Survival LLM offers a free offline AI assistant with an emergency library

Survival LLM is a free AI assistant and emergency library that runs entirely on the user's own computer. The product page, on brangus.io, describes it as free and open source. You set it up while online, and after that it needs no internet. The idea is that you can ask how to keep food safe in a blackout, treat a burn or purify water, and get an answer drawn from trusted sources, with the exact articles listed. Click an article and you can read it yourself, with the relevant passage highlighted.

The model and the library both live on the machine, and the page says nothing you ask leaves it. There is no account and no tracking. When the app first opens, it checks the computer's memory and downloads the AI model that fits; more memory means a smarter model. The AI engine is built into the Mac app, and on first run the app downloads the model and the library.

The library is plain-text copies of openly licensed (some for non-commercial use only) and public-domain references, searchable in a fraction of a second. It holds about 930,000 of Wikipedia's most-read articles, the WikiMed medical encyclopedia, MedlinePlus, UK Medicines A to Z, WikEM emergency medicine, Ready.gov (FEMA) emergency guides, CDC travelers' health, U.S. military medicine and survival manuals, risk references for estimating micromorts (life tables and U.S. death rates), wikiHow guides, iFixit repair guides, Appropedia, and Stack Exchange Q&A on home repair, cooking, gardening, the outdoors and ham radio. Each source keeps its own license, shown with every article. Users can also add their own PDFs, Word documents, ebooks and notes, such as a generator's manual or a family emergency plan; the AI searches them too and they stay on the computer.

Size and requirements: the full library is a 9 GB download (19 GB installed), or 1.3 GB (3 GB installed) without Wikipedia and iFixit. Free disk space needed is the model's size plus 5 GB, plus about 27 GB while the full library installs (10 GB for the smaller one). It runs on Apple Silicon Macs (M1 or newer) with macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, and on 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Setup takes 20 minutes to about 2½ hours depending on the computer and internet speed, with about 5 minutes of actual clicking. The steps: download and unzip, open it (double-click Survival LLM on a Mac, or Survival LLM.bat on Windows), then let the setup finish while online. The operating system blocks the first launch. On a Mac, you open System Settings > Privacy & Security, find "Survival LLM was blocked", click Open Anyway and confirm with your password. On Windows, you click More info, then Run anyway.

On accuracy, the authors say "right" means the model got the main point of official guidance right on 22 blackout and first-aid questions, graded blind, in their own tests on an earlier build of the library. Smaller models make more mistakes, so the app always shows the source to check. The page states plainly that AI models make mistakes, the small ones more often.

On power, the authors measured about 100 W on a MacBook Pro while it answers, for 5 to 40 seconds per question. They say a full battery answers roughly 100 to 300 questions, and that a small generator or power station runs it easily.

The update notes show five releases in two days. Version 0.3.0 (October 26, 2026) added Memory: you tell it about yourself, such as a family member's allergy, and it keeps a short note for later chats. Notes can be viewed and edited, and saving can be turned off. It also fixed downloads on networks or antivirus that use their own certificates. On October 27, 0.3.1 added Show reasoning, which lets you open what the AI thought before answering, hidden until clicked. Version 0.3.2 stopped the AI saving your question as a memory note and removed a made-up "Sources:" line listing search commands instead of articles. Version 0.3.3 made Cmd+Q on a Mac also stop the AI engine and free model memory (before, it kept running in the background), and stopped library search showing several copies of the same page. Version 0.3.4 adds a Reasoning setting next to Send, with Off, 1,000, 4,000 or 16,000 tokens, or no limit. At the limit the AI's thinking stops and it answers from what it has. The setting replaces "Think harder". Version 0.3.4 also retries once with the best articles found when the AI looked things up but never wrote an answer, makes the AI search the library when asked to look something up, labels answers as coming from memory, articles it read, or search results it didn't open, and warns when Reasoning or Length limit is set to no limit. Users betsyisaac, wigginthethird and ahalekelly are thanked in the notes.

Key facts

Survival LLM is a free AI assistant and emergency library for Apple Silicon Macs (macOS 14 or newer) and 64-bit Windows 10 or 11; the page describes it as open source and says it needs internet only for setup.
The library holds about 930,000 of Wikipedia's most-read articles plus medical, FEMA, CDC, military survival, wikiHow, iFixit and Stack Exchange material; the full version is a 9 GB download (19 GB installed), the smaller one 1.3 GB (3 GB installed).
Every answer lists the articles it used, and the page says questions never leave the computer, with no account and no tracking.
The authors' accuracy claim rests on their own blind-graded test of 22 blackout and first-aid questions on an earlier build of the library.
On a MacBook Pro the authors measured about 100 W while answering, 5 to 40 seconds per question, roughly 100 to 300 answers on a full battery.

Why it matters

Most AI assistants stop working when the network does, which is exactly when some people need practical answers on food safety, burns or water purification. Survival LLM puts both the model and a reference library on a laptop and says it works with the internet off after setup. It also shows the articles behind each answer, with the passage highlighted, so the user can verify the model instead of trusting it. Five releases in two days (0.3.0 to 0.3.4) show the project is moving fast.

Who it affects

People with an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer, macOS 14 Sonoma or newer) or a 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC who want an offline reference for blackouts, first aid and repairs. Those with less memory get a smaller, less capable model. The page also mentions a small generator or power station as enough to run it. Users who want private use will note the page's claims of no account, no tracking and no questions leaving the computer.

How to use it

Download the Mac or Windows zip from the product page on brangus.io, unzip it, and open Survival LLM (on Windows, Survival LLM.bat in the extracted folder). Stay online while the app downloads the AI engine, a model matched to your memory and the library. Plan for 20 minutes to about 2½ hours, and free disk space of the model's size plus 5 GB, plus about 27 GB during the full library install (10 GB for the smaller one). On a Mac, allow the app via System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway; on Windows, click More info, then Run anyway. You can add your own PDFs, Word documents, ebooks and notes. Updates install from Check for updates at the bottom of the app and keep your models, library and files.

How solid is it

The product claims come from the project's own page. The accuracy figure is the authors' own: 22 blackout and first-aid questions, graded blind, on an earlier build of the library, where "right" means the main point of official guidance. The visible text does not give how many of the 22 were answered right. No independent evaluation is mentioned. The battery numbers are a single MacBook Pro measurement. The page names no author, company or developer, does not state the open-source license, and does not say which underlying AI models are downloaded.

Risks and caveats

The page itself warns that AI models make mistakes, the small ones more often, and tells users to check the cited articles. Medical and emergency answers deserve that check. The library mixes licenses: some sources are for non-commercial use only, and each keeps its own license. Installing is heavy, up to 27 GB of extra free space during the full library install, and the first launch is blocked by the operating system until the user overrides it. Only Mac and Windows are named as supported; the battery estimate applies to a MacBook Pro only. Version 0.3.4 warns when Reasoning or Length limit is set to no limit, and the notes describe a model getting stuck reasoning in circles as a case the new limit is meant to handle.

“AI models make mistakes, the small ones more often. Every answer shows the articles it used, so you can check.”

— Survival LLM product page, brangus.io