Local-first · Private by architecture, not by promise
Private AI for files you cannot upload
Lantern is a local-first desktop app for document and image intelligence. Search, understand, and work with contracts, statements, scans, and photos of paperwork — without sending sensitive files to hosted AI by default.
Some files can't go to the cloud.
Contracts, financial statements, medical scans, privileged research — the documents that most need AI are the ones you can't paste into a chatbot. Lantern keeps the sensitive file path local by default, so you get useful AI workflows without the upload.
Built on three pillars
Documents / All Media
Import, search, and ground answers in your source files — PDFs, PNGs, JPGs, and TIFFs — with local vision analysis for images and scans.
AI Chat with citations
Ask questions and get source-grounded answers with citations. Read, describe, and OCR images right in the conversation.
Privacy & audit
A local audit ledger, integrity verification, and conversation-memory controls make the privacy guarantee visible — not just promised.
How it works
- 01
Set up a local model
Download and assign a local model in Settings. The startup readiness check confirms you're ready before the shell opens.
- 02
Ask grounded questions
Lantern answers from your documents and images with citations you can trace back to the source.
- 03
Inspect and trust
Every important operation is recorded in a local audit ledger you can inspect from the shell.
Who it's for
Legal
Solo and small-firm professionals handling privileged documents.
Finance
Professionals working with statements, contracts, and client materials.
Research & journalism
People handling sensitive source material.
Small business
Teams that need searchable local records before complex analytics.
Try the Lantern public beta
Lantern Desktop is in public beta — stable enough for daily use, with features still evolving. Requires macOS 12 or later.
Lantern, formerly DocuRevive.