A Socratic AI learning companion for children
The Primer
It doesn't teach by telling. It teaches by asking. When a child wonders why the sky is blue, the Primer doesn't recite Rayleigh scattering — it asks what colour the sky turns at sunset, and walks the child toward discovering the answer themselves.
What it is
A patient conversation, not another app
The Primer is an open-source learning companion inspired by the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age — a book that converses with one child, adapts to her, and teaches her to think. We are building the nearest thing today's technology honestly allows: a voice-first companion that holds genuine Socratic conversations, remembers what a child understands, and runs entirely on hardware in the child's hands.
It is not an app competing for a child's attention. There is no feed, no streaks, no points, no notifications. There is a patient conversational partner that asks good questions, listens to the answers, verifies understanding rather than assuming it, and knows when to suggest a break.
Design principles
Six commitments that don't change
Asks more than it answers
Pure factual questions get a direct answer — then a pivot: "Now that you know the Moon is 384,000 km away, how long would a car take to drive there?"
Never maximises engagement
The Primer detects frustration and disengagement and responds with scaffolding, a topic change, or "that's enough for today" — never guilt, never a hook.
Comprehension is verified, not assumed
Understanding is probed through transfer questions, application challenges, and gentle contradictions — not inferred from a confident-sounding reply.
Voice-first by pedagogy
Conversation cannot be skimmed; it demands active thinking. A voice-only companion frees a child's hands and body to gesture, move, and manipulate the world while reasoning.
Runs fully offline
Designed to work airgapped on local hardware. Cloud inference is an option, never a dependency — learning shouldn't require connectivity or a subscription.
All data stays local
The learner model — what a child knows, how deeply, what holds their attention — never leaves the device without explicit parental consent.
It works today
Not a concept — running software
Explore
Go deeper
Vision & pedagogy
The Diamond Age inspiration, the Socratic method as implemented, and the learning science behind voice-first design.
Read more →Technology
Local-first architecture, the privacy model, and what already runs — from laptops to a phone's neural processor.
Read more →Roadmap & status
What's complete, what's in progress, and the path to a dedicated child-friendly device.
Read more →Get involved
For educators, researchers, funders, hardware partners, translators — and anyone who wants to help.
Read more →