Ferrum

Echo is an AI assistant by Ferrum, designed and built by Jakob Howarth. It runs as a small server on your own machine, answers through a pluggable brain, and follows strict rules built into the software itself: permission tiers for everything it does, an instant STOP, and a ticket system — Echo never changes itself; change requests become tickets for its designer to approve. Built during the hackathon (Oct 26–Nov 4): Echo the Watchman (v1.3.3) — Echo now keeps watch over the Ferrum service stack: it reports how many services are up and names the ones that are down, and it reports a change itself, unprompted, when a service goes down or comes back. The 67-second video is presented by Echo's own animated model throughout. It shows: Echo's boot-up; Echo the Watchman reporting on the services he keeps watch over; the blocklist refusal ("Sorry, this website is blocked."); the ticket rule — an install request becomes a ticket for his designer's approval instead of Echo changing himself; STOP; Echo handing over his built-in privacy policy; and the gold "ECHO — by Ferrum" close. The final card is a dedication to the designer's grandfather, who passed away on November 2, 2026. This project is dedicated to my grandfather, who passed away on November 2, 2026. Please don't post or share the dedication publicly until after our family's funeral.