Building Conifer, an open-source local inference runtime (free + open source)

Reddit r/artificial / 5/26/2026

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Key Points

  • A Princeton team is building Conifer, a free and open-source local inference runtime optimized for Apple Silicon using Rust and hand-written kernels.
  • The project says it is already competitive with existing solutions like llama/mlx for small models, aiming for strong performance as model sizes grow.
  • Conifer is being designed to support fully local agents that can work on a user’s own files and apps with OS-level permission enforcement via the kernel.
  • The team is inviting feedback and opening a waitlist for a free beta with about 100 users to co-develop specific tools and do performance engineering through 1-on-1 collaboration.
  • The website is live, and the team asks prospective users to share concrete use cases since a full release is planned for later this summer while they prioritize real-world testing.

Team of 5 from Princeton, and we got funding to build a local inference engine for Apple Silicon - rust, hand written kernels - and we're at the point where working with ~100 people will expose bugs/what people want tool-wise. All of this is free open source - will remain so.

We're ahead of llama/mlx for small models working on similar performance for larger in the long run. Where this is going: the engine we're building supports a fully local agent that can do real work on your own files, apps, has permissions with OS kernel enforcement.

Asking for any feedback and if you're really interested we're opening up a waitlist and taking 100 people into free beta and working with them 1-on-1 to writing specific tools and performance engineering on setups (sign up at https://conifer.build/feedback). Please only do this if you imagine using this and have some idea in mind, we'll release a full version later this summer but we want to build around talent. We need real usage and unrestrained feedback from ppl who run local models.

site is live at conifer.build. also drop anything you want to see or ideas. conifer.build/feedback if you want to drop comment anon

submitted by /u/No_Elephant_7530
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