# Hildegard: Your own AI studio, on your own GPU. > A free, open-source studio for AI film, voice, characters and 3D that renders on computers you own. Direct shots with real camera language, keep takes, cut films, and let Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor use it over MCP. Nothing leaves your devices, and nothing costs money per shot. By Donovan Baney (@baney75). Page: https://dbaney.com/projects/hildegard/ - **Price:** Free - **Status:** Pre-alpha, updates itself - **Runs on:** Windows, macOS and Linux. Rendering needs an NVIDIA GPU (or AMD on Linux) with 12 GB or more; a Mac renders on a paired computer - **Built with:** TypeScript (server, Studio, CLI, MCP), Python (ComfyUI nodes, voice engine), Rust (Tauri desktop app) - **License:** AGPL-3.0 - **Source:** https://github.com/baney75/hildegard - **Live:** https://dbaney.com/hildegard/ - **Documentation:** https://dbaney.com/projects/hildegard/docs/ (Markdown: https://dbaney.com/projects/hildegard/docs.md) ## Why I built it I wanted the AI studios I kept seeing, the ones that sell credits for a few seconds of video or a cloned voice, without renting someone else's computer for every try. The open models are good enough now. What was missing was a studio around them that a person, or their AI app, could actually use. Hildegard is that studio. It installs ComfyUI and PyTorch for your GPU, picks a model that fits, and gives you a board of shots and takes with the camera language a cinematographer uses. It renders on your own computers, so retakes cost electricity, not money. It's named for Hildegard of Bingen: abbess, composer, visionary. ## How it works A local server queues every shot and builds the ComfyUI graph for it, with the camera, lens, move and look turned into words the model understands. The Studio, the `hildegard` command, the desktop app and every linked AI app talk to that one server. Paired computers send their shots to the one with the GPU over Tailscale, and only graphs Hildegard builds itself can run there. ## Built with care Every download is checked against a SHA-256 pinned in the release, and updates are signed and refused if they aren't. Tokens live in your system keychain, never in a config file or on a command line. Voice cloning needs the speaker's live consent, checked by speech recognition and a speaker match, and leaves a signed certificate. Model weights are never bundled: each comes from its publisher after you accept its license. ## One studio, every medium - Film. Pick a camera body, lens, focal length, aperture, move and film look; Hildegard turns them into words the model understands and renders LTX-2.5 or Wan 2.2 through ComfyUI on your GPU. Keep takes, order shots and export the film. - Voice. Speech in 25 voices, new voices from a description, dubbing and transcription. A voice is cloned only when its owner reads a fresh consent line aloud, and every clip carries an inaudible watermark. - Characters. Make someone once and cast them in every shot, so the face and clothes hold from shot to shot. - The Choir. Pair your computers over Tailscale, so a Mac or laptop renders on the desktop with the GPU, and models installed there count everywhere. - Host mode. Your studio at an HTTPS link for your phone and the people you invite, with sign-in, roles and one-time invites. - Your AI apps. Hildegard is an MCP server and a Claude Code plugin. Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor and others can direct shots, speak lines, and run a generate, check and improve loop for 3D parts, websites and takes. - Safe by default. Every download is checked against a pinned SHA-256, updates are signed, prompts and frames pass safety checks, and each model's license is shown before it downloads. ## Limits Hildegard is a pre-alpha. The video models don't render well on Apple's GPU yet, so a Mac renders on another of your computers. On Windows, rendering needs an NVIDIA card. The desktop app isn't code-signed yet, so Windows and macOS ask you to confirm the first time. Music isn't out yet. ## Install ``` # macOS and Linux curl -fsSL https://dbaney.com/hildegard/install.sh | sh # Windows (PowerShell) irm https://dbaney.com/hildegard/install.ps1 | iex hildegard setup hildegard open ``` ## Questions and answers ### What is Hildegard? A free, open-source studio for AI film, voice, characters and 3D that renders on computers you own. Direct shots with real camera language, keep takes, cut films, and let Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor use it over MCP. Nothing leaves your devices, and nothing costs money per shot. ### Is Hildegard free? Yes. Hildegard costs nothing, and its source code is on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 license. ### How do I install Hildegard? Download the desktop app from the Hildegard site, or run one line: `curl -fsSL https://dbaney.com/hildegard/install.sh | sh` on macOS and Linux, `irm https://dbaney.com/hildegard/install.ps1 | iex` in Windows PowerShell. Then `hildegard setup` picks a model that fits your GPU and `hildegard open` opens the Studio. No admin rights or sudo. ### What GPU does Hildegard need? An NVIDIA card with 12 GB runs Wan 2.2 at 720p; 24 GB or more runs LTX-2.5 with sound at up to 1088p. AMD works on Linux. Every demo film was rendered on one 12 GB laptop GPU. With less, Hildegard renders on another of your computers or on a GPU you rent on Runpod. ### Does Hildegard send my work anywhere? No. Prompts, takes, voices and films stay on your devices, and every shot renders offline once the models are downloaded. Hildegard collects nothing and I run no service for it. ### Does Hildegard have limits? Hildegard is a pre-alpha. The video models don't render well on Apple's GPU yet, so a Mac renders on another of your computers. On Windows, rendering needs an NVIDIA card. The desktop app isn't code-signed yet, so Windows and macOS ask you to confirm the first time. Music isn't out yet. ## Related projects - [Tabkyra](https://dbaney.com/projects/tabkyra/): A free, open-source Chromium extension and CLI that lets Claude Code, Codex and other MCP agents use your real, signed-in browser in a tab group of their own, in the background, asking before they open a new site. - [Waypost](https://dbaney.com/projects/waypost/): Waypost connects AI agents to Proton Mail, Drive and Calendar through a local CLI and MCP server. Reading is the default; sending and uploading stay off until you allow them, and every write needs confirmation. - [BaneySpaces](https://dbaney.com/projects/baneyspaces/): A free Mac workspace manager. Press ⌘1–⌘9 to switch spaces instantly, add Shift to move a window, and open a Deck of terminals and coding agents. Agents get a workspace of their own so automation stays out of your way.