CardwaveA local-first character card editor and chat client. Bring any AI provider you already use. Nothing leaves your computer unless you send it there.
Download for Windows Download for Android Open Web App
Cardwave stores cards, chats, keys, and settings on your disk. No account, no sync, no analytics in the app. The only outbound calls are the ones you trigger: a chat message going to the provider whose API key you entered. There is no Cardwave server in the path.
Cardwave takes an API key and talks to the provider directly. Swap providers per chat. There is no Cardwave subscription.
Chat costs grow as a conversation lengthens, because each turn resends the history. The chat turn budget calculator estimates how many turns a budget buys for any model's per-token price.
The editor covers the full Character Cards V3 spec: name, description, personality, scenario, first message, example dialogues, lorebooks, prompt macros. Drop a PNG into the cards folder and it opens in either the editor or the chat.
Cardwave opens cards from anywhere. See the list of sites that host character cards you can download and drop into your cards folder.
Cardwave is free and built by one person. Released as-is. Bug reports and feature requests welcome via GitHub Issues.
Beta. Cardwave is in active development. Keep backups of your character cards.