BACKPACKalpha

Public alpha · Apache-2.0

Open models.
One runtime.

One open-source CLI that finds, verifies, and runs the right engine for each model.

View source ↗

Validated: Windows x64 Linux x64 preview macOS arm64 build preview

Backpack walking gorilla mascot
01FIRST RUNLOCAL
$ backpack pull smollm2-135m$ backpack run smollm2-135m

ready · llama.cpp · local

One interface, not another engine

Bring the model.
Backpack brings the rest.

Give Backpack a packaged model. It selects the pinned adapter, verifies the model and runtime artifacts, and owns the session.

01MODELimmutable package
BACKPACKresolve · verify · run
03ADAPTERllama.cpp · whisper.cpp · Python
04SESSIONstream · inspect · stop

Not another inference engine.llama.cpp, whisper.cpp, and isolated Python workers stay underneath one interface.

No global engine setup.Runtime bundles are pinned, installed into Backpack data, and verified before launch.

Experimental agent launch

Keep the tool.
Change the model.

Start an installed coding agent against Backpack's local API. Provider settings stay isolated to that child process.

CLAUDE CODE$ backpack launch claude
CODEX CLI$ backpack launch codex

Bring the agent yourself. Launch compatibility is experimental; no catalog model is external-agent-qualified yet.

The interface

One CLI.
The whole run.

Engines change. The verbs do not.

Launch status and limits ↗
MODEL$ backpack pull smollm2-135m
RUN$ backpack run smollm2-135m --detach
SESSIONS$ backpack ps
STOP$ backpack stop <session-id>
HEAR$ backpack transcribe sample.wav --model whisper-large-v3-turbo
SPEAK$ backpack speak "Hello" --model kokoro-82m --output hello.wav
TOOLS$ backpack launch codex

Local execution is the validated path. User-owned SSH compute remains experimental ↗.

Execution-validated

Models that
actually run.

Supported means pull, verify, launch, infer, and stop are exercised end to end.

Full compatibility matrix ↗
01smollm2-135mchatllama.cppready
02smollm2-1.7bchatllama.cppready
03qwen2.5-0.5bchatllama.cppready
04qwen3-coder-30b-a3bchat + toolsllama.cppready
05whisper-large-v3-turbotranscriptionwhisper.cppready
06qwen3-asr-0.6btranscriptionpython workerready
07kokoro-82mspeechpython workerready

Experimental code/vision packages and package-change-required image/video contracts are intentionally not presented as supported.

Early alpha

Pull it.
Run it.

The installer selects the newest published release, warns for prereleases, verifies the archive checksum, and installs without elevation.

Inspect-first and pinned installs ↗

Then

$ backpack doctor
$ backpack models
$ backpack pull smollm2-135m
$ backpack run smollm2-135m
Execution-validatedInterfaces and behavior may change before beta.