I used it on a long train trip. There was no internet due to drone attacks, and with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis
cousinbryce•Mar 22, 2026
I’m convinced that the multitude of off-line Internet tools is a ploy to keep any one of them from gaining traction
lucasluitjes•Mar 22, 2026
The ones mentioned in this thread all use Kiwix for off-line wikipedia, OSM for maps, Khan for educational videos. It looks like internet-in-a-box is aimed at working well on low-powered devices, whereas nomad expects beefy hardware and includes local AI. Not sure how WROLPi differs from internet-in-a-box.
Maybe it's like linux distros: all based on the same software, but optimized for different use-cases or preferences.
rtibbles•Mar 22, 2026
I mean, technically they use Kolibri for educational videos and exercises. A lot of them do come from Khan Academy, but we do a lot of work to make an offline first education platform, and also bring in a huge swathe of other open educational resources.
WillAdams•Mar 22, 2026
Missing a chance to note (or configure for?) installation on a Raspberry Pi --- that'd make an affordable option to leave powered down, but ready to go in an EMI-shield/Faraday Cage.
pdpi•Mar 22, 2026
They specifically state that they’re aiming for a “fatter” model that expects higher-end hardware, and other projects like Internet in a box already target rpi-style devices.
JanisIO•Mar 22, 2026
Anyone thought about using a Steam Deck with this? Or explored the concept of a "Nomad Deck"?
c0balt•Mar 22, 2026
It might be an interesting idea given that the Steam Deck has reasonable amount of RAM/GPU. The main issue for a knowledge base might be the lack of a physical keyboard though.
mhitza•Mar 22, 2026
It has built in microphones though.
wds•Mar 22, 2026
Not sure how good of an idea a Steam Deck would be for this. If you can't access Wikipedia, I imagine a replacement for its unprotected glass screen would be harder to come by if you drop it.
JanisIO•Mar 22, 2026
True, but I always give my devices a protective glass and put them in rugged armor. Broken screens never been a problem for me..
moffers•Mar 22, 2026
Really clever targeting of a niche. I’d be interested to hear if they find success!
shevy-java•Mar 22, 2026
So how does that work?
WJW•Mar 22, 2026
It never goes offline by already being offline.
bpavuk•Mar 22, 2026
turns out I have the same setup (sans local LLMs - they are pretty useless on 2018 cards) but in Obsidian :)
whatever I think might be useful later, I capture through the web clipper extension. [0]
I like the idea of an LLM that acts as a public knowledge base. But that doomsday framing on the site is pretty annoying.
adsharma•Mar 22, 2026
This is not just a random idea.
AlexNet -> Tansformers -> ChatGPT -> Claude Code -> Small LMs serving KBs
Large LLMs could have a role in efficiently producing such KBs.
waynerisner•Mar 22, 2026
I think there’s a difference between doomsday framing and preparedness.
Offline access and local models aren’t about assuming collapse—they’re about treating knowledge as infrastructure instead of something implicitly guaranteed.
That feels more like resilience than pessimism.
dogma1138•Mar 22, 2026
If current frontier online LLMs are made inaccessible due to a local or global cataclysmic event running models locally will be the least of your concerns.
This isn’t prepping for anything it’s cosplaying as a vault dweller.
P.S. Having TED talks as part of the “educational” curriculum of this project is probably the biggest circle jerk imaginable.
russellbeattie•Mar 22, 2026
Doomsday may not be the end of the world, but simply living in a country where you're being unjustifiably bombed by a foreign government lead by a delusional sociopath, and so access to information sources becomes limited.
DoctorOetker•Mar 22, 2026
What Gulf state do you live in? UAE?
dogma1138•Mar 22, 2026
You’ll be hanged from a construction crane if they’ll catch you with this project in Iran… :)
mohamedkoubaa•Mar 22, 2026
Great premise for a science fiction story
iandanforth•Mar 22, 2026
I like this idea! I don't need the LLM bits, and want it to run on an old Android tablet I have lying around. Can anyone recommend similar software where I can get wikipedia / street maps / useful tutorial videos nicely packaged for offline use?
entropie•Mar 22, 2026
A friend made this years ago. I never used it but the idea is awesome.
And for those who are only vaguely familiar, this ZIM file format is not the same as the https://zim-wiki.org one.
hofrogs•Mar 22, 2026
I am actually only vaguely familiar and I was wondering about that every time I saw the format referenced but never bothered to check, your comment is informative!
Lapra•Mar 22, 2026
In a world where this is useful, you aren't going to be spending your precious battery on running an LLM...
desireco42•Mar 22, 2026
Solar cells work no matter what, I agree that maybe less processing is more useful but LLM is uniqely useful as well
qingcharles•Mar 22, 2026
This is not true for me. I would want an LLM after the apocalypse. I'd become like the Wizard of Oz, the all-knowing oracle.
layer8•Mar 22, 2026
No need for a battery, you just need someone to hit the pedals on that dynamo.
