---
title: "Obscura"
description: "Local-first desktop media studio for AI asset work. Your files, your database, your machine, with the costs visible."
url: https://jeffkazzee.dev/projects/obscura/
---

# Obscura

> Local-first desktop media studio for AI asset work. Your files, your database, your machine, with the costs visible.

- Status: alpha
- Stack: Electron, React 19, TypeScript, Vite, SQLite, OpenRouter
- Source: https://github.com/Jeff-Kazzee/obscura
- Download: https://github.com/Jeff-Kazzee/obscura/releases/latest

Obscura is a digital darkroom: a desktop app for generating and managing AI images and media that keeps everything **local-first**. Files live on your disk, metadata lives in a SQLite database you own, and every generation shows you what it actually costs before you run it.

## Why it exists

Most AI image tools live in someone else's cloud, with your library held hostage to a subscription. Obscura flips that: the app talks to OpenRouter's live model catalog, but everything it produces lands on your machine, organized and searchable, with no lock-in.

## What it does

- Live OpenRouter image-model catalog with model-specific controls
- Prompt improvement flow with configurable models
- Chat surface with streamed reasoning channels
- Cost visibility on every call, no surprise bills
- Local file storage + SQLite metadata, fully portable

## For Windows users

Obscura ships as a Windows installer and a portable EXE, grab either from the releases page. It's early alpha and moving fast.

## How it was built

Built AI-assisted with a docs-first workflow: PRD, design system, decision logs, and multiple coding agents working defined lanes (UI/renderer vs backend), coordinated through DEVLOGs and handoff protocols.