Prerequisites

System Requirements

Thought Ledger runs locally on your machine, so you’ll need sufficient hardware to handle AI model processing and decision memory storage.

Operating Systems

macOS (Intel or Apple Silicon, macOS 11+)
Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 35+, or equivalent)
Windows (via WSL2 - Windows Subsystem for Linux)

Hardware Requirements

Component	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	8 GB	16 GB+
Storage	10 GB free	20 GB+
CPU	4 cores	8+ cores
GPU	Optional	Apple Silicon/NVIDIA RTX+

Software Dependencies

Thought Ledger requires these core components:

Required

Ollama - Local AI model runtime
Node.js - JavaScript runtime (v18+)
Git - Version control

Optional

Docker - Container runtime (for development)
Python - For additional AI tools (v3.9+)

Why These Requirements?

RAM Considerations

Local AI models load into memory for optimal performance. While smaller models can work with 8GB RAM, 16GB+ provides a smoother experience with larger, more capable models.

Storage Space

AI models typically range from 2-10GB each. We recommend having at least 20GB free space to accommodate:

Multiple AI models
Your decision memory database
System overhead and future updates

CPU vs GPU

CPU-only: Works fine for most use cases, though slower
GPU acceleration: Dramatically improves AI processing speed
Apple Silicon: Excellent performance with integrated GPU
NVIDIA GPUs: Best performance for larger models

Checking Your System

macOS

# Check hardware info
system_profiler SPHardwareDataType

# Check memory
sysctl hw.memsize

# Check storage
df -h

Linux

# Check CPU info
lscpu

# Check memory
free -h

# Check storage
df -h

# Check for GPU
lspci | grep -i vga

Next Steps

Once you’ve verified your system meets these requirements, you’re ready to:

Need help? Check our troubleshooting guide for common setup issues.