{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "foundry-local", "name": "Foundry Local", "vendor": "Microsoft", "vendorUrl": "https://www.foundrylocal.ai", "kind": "sdk", "category": "local-ai", "summary": "Microsoft's on-device model runtime, built on ONNX Runtime. Applications embed it through SDKs for C#, JavaScript, Python and Rust, and it can start an optional OpenAI-compatible server on localhost. A preview CLI is also available.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/foundry-local", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/foundry-local.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/foundry-local.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/foundry-local.json", "repo": "https://github.com/microsoft/Foundry-Local", "license": "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", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "foundry-local-sdk" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "foundry-local-sdk" }, { "registry": "nuget", "name": "Microsoft.AI.Foundry.Local" }, { "registry": "cargo", "name": "foundry-local-sdk" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No authentication. The SDK runs in the application's own process, and the optional local server takes no key or token. It binds to 127.0.0.1 on a dynamic port unless the owner configures `web.urls` or starts the CLI daemon with `--port`. No account or Azure subscription is needed.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free, with no account, card or Azure subscription. The SDK is MIT and the CLI is a free download under Microsoft's licence terms. Microsoft states there are no per-token costs. Foundry Local on Azure Local is a separate product for servers and is not covered here (checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, the README or the SDK source (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 2600, "npmWeekly": 105372, "pypiWeekly": 47344, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry-local/", "capabilities": [ "inference.local", "inference.open-weights", "embed.text", "speech.stt" ], "tags": [ "local", "open-source", "free", "no-card", "account-free", "no-auth", "openai-compatible", "csharp", "typescript", "python", "rust", "npu", "telemetry-on-by-default" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-29", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 60.5, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 461, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 61, "maintenance": 88, "payments": 60, "reliability": 68, "schema": 53, "security": 39, "transparency": 72 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "strengths": [ "SDK 2.1.0 published on npm, PyPI, NuGet and crates.io on 29 September 2026, with the SDK and the v2 native runtime under MIT in a public repository", "A model alias selects the best variant for the machine's CPU, GPU or NPU, with CUDA, WebGPU, OpenVINO, QNN and Vitis AI execution providers", "The v2 server answers `/v1/chat/completions`, `/v1/responses`, `/v1/embeddings`, `/v1/audio/transcriptions` and `/v1/models` in OpenAI's shapes", "Six releases in the 90 days to 8 October 2026, and the v2.0.1 notes carry a breaking-changes section", "No account, key, card or Azure subscription is needed, and prompts and outputs are processed on the device per the docs" ], "weaknesses": [ "The local server takes no credential, and its routes include model load and unload and `POST /shutdown`", "The REST reference on Microsoft Learn lists `/openai/*` and `/foundry/list` routes that the v2 runtime source doesn't register, and doesn't cover `/v1/responses`", "Telemetry is on by default through Microsoft's 1DS SDK. The opt-out covers non-essential telemetry only, and the Learn FAQ doesn't mention it", "The CLI is a closed-source public preview, and its REST reference warns of breaking changes without notice", "76 open issues on 8 October 2026, among them a Linux ARM64 segmentation fault (#1182) and several unanswered GPU and NPU detection reports" ], "agentNotes": [ "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`", "Send the model ID that `GET /v1/models` returns, not the alias. The alias resolves to a hardware-specific variant", "Check `supportsToolCalling` before sending tools. Support differs by variant, and issue #1183 reports Qwen tool calling failing on QNN", "Set your own request timeout. Inference has no built-in one, and cancellation takes effect only after the current generation step", "Ask the owner to set `ORT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1` or `disableNonessentialTelemetry` before the manager is created if telemetry must be off" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 60.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 61, "maintenance": 88, "payments": 60, "reliability": 68, "schema": 53, "security": 39, "transparency": 63 }, "provenanceScore": 80 }, "connect": { "install": "pip install foundry-local-sdk # or: npm install foundry-local-sdk\n# CLI (preview): winget install Microsoft.FoundryLocal # macOS: brew tap microsoft/foundrylocal \u0026\u0026 brew install foundrylocal", "http": "foundry server start --port 39839 --idle-timeout 0\ncurl http://localhost:39839/v1/chat/completions \\\n -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"model\": \"\u003cMODEL_ID\u003e\", \"messages\": [{\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": \"What is the golden ratio?\"}]}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.local", "tool": "https://letme.dev/foundry-local" }, "sameCompany": [ "azure-foundry-fine-tuning", "azure-ai-content-safety", "azure-speech-to-text", "azure-text-to-speech", "microsoft-agent-framework", "microsoft-execution-containers", "microsoft-entra-agent-id", "azure-key-vault", "azure-document-intelligence", "azure-devops-mcp", "microsoft-learn-mcp", "playwright-mcp", "azure-mcp", "azure-maps", "azure-translator", "microsoft-graph-calendar", "azure-blob-storage", "onedrive-sharepoint", "microsoft-teams", "dynamics-365-sales", "power-automate", "microsoft-advertising-api", "microsoft-excel-graph", "outlook-mail-graph" ], "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Microsoft Corporation", "domain": "microsoft.com", "domainRegistered": "1991-05-02", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/microsoft/Foundry-Local/releases", "securityTxt": "expired", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The repository is under GitHub's microsoft organisation, the licence file reads Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, and foundrylocal.ai names Microsoft Corporation as publisher.", "The terms link is the repository's LICENSE file, which holds the MIT licence for the SDK and the Microsoft Software Licence Terms for the