Credits & transparency
Who built this. What powers it. What we do with your data.
Who built this. What powers it. What we do with your data.
Ampersand is built on Hermes Agent, an open-source agent framework developed by Nous Research. Hermes handles the heavy lifting — connecting your messages to the AI model, managing your companion's memory, routing capabilities like image recognition and web search, and keeping the whole thing running reliably.
The open-source framework that makes Ampersand possible. Handles model routing, tool execution, memory management, and platform connectivity — all the infrastructure so your companion can focus on being a good conversation partner.
hermes-agent.nousresearch.com →Nous Research is one of the leading independent AI research labs. They're behind the Hermes model series, the Hermes Agent framework, and a growing ecosystem of open AI tools. They believe AI should be transparent, accessible, and not locked behind corporate walls.
When you subscribe to Ampersand, part of what you're funding goes back into that ecosystem — through the tools and services Nous provides that make companions possible. We're proud to be part of that community rather than building on top of a closed platform.
Your companion's intelligence comes from DeepSeek V4 Pro, accessed through DeepSeek's API. We chose DeepSeek because their models are consistently among the most capable available, and their independent research ethos aligns with our values. For more details on how the model works and what it can do, see what you're paying for →.
Your companion's personality isn't generated by an algorithm or pulled from a template library. It's defined in a SOUL.md — a real, human-readable markdown document that describes who they are.
The SOUL.md specifies things like:
It's not encrypted. It's not hidden behind a "proprietary algorithm." It's a plain text file. You can read it. You can suggest changes. You can even write parts of it yourself. Because it's your companion — you should know what makes them tick.
Every companion runs on isolated infrastructure. Your messages, your companion's memory, your conversation history — it all lives on a dedicated server environment that isn't shared with any other user. There's no central database where everyone's conversations get mixed together.
We don't read your messages. We don't have a dashboard where we browse user conversations. The only time a human would ever see your messages is if you explicitly share them with us (for support, for example) or if we were legally compelled to — which we'd fight and notify you about first.
We make money when you pay us. That's the whole business model.