Corbell AI— Review, Pricing, Alternatives

Corbell AI is an open-source tool that runs locally on your machine, meaning there are no direct software costs. However, you will incur costs for the LLM API calls (e.g., Anthropic, OpenAI) it uses for spec generation, which are billed separately by those providers.

The Corbell AI software itself is free and open-source. You can install and use it locally without charge. The primary costs associated with using Corbell AI are for the underlying Large Language Models (LLMs) it utilizes for tasks like spec generation, which are billed by the LLM provider.

Alternatives to Corbell AI often depend on specific needs, but tools like Structurizr, PlantUML, and various AI-powered documentation generators offer different approaches to architecture visualization and documentation. Some IDE plugins also provide code analysis and documentation features.

Corbell AI can be installed using pip. The basic installation is `pip install corbell`. For LLM support (e.g., Anthropic, OpenAI) or export features (e.g., Notion, Linear), you can install additional dependencies like `pip install "corbell[anthropic,openai,notion,linear]"`.

Corbell AI is primarily a local command-line tool and desktop application. It offers a local web UI for viewing the architecture graph (`corbell ui serve`), but it does not have a dedicated mobile application.

Corbell AI runs entirely locally on your machine, processing your code and documentation without sending sensitive data to external servers. This local execution model enhances security and privacy, aligning with GDPR principles by keeping data within your control.