# Inference Cooperative

**Private AI, governed together.**

The Inference Cooperative is a member-governed project providing private AI inference. We are fiscally sponsored by [Metagov](https://metagov.org), a nonprofit, and funded through our [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/inference-cooperative).

- **Website:** https://inference.coop
- **Chat:** https://chat.inference.coop
- **Open Collective:** https://opencollective.com/inference-cooperative
- **Contact:** info@inference.coop

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## The model

The Inference Cooperative is a **member-governed** AI inference utility. Members contribute on a sliding scale (currently $10–20/month) and, in return, get access to private AI inference through a shared, cooperatively governed infrastructure.

Because we are legally under a nonprofit (Metagov is our fiscal sponsor), we are **member-governed** rather than member-owned: members direct the project through governance, while the nonprofit holds the legal and financial structure.

### Membership

- **Sliding scale:** $10–20/month
- **Governance:** members participate in decisions about models, privacy, and direction
- **Access:** private AI inference through the cooperative's gateway

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## The stack

The Inference Cooperative runs a self-hosted stack on [Cloudron](https://cloudron.io), with all inference routed through a single gateway.

```
Members → LibreChat (chat.inference.coop)
              ↓
        LiteLLM gateway (gateway.inference.coop)
              ↓
        Inference backend (Ollama Cloud today; TEE-protected Tinfoil planned)
```

### Components

| Component | Purpose | URL |
|-----------|---------|-----|
| **LibreChat** | Member-facing chat interface | chat.inference.coop |
| **LiteLLM** | AI gateway — keys, metering, model routing | gateway.inference.coop |
| **Gitea** | Git hosting (code + docs) | git.inference.coop |
| **Loomio** | Member governance / decision-making | (forum) |
| **Open Collective** | Membership billing + fiscal sponsorship | opencollective.com/inference-cooperative |

### Models

The gateway currently exposes two models:

- **DeepSeek V4 Flash** — default model, best for agentic tasks
- **GPT-OSS 120B** — lightweight fallback

### Privacy

Privacy is a core value. The current backend (Ollama Cloud) is a policy-based privacy model. The roadmap is to move to **TEE-protected inference** (via Tinfoil), which provides architectural — not just policy — privacy guarantees.

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## Governance

The Inference Cooperative is fiscally sponsored by [Metagov](https://metagov.org). Members govern the project through [Loomio](https://www.loomio.com) and the Open Collective.

See the [Charter](charter.md) for the cooperative's values, membership terms, and governance structure.

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*This documentation lives in a public git repository. Contributions welcome.*