ZeroCool2u•Mar 22, 2026
See I really want this in a simpler format. Like a single file embedded database on my filesystem that I can point a single/or few tools at for my model to use when it needs.
leowoo91•Mar 22, 2026
It could use some own wisdom not to use nodejs..
itintheory•Mar 22, 2026
Why does it have to have AI? Ugh.
layer8•Mar 22, 2026
You can use Kiwix, OpenStreetMap and Kolibri as an AI-free equivalent. Adding AI to those is exactly the differentiator of this project.
pstuart•Mar 22, 2026
I get the hate on AI for many reasons (hype, resource greediness, threat to civilization, etc), but having a local LLM that could help guide and reason about the data within seems like a win, especially if it's optional.
Flere-Imsaho•Mar 22, 2026
Because if you're stuck in your underground bunker, who else can you talk to?
cstaszak•Mar 22, 2026
I'm a fan of "civilization in a box" kinds of projects. However the ZIM file format leaves a lot to be desired in 2026. I've been exploring a refreshed, alternative approach: https://github.com/stazelabs/oza
I do think having an LLM as an optional "sidecar" is a useful approach. If you can run a meaningful Ollama instance alongside your content, great!
codeveil•Mar 22, 2026
ZIM or not, I think the “LLM as optional sidecar” part is the right idea.
The durable asset is the knowledge base itself. A local model can be useful on top, but it should stay a layer, not become the dependency.
amarant•Mar 22, 2026
>Knowledge That Never Goes Offline
>What is Project N.O.M.A.D.?
Node for Offline Media, Archives, and Data
That's the first header, and the first sentence of the first paragraph, and I'm confused.
collabs•Mar 22, 2026
My guess is
>Knowledge That Never Goes Offline
Means
>Knowledge That Never becomes inaccessible to you
While the next offline means you can access it even if you don't have access to a wider network.
This is really cool. Having offline Wikipedia + local LLMs in a single bundle is a great combo for emergency preparedness. Do you have any benchmarks on how it performs on lower-end hardware? Curious about minimum specs.
Aargau•Mar 22, 2026
Closing on 40 acres in Panama for an eco-resort.
I was planning to build my own offline repository, but will check out this repo.
Animats•Mar 22, 2026
There's a company which sells something like this, as "Prepper Disk".[1]
In the 1950s, US Civil Defense had a set of microfilms on how to rebuild society. These were packaged with a sunlight reader and stored in larger fallout shelters. Someone should find one of those.
Normally I cringe at doomsday preppers but given how many dictators out there love the idea to cut their country off Internet whenever anything starts going not in their favor, I imagine a lot of people may find this useful.
I wouldn’t want to lose access to knowledge how to fix a sink or which medication is better, just because the local kingface currently feels that free exchange of opinions about him threatens his kingship.
born-jre•Mar 22, 2026
what a coincidence, i am just downloading 110gb wikipedia dump on kiwix right now
23 Comments
https://internet-in-a-box.org/
https://wrolpi.org/
I used it on a long train trip. There was no internet due to drone attacks, and with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis
Maybe it's like linux distros: all based on the same software, but optimized for different use-cases or preferences.
whatever I think might be useful later, I capture through the web clipper extension. [0]
[0]: https://obsidian.md/clipper
AlexNet -> Tansformers -> ChatGPT -> Claude Code -> Small LMs serving KBs
Large LLMs could have a role in efficiently producing such KBs.
Offline access and local models aren’t about assuming collapse—they’re about treating knowledge as infrastructure instead of something implicitly guaranteed.
That feels more like resilience than pessimism.
This isn’t prepping for anything it’s cosplaying as a vault dweller.
P.S. Having TED talks as part of the “educational” curriculum of this project is probably the biggest circle jerk imaginable.
https://github.com/ligi/SurvivalManual
In the meanwhile, wikipedia ships wikidata, which uses RDF dumps (and probably 8x less compressed than it should be).
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Database_download
There is room for a third option leveraging commercial columnar database research.
https://adsharma.github.io/duckdb-wikidata-compression/
I do think having an LLM as an optional "sidecar" is a useful approach. If you can run a meaningful Ollama instance alongside your content, great!
The durable asset is the knowledge base itself. A local model can be useful on top, but it should stay a layer, not become the dependency.
>What is Project N.O.M.A.D.? Node for Offline Media, Archives, and Data
That's the first header, and the first sentence of the first paragraph, and I'm confused.
>Knowledge That Never Goes Offline
Means
>Knowledge That Never becomes inaccessible to you
While the next offline means you can access it even if you don't have access to a wider network.
At least that's how I would read it.
I was planning to build my own offline repository, but will check out this repo.
In the 1950s, US Civil Defense had a set of microfilms on how to rebuild society. These were packaged with a sunlight reader and stored in larger fallout shelters. Someone should find one of those.
[1] https://www.prepperdisk.com/
I wouldn’t want to lose access to knowledge how to fix a sink or which medication is better, just because the local kingface currently feels that free exchange of opinions about him threatens his kingship.