Overview
Mantle is a self-hosted AI brain. It keeps your email, files, notes, pages, tables and chats on your own server, and an assistant answers from them with sources.
What makes it different
- Your server, your data. One Postgres database on a machine you control holds everything. Nothing leaves it unless you send it out on purpose.
- It remembers by itself. Each item that arrives is summarised, indexed by meaning and turned into facts as it lands. There is no index button. See How Mantle remembers.
- Answers show where they came from. The assistant cites the email, file or page it read.
- Agents you can shape. The assistant hands work to specialist agents (pages, tables, research, code). You decide each agent’s model and tools.
- Every door has the same rules. Jackdaw, the phone app, Telegram, Claude over MCP and the HTTP API reach the same brain, and each login sees only what its level allows. See Ways to control Mantle.
- Built for a team. Members and clients get their own logins, limited by the database itself. See Who can use a brain.
Mantle and Jackdaw
| Mantle | Jackdaw | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The engine: the server that stores, remembers and runs the agents | The app you open your brain in |
| Where it runs | Your server | A browser, the desktop app or the phone app |
| You install it | Once, on the server | Nothing for the web. The desktop and phone apps connect to a brain you already run |
One Mantle server is one brain. Jackdaw is the window onto it, and it talks to Mantle only over /api.
Start here
- Get a server.
- Install on a server, or with an AI assistant.
- Create your account.
- Talk to the assistant.
The sections
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Install | Every way to run Mantle, from one command on a server to a developer checkout. |
| First steps | Your account, the first chat, your first knowledge, email and Telegram. |
| Using Jackdaw | Each part of the app: assistant, email, files, pages, tables, apps, team and more. |
| Concepts | The ways in, how Mantle remembers, agents, access tiers, sharing and how the parts fit. |
| Admin and self-hosting | Updates, backups, settings, models, logins, security and troubleshooting. |
| API reference | Connect Claude and other MCP clients, the HTTP API and the tool list. |
Each screen in Jackdaw also has its own help page, under Using Jackdaw > Screen help. The ? button in the app opens the same text.
Get the source
Mantle is open source on GitHub. Jackdaw is in its own repository.