{ "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": "Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "b": { "slug": "underdog", "name": "Underdog", "vendor": "Conway Research", "vendorUrl": "https://underdog.ai", "kind": "platform", "category": "local-ai", "summary": "A personal AI from Conway Research that runs on the owner's Mac with Apple silicon.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/underdog", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/underdog.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/underdog.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/underdog.json", "license": "Model weights Apache-2.0 on Hugging Face (Underdog 27B 1.0 and its ternary build, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1, Bark 0.8B 1.0); woof-1.0-4B carries the Apache-2.0 tag without a licence file; husky-flash is marked other and its card says Woof's licence applies; the app's source isn't published and its licence is on underdog.ai, unchecked", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No API, MCP server, CLI or credential for agents from Conway found as of 3 October 2026. The husky-flash card names `husky serve --model ConwayResearch/husky-flash` from an \"Underdog Greyhound repository\" that isn't public, with no port or protocol documented. Conway's 27B cards run the weights through Inco AI's Splash, which listens on `127.0.0.1:8000` with an OpenAI-compatible API and no authentication unless `--api-key` is set. The weights download from Hugging Face without a gate, though the 27B card says to run `hf auth login` first. underdog.ai, whose robots.txt refuses our reader, is unchecked.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free. Underdog's pricing page says \"100% free\", \"Free forever? Yes. It's your computer doing the work\" and \"There is nothing to bill you for\", with no paid tier (text supplied on 3 October 2026, because underdog.ai refuses our reader). The model weights are free Apache-2.0 downloads on Hugging Face with no login or card. The page links a sign-in, and whether the app needs an account is unchecked.", "priceSummary": "Free", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No payment protocol on conway.tech, husky.underdog.ai, Conway's Hugging Face organisation or its GitHub repositories (3 October 2026); underdog.ai unchecked.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-03" }, "capabilities": [ "inference.open-weights", "speech.stt" ], "tags": [ "local", "apple-silicon", "open-weights", "mlx" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-30", "graded": true, "disclosure": "Underdog competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default. underdog.ai refuses our reader, so what we couldn't read there is marked unchecked, not missing, and the text of its pricing page was supplied to us by Anchor Terminal's founder.", "competesWith": "localghost", "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 29.5, "grade": "F", "agentReady": false, "rank": 833, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 18, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 15, "maintenance": 56, "payments": 60, "reliability": 33, "schema": 24, "security": 14, "transparency": 19 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "low", "date": "2026-10-03" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Apache-2.0 weights on Hugging Face for Underdog 27B 1.0, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 and Bark 0.8B 1.0, with no gate. No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public.", "bestFor": "An owner who wants a Mac assistant over their own mail and calendar that, per Conway, keeps everything on the machine.", "disclosure": "Underdog competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default. underdog.ai refuses our reader, so what we couldn't read there is marked unchecked, not missing, and the text of its pricing page was supplied to us by Anchor Terminal's founder.", "strengths": [ "Apache-2.0 weights on Hugging Face for Underdog 27B 1.0, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 and Bark 0.8B 1.0, with no gate", "Eight Underdog model repositories published between 4 and 30 September 2026, the latest Underdog 27B 1.0 and a 2-bit ternary build on 30 September", "Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 ship release-provenance.json with a byte count and SHA-256 for every file", "Husky's speed post names its hardware, macOS and MLX versions and method, and publishes its weaker results too (1.02 to 1.27 times MLX on writing)", "The 27B weights run outside the app through Splash's OpenAI-compatible API, per Conway's ternary card" ], "weaknesses": [ "No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public", "The app's source isn't published, and none of Conway's three public GitHub repositories mentions Underdog", "The Woof 4B 1.1, Woof 2B 1.1 and Bark 0.8B 1.0 cards are one or two sentences, with no base model, context length or limits", "No security.txt at conway.tech (404), no SECURITY.md, and no disclosure policy, advisories or bug bounty found", "Conway's home page says Underdog 27B beats Claude Opus 4.6, and the 27B cards publish speed figures only" ], "agentNotes": [ "Don't look for an agent interface to Underdog. We found no API, MCP server, CLI or SDK, and underdog.ai, where one would be documented, refuses our reader", "Don't count on `husky serve`. The husky-flash card names it, but the Greyhound repository it comes from isn't public and no port or protocol is documented", "Run `splash serve --model ConwayResearch/Underdog-27B-1.0 --default-reasoning-effort medium` with Inco AI's Splash 1.1.0 or later for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint on `127.0.0.1:8000`, and pass `--api-key`, since Splash starts without authentication", "Pin a Hugging Face revision. Woof 4B went from 1.0 to 1.1 in eight days with no note of what changed", "Check Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 files against the SHA-256 values in release-provenance.json before loading them" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 2, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "low", "grade": "F", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 29.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 15, "maintenance": 56, "payments": 60, "reliability": 33, "schema": 24, "security": 14, "transparency": 23 }, "provenanceScore": 15 }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.open-weights", "tool": "https://letme.dev/underdog" }, "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "", "domain": "underdog.ai", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "https://underdog.ai/terms", "privacy": "https://underdog.ai/privacy", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "unknown", "checked": "2026-10-03", "notes": [ "underdog.ai's robots.txt refuses our reader (again at about 08:15 UTC on 3 October 2026), so its terms, privacy policy, changelog, domain registration and security.txt are unchecked, not missing.", "Terms (https://underdog.ai/terms) and a privacy policy (https://underdog.ai/privacy) are linked from Underdog's pricing page, whose text was supplied to us on 3 October 2026. Their content is unchecked, because our reader is refused.", "husky.underdog.ai, a separate host linked from conway.tech and the founder's page, loaded for our reader.", "conway.tech's home page links no terms or privacy policy, and conway.tech has no security.txt (404) and no llms.txt (404).", "No registered company name found. a16z says Conway Research, conway.tech says Conway, and the licence in Conway's automaton repository reads 'Copyright (c) 2026 Conway'.", "No status page applies, since Underdog runs on the owner's machine with no hosted endpoint, and no changelog was found outside underdog.ai." ], "score": 15 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/underdog.json", "live": { "slug": "underdog", "securityTxt": { "url": "https://underdog.