Cortex

Docs • API Reference • Changelog • Issues • Community

Under Active Development - Expect rapid improvements!

Cortex is the open-source brain for robots: vision, speech, language, tabular, and action -- the cloud is optional.

Installation

Platform	Installer
Windows	cortex.exe
macOS	cortex.pkg
Linux (Debian)	cortex.deb

All other Linux distributions:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/janhq/cortex/main/engine/templates/linux/install.sh | sudo bash

Start the Server

cortex start

Set log level to INFO
Host: 127.0.0.1 Port: 39281
Server started
API Documentation available at: http://127.0.0.1:39281

Full API docs.

Download Models

You can download models from the huggingface model hub using the cortex pull command:

cortex pull llama3.2

Downloaded models:
    llama3.1:8b-gguf-q4-km
    llama3.2:3b-gguf-q2-k

Available to download:
    1. llama3:8b-gguf
    2. llama3:8b-gguf-q2-k
    3. llama3:8b-gguf-q3-kl
    4. ...

Select a model (1-21):

Run Models

cortex run llama3.2

In order to exit, type `exit()`
>

You can also run it in detached mode, meaning, you can run it in the background and can use the model via the API:

cortex run -d llama3.2:3b-gguf-q2-k

Manage resources

cortex ps            # View active models

cortex stop          # Shutdown server

Why Cortex.cpp?

Local AI platform for running AI models with:

• Multi-Engine Support - Start with llama.cpp or add your own
• Hardware Optimized - Automatic GPU detection (NVIDIA/AMD/Intel)
• OpenAI-Compatible API - Tools, Runs, and Multi-modal coming soon

Featured Models

Model	Command	Min RAM
Llama 3 8B	cortex run llama3.1	8GB
Phi-4	cortex run phi-4	8GB
Mistral	cortex run mistral	4GB
Gemma 2B	cortex run gemma2	6GB

View all supported models →

Advanced Features

See table below for the binaries with the nightly builds.

# Multiple quantizations
cortex-nightly pull llama3.2  # Choose from several quantization options

# Engine management (nightly)
cortex-nightly engines install llama-cpp -m

# Hardware control
cortex-nightly hardware detect
cortex-nightly hardware activate

Need Help?

• Quick troubleshooting: cortex --help
• Documentation
• Community Discord
• Report Issues

---

For Contributors

Development Builds

Version	Windows	macOS	Linux
Stable	exe	pkg	deb
Beta	exe	pkg	deb
Nightly	exe	pkg	deb

Build from Source

See BUILDING.md

Uninstall Cortex

Windows

1. Open the Windows Control Panel.
2. Navigate to Add or Remove Programs.
3. Search for cortexcpp and double click to uninstall. (for beta and nightly builds, search for cortexcpp-beta and cortexcpp-nightly respectively)

MacOs/Linux

Run the uninstaller script:

sudo cortex-uninstall.sh

The script to uninstall Cortex comes with the binary and was added to the /usr/local/bin/ directory. The script is named cortex-uninstall.sh for stable builds, cortex-beta-uninstall.sh for beta builds and cortex-nightly-uninstall.sh for nightly builds.

Contact Support

• For support, please file a GitHub ticket.
• For questions, join our Discord here.
• For long-form inquiries, please email [email protected].