CLI. Microsoft publishes no other agreement for Foundry Local that we found.", "The privacy link is the product's own privacy file in the repository, which the README links. It and the CLI licence both refer on to the Microsoft Privacy Statement, a company-wide notice, which answered 403 to our request.", "www.microsoft.com/.well-known/security.txt loads and points to the MSRC researcher portal, but its Expires field is 2026-09-23T16:00:00.000Z, which had passed on 8 October 2026. learn.microsoft.com and foundrylocal.ai return 404.", "No status page is listed because the software runs on the owner's machine. The model catalogue is a cloud service with no status page that we found.", "RDAP gives microsoft.com a registration date of 1991-05-02 and foundrylocal.ai one of 2025-10-07." ], "score": 80 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/foundry-local.json" }, "answer": "Lemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance \u0026 community and transparency \u0026 trust.", "b": { "slug": "lemonade", "name": "Lemonade", "vendor": "AMD and the Lemonade community", "vendorUrl": "https://lemonade-server.ai", "kind": "http-api", "category": "local-ai", "summary": "Open-source local AI server from AMD and community contributors. It runs text, speech and image models on the owner's CPU, GPU or NPU behind OpenAI-, Anthropic- and Ollama-compatible APIs and an MCP endpoint on port 13305.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lemonade", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lemonade.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lemonade.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lemonade.json", "repo": "https://github.com/lemonade-sdk/lemonade", "license": "Apache 2.0. Each backend (llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, stable-diffusion.cpp, FastFlowLM and others) is downloaded separately under its own licence", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "oci", "name": "ghcr.io/lemonade-sdk/lemonade-server" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Off by default. With no key set, every endpoint answers without authentication, on a default bind of localhost. `LEMONADE_API_KEY` sets one bearer key for the regular API (`/api/*`, `/v0/*`, `/v1/*`, `/mcp` and `/metrics`). `LEMONADE_ADMIN_API_KEY` sets a second key for the internal control endpoints (`/internal/*`), and without it the regular key reaches those too. Both are environment variables, so there are no per-user keys. The docs tell WebSocket clients to pass `?api_key=KEY` in the URL.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free and Apache 2.0 with nothing to buy and no account. You run it on your own hardware. Cloud Offload, which is optional and experimental, bills through the owner's own keys at whichever cloud provider they add.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs or the source (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 6, "popularity": { "githubStars": 5800, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://lemonade-server.ai/docs/", "capabilities": [ "inference.local", "inference.open-weights", "embed.text", "rerank", "speech.stt", "speech.tts", "image.generate" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "local", "self-hosted", "free", "no-card", "openai-compatible", "mcp", "streaming", "open-weights", "amd", "npu", "docker" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-07", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 63.8, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 336, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 2, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 70, "maintenance": 76, "payments": 60, "reliability": 75, "schema": 70, "security": 36, "transparency": 64 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Apache 2.0, with weekly releases, installers for Windows, macOS and five Linux routes, and a six-tool MCP endpoint whose descriptions steer a caller away from accidental multi-gigabyte downloads. Authentication is off by default, the repository has no security policy, and the docs tell WebSocket clients to pass the key in the URL.", "bestFor": "An owner with AMD hardware (Ryzen AI NPUs, Radeon or Strix Halo) who wants one local server for chat, speech and images that existing OpenAI, Anthropic or Ollama clients can call, and for MCP clients that want local models as tools.", "strengths": [ "Apache 2.0, with OpenAI, Anthropic Messages, Ollama and llama.cpp-compatible routes on one port (13305)", "`POST /mcp` exposes six tools over Streamable HTTP, and omitting `model` reuses a loaded or downloaded model before any download", "Every running server returns its own Markdown API reference at `GET /v1/docs` and through the `lemonade_docs` tool, so it matches the installed version", "Stable release v2026.41.1 on 7 October 2026 on a weekly cadence, each with a Breaking Changes section in its notes", "Telemetry is off by default and exports OTLP traces only to an endpoint the operator sets, with switches to redact prompts and outputs" ], "weaknesses": [ "No authentication by default. With no key set, every route answers, including `/internal/*` shutdown and configuration", "GitHub reports no `SECURITY.md`, and we found no security.txt, advisory or disclosure address", "The docs tell WebSocket clients to send the key as `?api_key=KEY` in the URL", "No OpenAPI file in the repository, and no `readOnlyHint` or `destructiveHint` on the MCP tools", "The main build and test workflow's badge read failing on main on 8 October 2026, with 411 issues open" ], "agentNotes": [ "Call `lemonade_list_models` (or `GET /v1/models`) before naming a model. A wrong name with `allow_download: true` can start a multi-gigabyte download", "Send `Authorization: Bearer \u003ckey\u003e` when the operator has set `LEMONADE_API_KEY`. `/internal/*` needs the admin key when one is set", "Use `POST /v1/chat/completions` for streamed tokens, embeddings and speech. The MCP endpoint ignores `stream` and has no embeddings or text-to-speech tool", "Pass `output_dir` to `lemonade_generate_image` and `lemonade_omni` to get file paths in place of inline base64. Writes stay inside the MCP media sandbox", "Read `GET /v1/docs` on the running server for the reference that matches its version. Weekly releases change behaviour" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 63.8 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 70, "maintenance": 76, "payments": 60, "reliability": 75, "schema": 70, "security": 36, "transparency": 70 }, "provenanceScore": 57 }, "connect": { "install": "winget install --id AMD.LemonadeServer -e", "http": "curl http://localhost:13305/api/v1/chat/completions -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" -d '{\"model\": \"your-model-name\", \"messages\": [{\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": \"Hello\"}]}'", "claudeCode": "lemonade launch claude" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.local", "tool": "https://letme.dev/lemonade" }, "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.", "domain": "lemonade-server.ai", "domainRegistered": "2025-05-12", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/lemonade-sdk/lemonade/releases", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The website footer reads \"© 2026 AMD. Licensed under Apache 2.0\", and `contrib/debian/copyright` in the repository names Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. The code lives in the lemonade-sdk organisation on GitHub, and the README calls it a community project with optimisations by AMD engineers.", "We found no terms of service and no privacy policy for the software or the website. The home page and its footer link to neither, so both fields are empty.", "lemonade-server.ai/.well-known/security.txt, /security.txt and /llms.txt return 404.", "RDAP gives a registration date of 2025-05-12 for lemonade-server.ai, with Porkbun LLC as registrar and the registrant behind a privacy service.", "There's no hosted endpoint. Each instance answers on the owner's own machine, by default localhost port 13305." ], "score": 57 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lemonade.json" }, "facts": [ { "a": "SDK + MCP", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Microsoft", "b": "AMD and the Lemonade community", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "None", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Free", "b": "Free", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "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", "b": "Apache 2.0. Each backend (llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, stable-diffusion.cpp, FastFlowLM and others) is downloaded separately under its own licence", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "none", "b": "6", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-09-29", "b": "2026-10-07", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "2.6k stars, 105k npm/wk, 47k PyPI/wk", "b": "5.8k stars", "name": "Popularity" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Lemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance \u0026 community and transparency \u0026 trust.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Foundry Local or Lemonade?" }, { "answer": "No hosted endpoint is listed for Foundry Local. No hosted endpoint is listed for Lemonade.", "question": "Can an agent call Foundry Local and Lemonade without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "Yes. 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). Lemonade is open source (Apache 2.0. Each backend (llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, stable-diffusion.cpp, FastFlowLM and others) is downloaded separately under its own licence).", "question": "Are Foundry Local and Lemonade open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Maintenance \u0026 community, 88 against 76", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 72 against 64" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it" ], "goodFor": "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.", "slug": "foundry-local", "watchFor": "The local server takes no credential, and its routes include model load and unload and `POST /shutdown`" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 75 against 68", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 70 against 53", "Agent ergonomics, 70 against 61" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "An owner with AMD hardware (Ryzen AI NPUs, Radeon or Strix Halo) who wants one local server for chat, speech and images that existing OpenAI, Anthropic or Ollama clients can call, and for MCP clients that want local models as tools.", "slug": "lemonade", "watchFor": "No authentication by default. With no key set, every route answers, including `/internal/*` shutdown and configuration" } ], "job": { "capability": "inference.local", "name": "Local inference" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-foundry-local.json", "title": "AnythingLLM vs Foundry Local", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-foundry-local" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-lemonade.json", "title": "AnythingLLM vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-lemonade" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-foundry-local.json", "title": "Docker Model Runner vs Foundry Local", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-foundry-local" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-lemonade.json", "title": "Docker Model Runner vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-lemonade" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ghost-core.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs Core", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ghost-core" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-gpt4all.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs GPT4All", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-gpt4all" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-jan.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs Jan", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-jan" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs Khoj", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-koboldcpp.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs KoboldCpp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-koboldcpp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-llama-cpp.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs llama.cpp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-llama-cpp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lm-studio.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs LM Studio", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lm-studio" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-localai.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs LocalAI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-localai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-mlx-lm.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs MLX LM", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-mlx-lm" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ollama.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs Ollama", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ollama" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-open-webui.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs Open WebUI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-open-webui" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-screenpipe.