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-09-17T00:00:00.000Z", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:39:00.486760673Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "underdog.ai", "registered": "2020-03-30", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/underdog.ai", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:05:26.708018286Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://underdog.ai/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:25:26.100715614Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "e17b8e9e48b7" }, { "url": "https://underdog.ai/terms", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:25:28.33774643Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "6c84bce579c3" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-08T18:25:28.33774643Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "SDK + MCP", "b": "Model platform", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Microsoft", "b": "Conway Research", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "None", "b": "None", "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": "Model weights Apache-2.0 on Hugging Face (Underdog 27B 1.0 and its ternary build, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1, Bark 0.8B 1.0); woof-1.0-4B carries the Apache-2.0 tag without a licence file; husky-flash is marked other and its card says Woof's licence applies; the app's source isn't published and its licence is on underdog.ai, unchecked", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-09-29", "b": "2026-09-30", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "2026-09-01", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "2026-09-30", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "2.6k stars, 105k npm/wk, 47k PyPI/wk", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "none", "b": "2/5 (2)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Foundry Local or Underdog?" }, { "answer": "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). No open-source release is listed for Underdog.", "question": "Are Foundry Local and Underdog open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 68 against 33", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 53 against 24", "Agent ergonomics, 61 against 15", "Security \u0026 auth, 39 against 14", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 88 against 56", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 72 against 19" ], "also": [ "Free to start without a card", "Open source" ], "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": null, "also": null, "goodFor": "An owner who wants a Mac assistant over their own mail and calendar that, per Conway, keeps everything on the machine.", "slug": "underdog", "watchFor": "No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public" } ], "job": { "capability": "inference.open-weights", "name": "Inference open weights" }, "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/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/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-lemonade.json", "title": "Foundry Local vs Lemonade", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade" }, { "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/screenpipe-vs-underdog.json", "title": "screenpipe vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/screenpipe-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-underdog.json", "title": "AnythingLLM vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-underdog.json", "title": "Docker Model Runner vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-underdog.json", "title": "Core vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-underdog.json", "title": "GPT4All vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-underdog.json", "title": "Jan vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-vs-underdog.json", "title": "KoboldCpp vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-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" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-underdog.json", "title": "llama.cpp vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-underdog.json", "title": "LM Studio vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-underdog.json", "title": "LocalAI vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mlx-lm-vs-underdog.json", "title": "MLX LM vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mlx-lm-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-underdog.json", "title": "Ollama vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-underdog" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/text-generation-webui-vs-underdog.json", "title": "TextGen vs Underdog", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/text-generation-webui-vs-underdog" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 35, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 68, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "underdog": 33, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 29, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 53, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "underdog": 24, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 46, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 61, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "underdog": 15, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 25, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 39, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "underdog": 14, "weight": 14 }, { "by": 0, "edge": "", "foundry-local": 60, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "underdog": 60, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 32, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 88, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "underdog": 56, "weight": 7 }, { "by": 53, "edge": "foundry-local", "foundry-local": 72, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "underdog": 19, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do inference open weights.", "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.", "underdog": "Apache-2.0 weights on Hugging Face for Underdog 27B 1.0, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 and Bark 0.8B 1.0, with no gate. No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.min.md" }, "markdown": "Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do inference open weights.