RanaEngine RC2: Private AI Knowledge Ecosystem

After a Summer of extensive testing, performance optimization, and feature development based on user feedback, Rana is proud to announce our second release candidate of RanaEngine for general availability. It is now easier than ever to get set up in the Rana ecosystem and privately leverage the power of AI over your own documents and research without any data leakage, tracking, or surveillance, by combining the computing power of the devices you already own. A few of the new and updated features are:

• Updated models including Qwen3, both with and without reasoning
• Preliminary Inpainting support for Image Models, including Image-to-Image, object removal, and selectable area regeneration
• Greatly improved data importing capabilities for both files and from data sources such as RSS feeds, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more (advanced data import capabilities requires installing the free RanaTools)
• The ability to import almost any Microsoft Office document is now available through RanaTools (all text will convert to Markdown)
• The ability to use both documents and knowledge items to easily add context for ML jobs, making it easier than ever to share human values and beliefs with AI models
• Massively improved performance, scalability, and stability across all Rana clusters
• The ability to host your own private RanaRelay for free using RanaTools, for even greater privacy, performance, and scalability (especially helpful for organizations)
• Paid token-based cloud AI computing is now available for all users without a subscription
• Overhauled Command Center dashboard system for monitoring cluster usage, performance, job status, and news feeds (customizations coming soon)
• Additional performance, stability, and bug fixes

WebGPU performance and compatibility continues to improve across the browser ecosystem, and RanaEngine should now run properly in Firefox-based browsers that enable this feature in addition to Chromium-based browsers where this is already baseline active. All versions of Safari including desktop and mobile versions continue to forcibly reload web pages and web apps that use large amounts of RAM, artificially preventing the ability for RanaEngine to run successfully in this particular browser. Until there is a way to disable this behavior, Safari users will need to run AI computing jobs in an external environment such as delegating to other Rana nodes in your cluster, leveraging RanaTools, or sending jobs to the cloud for processing.

The Rana ecosystem continues to support all of the following major baseline features for all users unless otherwise noted:

• Large-Language Models (LLMs) including chat, instruct, and reasoning options
• Branching Chat discussions allowing multiple ideas to be explored simultaneously
• Text-to-Image, Image-to-Image, and Infilling AI creation features with style presets
• Ollama/ChatGPT Compatible APIs for Text and Image generation using RanaBridge, now a part of RanaTools
• The ability to easily create your own Knowledge Base (a personal digital encyclopedia) for use with AI agents, and able to be shared collaboratively with other users
• Cloud API support for Netlord-tier subscribers
• Advanced content and license management for both AI creations and manual imports for subscribers

Why Rana?

From its inception, Rana has been designed to ensure end-user data privacy and to unlock the AI computing capabilities of user devices without depending on the cloud. Modern phones and tablets are basically supercomputers, and have more than enough storage, bandwidth, and computing power to meet the requirements of normal users without any need to send data or leak information to 3rd-parties. Given the heavy usage of many AI services, it is likely that the total compute capacity of the hardware you already own will be greater than the shared slice of computing power you rent alongside others in the cloud, so why not build your AI solution on your own devices, quickly, easily, and privately with Rana?

RanaEngine runs as a local-first web application in modern browsers on your own devices, and does not require the cloud by default. Your data stays on your own devices, and cannot be used for training, sold to 3rd-parties, or accessed by anyone else unless specifically shared by the user. Not only is Rana unable to read, access, or disclose end-user data from RanaEngine users, our cloud environment is designed using a serverless architecture and does not have a place to persistently store large amounts of user data anyway, in addition to data storage being a liability for us as a company if it were to be saved.

As a set of technologies still very much in development, we want to ensure the highest levels of security for our users and decided to develop Rana’s AI capabilities to run primarily inside of sandboxed web browser environments. With the introduction of RanaTools, some of our code may run inside of a Tauri Sidecar sandbox environment, which maintains similar security constraints as a web browser in order to preserve an equivalent level of security for our users.

Now more than ever it is important to ensure that both humans and machines are able to work seamlessly together in order to build an AI-powered future for humanity. As the development of the Rana ecosystem continues, we will continue to include features to smooth communication between each other, the Internet community, and AI powered machines in order to help share human values to all users and agents. There are no physical limits in cyberspace, and has a home for every person, every community, every culture, and every machine, and this freedom should be embraced by the design of our tools. Every perspective, every idea, and every belief can find a home on the Internet, and can be shared to inform our AI agents of what matters most and how best to respect human values. In a world that is all to often separated by technology, AI knowledge tools like Rana can help connect humanity instead, with enough space to preserve both different perspectives and diversity for everyone.

Try Rana Today

Here is how to get started with Rana for free:

1. Launch the RanaEngine Web App and build your AI cluster from desktop devices, with mobile devices acting as non-worker nodes in the cluster.
2. Connect to RanaTools for a local developer API, expanded data import features, and a growing list of additional data tools.
3. Import bookmarks, notes, RSS Feeds, Podcasts, and more to help build out your Knowledge Base.
4. Create a Rana.ai account to unlock additional social features or purchase a commercial subscription to unlock commercial licensing and additional features.
5. Install Rana4Discord to connect your Rana cluster directly to Discord, for unlimited, free image generation, memes, and a whole lot more.
6. Consider purchasing a subscription for commercial use, improved customization, and advanced developer features such as Terminal access inside of Rana, Cloud APIs, and more.

Chat With Us on Discord

Please share Rana with your friends, family, and anyone you know who would like to start using AI privately, securely, and collaboratively, we hope to see you on Discord!