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Choose the AI that answers

Jean writes nothing by itself: an AI, which it calls a brain, writes the answers. The quickest way is free, with an OpenRouter account. You can also use a plan or a key you already have, or a brain on this computer, and change it any time in Settings › Brains.

Show me in JeanOpens Jean at the right place and points at each button. It changes nothing by itself.

What you need

  • To start for free, nothing: an OpenRouter account takes a minute.
  • For a brain on this device: a computer with about 12 GB of memory and a recent graphics chip, and one large download.
  • For a ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot plan: a computer, and one line pasted in a terminal, which answers as long as that terminal is open. Jean gives you the line on the plan’s page; after a restart, see Your plan stopped answering.

Steps

  1. Open Settings, from the menu with your name (or “You”), at the foot of the task list, then Brains, and press Add a brain.
    The first time, you don’t need Settings: send anything from the box, and Jean shows One step before I answer, with the same ways.
  2. To start for free, choose Start in one click. OpenRouter’s site opens: make an account there, and you come back to Jean with a brain that answers.
    What Add a brain opens: Start in one click, under Free, is the quickest way in; a key you already have goes under A key from a service.
  3. To use a key you already have, choose Use a key you already have, pick its service, and paste the key you made on that service’s site.
  4. Or choose another way: a plan you already pay for, under Something you pay for; a brain on this device, if it can run one; or Ollama and LM Studio, under On your computer.

Good to know

  • Jean has no tie to OpenRouter, nor to any other service it offers.
  • OpenRouter’s free account has daily limits, and its answers come from the cloud.
  • A key stays on this device, encrypted. It is never in a backup.
  • With more than one brain, Auto picks one for each request: quicker or stronger as the request needs, and the one on this device for anything personal.
  • Under every answer, Jean says which brain wrote it, and where.

If it doesn’t work

Jean says the key was refused

The service said no to the key. See A brain refused the key.

No brain on this device is offered

This device can’t run one: it needs about 12 GB of memory and a recent graphics chip. Choose a brain in the cloud instead.

Ollama or LM Studio isn’t found

They answer a browser only once they are told to, which takes a setting on your computer. If that’s more than you want, start for free with OpenRouter instead.

Still stuck?

Ask Jean in your own words, for instance: Which brain answers me now, and how do I change it?

If that doesn’t help, write to arnaud@jean.is.

See also