\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- Underdog: grade F, 29.5/100, rank #833 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/underdog.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/underdog.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- Reliability, 68 against 33\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 53 against 24\n- Agent ergonomics, 61 against 15\n- Security \u0026 auth, 39 against 14\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 88 against 56\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 72 against 19\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Free to start without a card\n- Open source\n\nWatch for: The local server takes no credential, and its routes include model load and unload and `POST /shutdown`\n\n### Underdog (F)\n\nGood for: An owner who wants a Mac assistant over their own mail and calendar that, per Conway, keeps everything on the machine.\n\nWatch for: No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Foundry Local | Underdog | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 33 | Foundry Local +35 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 24 | Foundry Local +29 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 15 | Foundry Local +46 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 39 | 14 | Foundry Local +25 |\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 | 56 | Foundry Local +32 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 19 | Foundry Local +53 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.5 · C** | **29.5 · F** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Foundry Local | Underdog |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | SDK + MCP | Model platform |\n| Vendor | Microsoft | Conway Research |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP | |\n| Auth | None | None |\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 | Model weights Apache-2.0 on Hugging Face (Underdog 27B 1.0 and its ternary build, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1, Bark 0.8B 1.0); woof-1.0-4B carries the Apache-2.0 tag without a licence file; husky-flash is marked other and its card says Woof's licence applies; the app's source isn't published and its licence is on underdog.ai, unchecked |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | no |\n| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-30 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-01 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |\n| Customer content may train models | | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | 2.6k stars, 105k npm/wk, 47k PyPI/wk | none |\n| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |\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**Underdog.** Apache-2.0 weights on Hugging Face for Underdog 27B 1.0, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 and Bark 0.8B 1.0, with no gate. No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public.\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### Underdog\n\n1. Don't look for an agent interface to Underdog. We found no API, MCP server, CLI or SDK, and underdog.ai, where one would be documented, refuses our reader\n2. Don't count on `husky serve`. The husky-flash card names it, but the Greyhound repository it comes from isn't public and no port or protocol is documented\n3. Run `splash serve --model ConwayResearch/Underdog-27B-1.0 --default-reasoning-effort medium` with Inco AI's Splash 1.1.0 or later for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint on `127.0.0.1:8000`, and pass `--api-key`, since Splash starts without authentication\n4. Pin a Hugging Face revision. Woof 4B went from 1.0 to 1.1 in eight days with no note of what changed\n5. Check Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 files against the SHA-256 values in release-provenance.json before loading them\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Foundry Local or Underdog?\n\nFoundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.\n\n### Are Foundry Local and Underdog open source?\n\nFoundry 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). No open-source release is listed for Underdog.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"foundry-local\", \"b\": \"underdog\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare foundry-local underdog`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/foundry-local.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/underdog.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Foundry Local or Underdog\n\n- [AnythingLLM vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-foundry-local.md)\n- [Docker Model Runner vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-foundry-local.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 Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.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- [screenpipe vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/screenpipe-vs-underdog.md)\n- [AnythingLLM vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-underdog.md)\n- [Docker Model Runner vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-underdog.md)\n- [Core vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-underdog.md)\n- [GPT4All vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-underdog.md)\n- [Jan vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-underdog.md)\n- [KoboldCpp vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-vs-underdog.md)\n- [Lemonade vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-underdog.md)\n- [llama.cpp vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-underdog.md)\n- [LM Studio vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-underdog.md)\n- [LocalAI vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-underdog.md)\n- [MLX LM vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mlx-lm-vs-underdog.md)\n- [Ollama vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-underdog.md)\n- [TextGen vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/text-generation-webui-vs-underdog.md)\n\n## Disclosure\n\n- Underdog competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default. underdog.ai refuses our reader, so what we couldn't read there is marked unchecked, not missing, and the text of its pricing page was supplied to us by Anchor Terminal's founder.\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 Underdog", "url": "" } ], "description": "Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do inference open weights. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Foundry Local C 60.5", "Underdog F 29.5", "scores" ], "h1": "Foundry Local vs Underdog", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-foundry-local-vs-underdog.png", "path": "/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Foundry Local vs Underdog for AI agents, C 60.5 vs F 29.5", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-09", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2800, "slim": 780 }, "version": 1 }