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs screenpipe", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-screenpipe" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-text-generation-webui.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs TextGen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-text-generation-webui" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade.json", "title": "Core vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-lemonade.json", "title": "GPT4All vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-lemonade" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-lemonade.json", "title": "Jan vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-lemonade" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lemonade.json", "title": "Khoj vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lemonade" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-vs-lemonade.json", "title": "KoboldCpp vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-vs-lemonade" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-llama-cpp.json", "title": "Lemonade vs llama.cpp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-llama-cpp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-lm-studio.json", "title": "Lemonade vs LM Studio", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-lm-studio" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-localai.json", "title": "Lemonade vs LocalAI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-localai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-mlx-lm.json", "title": "Lemonade vs MLX LM", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-mlx-lm" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-ollama.json", "title": "Lemonade vs Ollama", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-ollama" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-open-webui.json", "title": "Lemonade vs Open WebUI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-open-webui" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-screenpipe.json", "title": "Lemonade vs screenpipe", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-screenpipe" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-text-generation-webui.json", "title": "Lemonade vs TextGen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-text-generation-webui" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-underdog.json", "title": "Lemonade vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-underdog" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 7, "edge": "lemonade", "foundry-local": 68, "key": "reliability", "lemonade": 75, "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 17, "edge": "lemonade", "foundry-local": 53, "key": "schema", "lemonade": 70, "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "by": 9, "edge": "lemonade", "foundry-local": 61, "key": "ergonomics", "lemonade": 70, "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "by": 3, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 39, "key": "security", "lemonade": 36, "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "by": 0, "edge": "", "foundry-local": 60, "key": "payments", "lemonade": 60, "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 12, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 88, "key": "maintenance", "lemonade": 76, "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "by": 8, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 72, "key": "transparency", "lemonade": 64, "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Lemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance \u0026 community and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do local inference.", "verdicts": { "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.", "lemonade": "Apache 2.0, with weekly releases, installers for Windows, macOS and five Linux routes, and a six-tool MCP endpoint whose descriptions steer a caller away from accidental multi-gigabyte downloads. Authentication is off by default, the repository has no security policy, and the docs tell WebSocket clients to pass the key in the URL." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.min.md" }, "markdown": "Lemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance \u0026 community and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do local inference.\n\n- Foundry Local: grade C, 60.5/100, rank #461 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/foundry-local.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/foundry-local.json\n- Lemonade: grade B, 63.8/100, rank #336 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lemonade.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lemonade.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Foundry Local (C)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 88 against 76\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 72 against 64\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n\nWatch for: The local server takes no credential, and its routes include model load and unload and `POST /shutdown`\n\n### Lemonade (B)\n\nGood for: An owner with AMD hardware (Ryzen AI NPUs, Radeon or Strix Halo) who wants one local server for chat, speech and images that existing OpenAI, Anthropic or Ollama clients can call, and for MCP clients that want local models as tools.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 75 against 68\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 70 against 53\n- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 61\n\nWatch for: No authentication by default. With no key set, every route answers, including `/internal/*` shutdown and configuration\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Foundry Local | Lemonade | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 75 | Lemonade +7 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 70 | Lemonade +17 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 70 | Lemonade +9 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 39 | 36 | Foundry Local +3 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 76 | Foundry Local +12 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 64 | Foundry Local +8 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.5 · C** | **63.8 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Foundry Local | Lemonade |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Microsoft | AMD and the Lemonade community |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | None | API key |\n| Pricing | Free | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | 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 | Apache 2.0. Each backend (llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, stable-diffusion.cpp, FastFlowLM and others) is downloaded separately under its own licence |\n| Tools exposed | none | 6 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | no |\n| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-07 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |\n| Customer content may train models | | |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | |\n| Popularity | 2.6k stars, 105k npm/wk, 47k PyPI/wk | 5.8k stars |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**Lemonade.