what

Berth B

Best for Someone running several GPU programs (llama.cpp, llama-swap, Ollama, vLLM, ComfyUI, games) on one NVIDIA card who wants them to take turns, and agents that need to ask for the card.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 76 against 68
  • Schema & documentation, 69 against 53
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 61
  • Security & auth, 51 against 39

Watch for

First released on 11 October 2026 and called alpha. Windows, AMD and multiple GPUs are experimental, and the gateway is a preview

Foundry Local C

Best for An application that ships a model to end users' Windows, macOS or Linux devices and wants NPU and GPU variants chosen automatically, especially on Windows.

Ahead on

  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 76
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 68

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

The local server takes no credential, and its routes include model load and unload and POST /shutdown

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBerthFoundry LocalEdge
Reliability16%207668Berth +8
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26953Berth +16
Agent ergonomics13%16.27561Berth +14
Security & auth14%17.55139Berth +12
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87688Foundry Local +12
Transparency & trust7%8.86873Foundry Local +5
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 67.6/100C 60.5/100

Facts side by side

FactBerthFoundry Local
KindHTTP APISDK + MCP
VendorTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub)Microsoft
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE fileMIT for the SDKs and the v2 native runtime. The CLI is closed source under Microsoft Software Licence Terms. Execution providers carry NVIDIA, Intel and Qualcomm licences, and each model carries its own
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-232026-09-29
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity245 stars2.6k stars, 105k npm/wk, 47k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (4)

Verdicts

Berth

Berth coordinates one NVIDIA card between engines, ComfyUI and games, grants a lease only after the driver shows memory free, and gives agents a skill, JSON output and a keyed loopback gateway. It is 17 days old, alpha and maintained by one developer, with Windows and AMD experimental and no machine-readable API spec.

Foundry Local

The SDK and its native runtime are MIT, at 2.1.0 on four registries, and pick a CPU, GPU or NPU model variant automatically. The optional local server has no credential, its current routes aren't in the published REST reference, and telemetry is on by default with an opt-out.

Before you call either

Berth

  1. Run berth status --format json before starting, stopping or switching any GPU engine. If berthd is unreachable, no engine is protected
  2. Never kill a process to free VRAM. Ask for the card with berth run, berth hold or a gateway request, and report stowaways to the user
  3. Send gateway requests to http://127.0.0.1:9799/v1 with Authorization: Bearer $(berth key), and use "stream": true for cold starts of up to minutes
  4. On a 503, read the code and wait for Retry-After. A pinned holder (a game or berth hold) answers 409 to stop and is the user's call
  5. Ask the user before berth reclaim LEASE --yes, any berth.toml edit or berth update. Each changes the node

Foundry Local

  1. Read the server URL from manager.urls[0] or foundry server status. The port is dynamic unless the owner sets web.urls or foundry server start --port
  2. Send the model ID that GET /v1/models returns, not the alias. The alias resolves to a hardware-specific variant
  3. Check supportsToolCalling before sending tools. Support differs by variant, and issue #1183 reports Qwen tool calling failing on QNN
  4. Set your own request timeout. Inference has no built-in one, and cancellation takes effect only after the current generation step
  5. Ask the owner to set ORT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1 or disableNonessentialTelemetry before the manager is created if telemetry must be off

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Berth or Foundry Local?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Berth and Foundry Local without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Berth. No hosted endpoint is listed for Foundry Local.

Are Berth and Foundry Local open source?

Yes. Berth is open source (Apache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE file). Foundry Local is open source (MIT for the SDKs and the v2 native runtime. The CLI is closed source under Microsoft Software Licence Terms. Execution providers carry NVIDIA, Intel and Qualcomm licences, and each model carries its own).

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