Science & Tech · AI · 1 hr ago
A writer uses local AI to work with private documents
A technology writer describes setting up a local AI model to read personal documents such as insurance policies and bank statements.
They use LM Studio, which can attach PDFs, Word documents and text files to a chat.
To let the model search files in folders, they use a filesystem tool connected through the MCP standard.
The writer says models need to be able to use tools, or they may guess what a file contains without opening it.
Keeping the work on a local setup can avoid sending private files to cloud services such as Google, Anthropic or OpenAI.
The writer has found Qwen 3.5 9B and Qwythos 9B v2 reliable for this work, and says newer, larger Qwen models may suit computers that can run them.
A writer says giving a local AI model access to personal documents made it more useful than a standard chatbot.
The setup is intended to let the model work with private files without sending them to cloud services.
The writer uses LM Studio to attach individual documents and a filesystem MCP server to access folders.
They say the model needs to support tool use to reliably open and read files.
The writer reports the best results with Qwen 3.5 9B and Qwythos 9B v2.
- Who
- Nolen, a writer.
- What
- They describe using a local AI model with access to personal documents.
- When
- The article was published on November 10, 2026, at 7:00 PM EST.
- Where
- On a local computer; the article does not state a more specific location.
- Why
- To make AI useful for working with private documents without sending them to cloud servers.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Nolen began their writing career.
XDA published Nolen's account of using a local AI model with personal documents.
- Local AI runner
- LM Studio
- Folder access tool
- Filesystem MCP server
- Preferred models
- Qwen 3.5 9B and Qwythos 9B v2
- Career start
- 2019
What people are saying
Every chatbot conversation starts from zero.
A weaker one just guesses what's in a file without opening it.