Down Low Able — downlow.ca

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." — Matthew 25:40

downlow.ca is an advocacy site and distribution hub for free, accessible, Apache-2.0 AI tools. The name is a play on words: down‑low‑able — downloadable, kept on the low (on your own device, no gatekeepers), and able (accessibility for everyone).

The play

Almost everyone already carries a phone or laptop powerful enough to run a small open model on‑device. So we start there:

1. Get the model — once. At the top of the site we recommend a safe, verified Gemma download (by Google — thank you 🙏), sized to your device. Apache‑2.0, runs locally, nothing phones home.
2. Add tools — endlessly. GitHub shares repos. We go a level up: a verified tool package bundles an inference structure (how the model is wired) with a proven prompt (one that's been tested to actually work). Point your already‑downloaded model at a tool package and you have an app — bookkeeping, captioning, video editing, tutoring — for free.
3. Community gives the tools. Anyone can contribute a verified tool package. The best ones get featured and tie into the map so people can find real, local help.

One download. Then thousands of free apps. On your device. Owned by you.

Why Apache‑2.0, only

• Safest for users — a real OSI‑approved license with an explicit patent grant; no surprise terms.
• Truly free to build on — communities and small businesses can ship tools without a lawyer.
• It's where the search is going — "Apache 2.0", "on‑device AI", "free local LLM" are rising queries; being the clear, honest home for them is good for people and good for SEO.

We recommend Gemma 4 (Apache‑2.0 — source) as the default base model, with verified alternates (Qwen2.5, SmolLM2) one config line away. Older Gemma 1/2/3 use the Gemma Terms of Use, so we're explicit about which is which.

What's in this repo

downlow/
├─ docs/build/00-INDEX.md     ← the master build prompt (executable spec)
├─ apps/
│  ├─ site/                    ← downlow.ca (Astro, static, no trackers)
│  └─ extension/               ← noad — a featured tool (honest ad transparency)
└─ packages/
   ├─ tools/                   ← the verified tool-package format + example tools
   ├─ disclosure/              ← honesty model (observed / inferred / unknown)
   └─ model/                   ← pluggable, model-agnostic on-device loader

A verified tool package (packages/tools) is the heart of "ready for apps": a typed manifest of base model + inference structure + proven prompt + golden examples, Apache‑2.0, with a verification status. Two worked examples ship today — Tidy Books (plain‑language bookkeeping) and Plain Captions (accessibility captioning) — plus noad as a featured tool.

Run it

pnpm install

pnpm site:dev    # downlow.ca  ->  http://localhost:4321
pnpm ext:dev     # build the noad tool for load-unpacked dev
pnpm test        # honesty + tool-package conformance tests

The one rule across everything: honesty

No fabricated claims. A tool package is only "verified" when its proven prompt passes its own golden examples. noad never invents an ad disclosure (observed / inferred / unknown, never a guess). Same spirit everywhere: we'd rather say "we don't know" than mislead the people we're trying to help.

License

Apache‑2.0 © And Can Did Inc. Model weights and third‑party tools carry their own (Apache‑2.0‑compatible) upstream licenses. Gemma is a trademark of Google; we link to and credit Google's official downloads and do not redistribute their weights.