NAVI // SPONSORS
navi is free forever, built by a tiny collective. We don't do “sponsors” and “partners” — we have friends and patrons. Friends supply what money can't buy: hardware to tune on, bandwidth for ISOs, inference to build agents with. Patrons fund full-time work directly. Both get our thanks in the release notes and a place on this page. That's the whole perks list — by design. One rule governs everything below: friends and patrons get our thanks, never our direction.
HARDWARE // SEND MACHINES
Our test bench is a 2015 Acer Cloudbook — if navi flies there, it flies anywhere. Become a hardware friend: send us your machines and we'll optimize navi for them, validate releases on real hardware, and credit you here and in the release notes.
Dream hardware we'd love to tune navi for: Framework, Pine64, Purism, Slimbook, Tuxedo, Dell — if you build machines people love, let's talk.
INFRASTRUCTURE // BANDWIDTH + BUILDS
Every navi ISO is about a gigabyte, and every download costs bandwidth. CDN, mirror hosting, and build servers keep releases fast and free for everyone — the kind of support nobody sees and everybody feels. Become an infra friend and keep the pipes flowing.
INFERENCE // FUEL FOR AGENTS
navi is agent-native — agents ship with the system, and building them burns tokens. API credits, inference access, and eval partnerships from AI companies go straight into developing and testing navi's agents, from Hey Lain's brains to the harnesses underneath. Become an inference friend and fuel the work.
Two promises come with this one: our agents stay local-first by default — your voice never leaves the machine — and we work with many providers, never just one. Sponsored inference powers development, not defaults.
Open models are the foundation of all of this. navi runs them on-device where it matters most — Hey Lain's default brain is a local open model, and the whole voice pipeline runs without anything leaving the machine — and reaches for open models in the cloud when a task needs heavier lifting. No single vendor, no black boxes. If you build open models, or the infrastructure to run them well, you're already speaking our language.
DIRECT FUNDING
Direct funding goes to full-time navi development and upstream contributions to the projects beneath us. Choose whichever suits you best:
Individual and corporate patrons get credited by name on this page — your support is public, and so is our thanks.
THE NON-NEGOTIABLE
SAY HELLO
To become a friend or patron, email us or open a GitHub issue — tell us what you'd like to contribute and we'll take it from there.
Building hardware instead? If you'd rather tune with us than supply resources, navi labs is where that happens.