Mozilla ‘Thunderbolt’ Is an Open-Source AI Client Focused On Control and Self-Hosting

BrianFagioli writes: Mozilla’s email subsidiary MZLA Technologies just introduced Thunderbolt, an open-source AI client aimed at organizations that want to run AI on their own infrastructure instead of relying entirely on cloud services. The idea is to give companies full control over their data, models, and workflows while still offering things like chat, research tools, automation, and integration with enterprise systems through the Haystack AI framework. Native apps are planned for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Thunderbolt allows organizations to do the following:
– Run AI with their choice of models, from leading commercial providers to open-source and local models

– Connect to systems and data: Integrate with pipelines and open protocols, including: deepset’s Haystack platform, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, and agents with the Agent Client Protocol (ACP)

– Automate workflows and recurring tasks: Generate daily briefings, monitor topics, compile reports, or trigger actions based on events and schedules

– Work seamlessly across devices with native applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

– Maintain security with self-hosted deployment, optional end-to-end encryption, and device-level access controls