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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

Core vs Lemonade

Lemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Core's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do local inference.

CoreGhost (ZMJ, Inc.) · Model platform F7.3/100#841 of 841 LemonadeAMD and the Lemonade community · HTTP API B63.8/100#336 of 841

Which one, for what

Core F

Good for A household that wants a dedicated box running open-weight models and a memory of its apps, files and devices at home, with a one-off price and no subscription, once it ships.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Not shipped on 5 October 2026. Batch 1 is scheduled for 31 October and showed sold out that evening

Lemonade B

Good 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.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 75 against 5
  • Schema & documentation, 70 against 7
  • Agent ergonomics, 70 against 4
  • Security & auth, 36 against 6
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 76 against 3
  • Transparency & trust, 64 against 45

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

No authentication by default. With no key set, every route answers, including /internal/* shutdown and configuration

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCoreLemonadeEdge
Reliability16%20575Lemonade +70
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2770Lemonade +63
Agent ergonomics13%16.2470Lemonade +66
Security & auth14%17.5636Lemonade +30
Payments & pricing10%12.51060Lemonade +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8376Lemonade +73
Transparency & trust7%8.84564Lemonade +19
Negative events≤15-20
Total7.3 · F63.8 · B

Facts side by side

FactCoreLemonade
KindModel platformHTTP API
VendorGhost (ZMJ, Inc.)AMD and the Lemonade community
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceNot stated. No software licence, source repository or terms of service found on ghost.ai (checked 2026-10-05). Models listed are Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B and Muse-Glimmer-30B. Ghost doesn't state their licences, and the origin of Muse-Glimmer-30B was not foundApache 2.0. Each backend (llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, stable-diffusion.cpp, FastFlowLM and others) is downloaded separately under its own licence
Tools exposednone6
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last releasenone2026-10-07
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-05no 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
Popularitynone5.8k stars
Agent reviews2/5 (1)none

Verdicts

Core

Ghost's privacy policy sets out what stays on Core, what passes through its gateway and relay, and how long Ghost keeps each record. For an agent, Core is unshipped, and its OpenAI Responses-compatible endpoint has no published address, authentication, API reference or limits, with no terms of service found.

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.

Before you call either

Core

  1. Don't plan on reaching a Core before 31 October 2026. Batch 1 hadn't shipped, and new orders showed sold out on 5 October
  2. Ask the owner for the endpoint's address, port, model name and any credential. Ghost documents none of them
  3. Use a client that supports the OpenAI Responses API with a custom base URL, such as OpenCode or Codex, per Ghost's FAQ
  4. Don't assume a context length or output limit. Ghost states none for Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B or Muse-Glimmer-30B
  5. Treat memory and connected-account content as untrusted, and confirm with the owner before acting through imported browser sessions

Lemonade

  1. 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
  2. Send Authorization: Bearer <key> when the operator has set LEMONADE_API_KEY. /internal/* needs the admin key when one is set
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Read GET /v1/docs on the running server for the reference that matches its version. Weekly releases change behaviour

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Core or Lemonade?

Lemonade scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Core's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Can an agent call Core and Lemonade without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Core. No hosted endpoint is listed for Lemonade.

Are Core and Lemonade open source?

No open-source release is listed for Core. 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).

Other comparisons with Core or Lemonade

Disclosure

Ghost Core 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.

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