# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

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

- Core: grade F, 7.3/100, rank #842 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ghost-core.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ghost-core.json
- 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

## 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.

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

| Category | Weight | Core | Lemonade | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 5 | 75 | Lemonade +70 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 7 | 70 | Lemonade +63 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 4 | 70 | Lemonade +66 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 6 | 36 | Lemonade +30 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 60 | Lemonade +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 3 | 76 | Lemonade +73 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 64 | Lemonade +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **7.3 · F** | **63.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Core | Lemonade |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ghost (ZMJ, Inc.) | AMD and the Lemonade community |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Not 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 found | Apache 2.0. Each backend (llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, stable-diffusion.cpp, FastFlowLM and others) is downloaded separately under its own licence |
| Tools exposed | none | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-05 | no 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 |  |  |
| Popularity | none | 5.8k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (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).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lemonade.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "ghost-core", "b": "lemonade"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare ghost-core lemonade`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ghost-core.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lemonade.json

## Other comparisons with Core or Lemonade

- [AnythingLLM vs Core](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-ghost-core.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Docker Model Runner vs Core](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-ghost-core.md)
- [Docker Model Runner vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Core](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ghost-core.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Core vs GPT4All](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-gpt4all.md)
- [Core vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-jan.md)
- [Core vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-khoj.md)
- [Core vs KoboldCpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-koboldcpp.md)
- [Core vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [Core vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Core vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-localai.md)
- [Core vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-mlx-lm.md)
- [Core vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-ollama.md)
- [Core vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Core vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [Core vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-text-generation-webui.md)
- [GPT4All vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Jan vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Khoj vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lemonade.md)
- [KoboldCpp vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Lemonade vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [Lemonade vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Lemonade vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-localai.md)
- [Lemonade vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-mlx-lm.md)
- [Lemonade vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-ollama.md)
- [Lemonade vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Lemonade vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [Lemonade vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-text-generation-webui.md)
- [Core vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-underdog.md)
- [Lemonade vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-vs-underdog.md)
- [Core vs LocalGhost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-localghost.md)

## 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.