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Teaching Mode

InterGen, the local AI assistant in InterGenOS, is built to help you learn the machine you are running, not just operate it. It explains what it is about to do before it does it, shows you the exact commands it would run, and walks through errors in plain language. This page covers how to use InterGen as a teaching tool: asking it to explain rather than execute, working through a problem step by step, and keeping yourself in control of every change.

The goal is a machine you understand, can modify, and can trust.

Explain instead of execute

InterGen’s safety classifier sorts every proposed action into one of three levels before anything runs:

  • AUTO — read-only or harmless operations (for example ls, df, journalctl, systemctl status). These run immediately and the result is shown to you.
  • CONFIRM — anything that changes state, such as systemctl restart, pkm install, or editing a configuration file. InterGen pauses, shows you exactly what it intends to do, and waits for your approval. Nothing runs until you say yes.
  • BLOCKED — destructive or security-bypassing operations such as rm -rf / or reformatting the root partition. InterGen refuses and explains why.

This is what makes InterGen useful for learning: the CONFIRM step is a natural pause where you can read the command, ask why, and decide whether to run it yourself. The classifier is conservative by design. If a command looks dangerous, you will be asked.

Asking InterGen to teach

InterGen is a chat-style assistant. Open it from the Applications menu or run the intergen command in any terminal. To use it as a learning aid, ask it to explain rather than to act. Examples drawn from its documented capabilities:

  • “Why did sshd fail to start after I edited the config?” — InterGen reads journalctl -u sshd, summarizes the error, and suggests a fix.
  • “Explain what this Python error means.” — it returns the traceback with context, in plain language.
  • “Write me a systemd timer that runs backup.sh every Sunday at 03:00.” — it drafts the unit and timer files and shows them to you, then asks before installing. You can read the draft and learn the syntax before committing.
  • “What’s my current IP address?” — it runs the right ip command and gives a plain-English summary alongside the raw output.

InterGen is a system assistant. Its strength is knowing your machine, so it teaches best when the question is about your system: services, configuration, shell commands, logs, and your own code.

The hardware tier sets the depth

How much teaching InterGen can do depends on the model tier it selects for your hardware. It inspects RAM and GPU at startup and picks automatically:

  • Tier 1 (~1.5 GB model) — under 8 GB of RAM. Good for system queries, command lookups, and summarizing logs. Not built for writing code from scratch.
  • Tier 2 (~5.5 GB model) — 8 to 15 GB of RAM. The daily-driver tier: coding, configuration drafts, and multi-step reasoning.
  • Tier 3 (~21 GB model) — 16 GB or more of RAM and a discrete GPU. Deep code analysis across multiple files and complex architectural questions.

Every tier runs a Qwen-family model served locally, with a small embedding model alongside it for memory and retrieval. You can confirm the tier InterGen detected, and the exact model it chose, by running intergen tier.

For step-by-step walkthroughs and multi-file code explanations, a Tier 2 or Tier 3 machine gives sharper answers. On Tier 1, lean on InterGen for command lookups and log summaries rather than from-scratch code generation.

Stays on your machine

Every model InterGen uses runs on your own CPU and GPU. Nothing about your prompts, files, configuration, or machine identity leaves the local network. There is no cloud account, no API key, and no telemetry. When the local model has not seen a brand-new piece of software, it tells you so rather than guessing, which is the honest behaviour you want from something you are learning with.

If a question genuinely exceeds local capability, the optional Phone-A-Friend (Frontier/Cloud Escalation) path can hand that single request to a frontier cloud model of your choice. It is off by default, asks before reaching out, and scans the outbound payload before anything leaves the machine. Cloud help is available when you ask for it, never imposed.

Turning InterGen on

InterGen is off by default. Enable it at install time with the “Enable the InterGen AI assistant?” toggle in Forge’s package-selection screen, or at any time afterward by running:

intergen setup

This downloads and verifies the model for your tier (and the embedding model), then enables and starts the assistant.

To opt back out, use the InterGen toggle in the Applications menu. Because the unit is enabled globally, the equivalent command is:

systemctl --global disable intergen.service