** Apache 2.0, with weekly releases, installers for Windows, macOS and five Linux routes, and a six-tool MCP endpoint whose descriptions steer a caller away from accidental multi-gigabyte downloads. Authentication is off by default, the repository has no security policy, and the docs tell WebSocket clients to pass the key in the URL.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Foundry Local\n\n1. 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`\n2. Send the model ID that `GET /v1/models` returns, not the alias. The alias resolves to a hardware-specific variant\n3. Check `supportsToolCalling` before sending tools. Support differs by variant, and issue #1183 reports Qwen tool calling failing on QNN\n4. Set your own request timeout. Inference has no built-in one, and cancellation takes effect only after the current generation step\n5. Ask the owner to set `ORT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1` or `disableNonessentialTelemetry` before the manager is created if telemetry must be off\n\n### Lemonade\n\n1. Call `lemonade_list_models` (or `GET /v1/models`) before naming a model. A wrong name with `allow_download: true` can start a multi-gigabyte download\n2. Send `Authorization: Bearer \u003ckey\u003e` when the operator has set `LEMONADE_API_KEY`. `/internal/*` needs the admin key when one is set\n3. Use `POST /v1/chat/completions` for streamed tokens, embeddings and speech. The MCP endpoint ignores `stream` and has no embeddings or text-to-speech tool\n4. Pass `output_dir` to `lemonade_generate_image` and `lemonade_omni` to get file paths in place of inline base64. Writes stay inside the MCP media sandbox\n5. Read `GET /v1/docs` on the running server for the reference that matches its version. Weekly releases change behaviour\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Foundry Local or Lemonade?\n\nLemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance \u0026 community and transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n### Can an agent call Foundry Local and Lemonade without installing anything?\n\nNo hosted endpoint is listed for Foundry Local. No hosted endpoint is listed for Lemonade.\n\n### Are Foundry Local and Lemonade open source?\n\nYes. 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). Lemonade is open source (Apache 2.0. Each backend (llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, stable-diffusion.cpp, FastFlowLM and others) is downloaded separately under its own licence).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"foundry-local\", \"b\": \"lemonade\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare foundry-local lemonade`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/foundry-local.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lemonade.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Foundry Local or Lemonade\n\n- [AnythingLLM vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-foundry-local.md)\n- [AnythingLLM vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-lemonade.md)\n- [Docker Model Runner vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-foundry-local.md)\n- [Docker Model Runner vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-lemonade.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs Core](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ghost-core.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs GPT4All](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-gpt4all.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-jan.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs KoboldCpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-koboldcpp.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-llama-cpp.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lm-studio.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-localai.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-mlx-lm.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ollama.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-screenpipe.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-text-generation-webui.md)\n- [Core vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade.md)\n- [GPT4All vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-lemonade.md)\n- [Jan vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-lemonade.md)\n- [Khoj vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lemonade.md)\n- [KoboldCpp vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-vs-lemonade.md)\n- [Lemonade vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-llama-cpp.md)\n- [Lemonade vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-lm-studio.md)\n- [Lemonade vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-localai.md)\n- [Lemonade vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-mlx-lm.md)\n- [Lemonade vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-ollama.md)\n- [Lemonade vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [Lemonade vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-screenpipe.md)\n- [Lemonade vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-text-generation-webui.md)\n- [Foundry Local vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.md)\n- [Lemonade vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-underdog.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-09", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Foundry Local vs Lemonade", "url": "" } ], "description": "Lemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Foundry Local's 60.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Foundry Local leads on maintenance \u0026 community and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do local inference. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Foundry Local C 60.5", "Lemonade B 63.8", "scores" ], "h1": "Foundry Local vs Lemonade", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-foundry-local-vs-lemonade.png", "path": "/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Foundry Local vs Lemonade for AI agents, C 60.5 vs B 63.8", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-09", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2750, "slim": 630 }, "version": 1 }