SheVegasPRESENTS

Building Your Own AI Assistant

A plain-language setup guide. No computer background required — just the ability to copy, paste, and follow along in order.

What this document proves

Every one of the seven steps below is real. There is no hidden setup, no vendor magic, and no step skipped for the camera. What you see here is the entire build — the same one you could do yourself, in one sitting, on a laptop at the library.

How to read this

Every step ahead has three parts. You only ever need the first two to finish the job.

Do this

A short, plain instruction. One action, one sentence.

Copy this

A dark box with a Copy button. Tap it, paste where told, press Enter.

Why it matters

Optional. Skip it and still finish — it's there for explaining this to someone else.

The gold boxes are the whole point of this handout. Strip them all out and what's left is maybe fifteen minutes of copying and pasting. That gap — between how small the real work is and how capable the result becomes — is the thing worth showing people.

Before you start

The seven steps

In order. Don't skip ahead — each one depends on the last.

1

Rent the small computer that never sleeps

Go to hetzner.com. Create an account. Choose the smallest "CX22" server (Ubuntu 24.04). This costs about $6–7 a month.

Why this step mattersThis is the one part of the whole system that has to run every hour of every day, because it holds your memory — your documents, your files, your notes. Everything else can turn on and off as needed. This piece cannot, so we rent the cheapest version of "always on" that exists.
2

Open the door to your new computer

Once the server is ready, Hetzner gives you an address (an IP number) and a password. On a Mac, open the "Terminal" app. On Windows, open "PowerShell." Paste this, replacing the bracketed part with your real address:

ssh root@[your-server-ip]

Type "yes" if asked, then enter the password Hetzner gave you.

Why this step mattersThis step is just knocking on the door of the computer you rented. Nothing is being built yet — you're only proving it's you.
3

Update it and install the one tool everything runs on

apt update && apt upgrade -y
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Paste both lines, one at a time, pressing Enter after each. This takes two or three minutes.

Why this step matters"Docker" is a single tool that lets every other piece of this system run in its own sealed box, side by side, without interfering with each other. It's the reason this entire build is roughly a dozen lines of typing instead of a week of technical setup.
4

Turn on the screen you'll actually use

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 \
  -v open-webui:/app/backend/data \
  --name open-webui --restart always \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Paste this as one block. When it finishes, open a browser and go to your server's address followed by :3000 — for example, http://[your-server-ip]:3000. Set up an admin username and password.

Why this step mattersThis is the actual screen — the one that looks and works like any other chat window. Everything before this step was invisible plumbing. From here forward, you'll never touch a terminal again unless something needs fixing.
5

Give it a brain to talk to

Go to openrouter.ai and create a free account. Generate an API key (a long password-like code) and copy it. In your new screen from Step 4, go to Settings → Connections, paste that key in, and choose a model — DeepSeek-R1 or Qwen3 are both strong, open-to-the-world models.

Why this step mattersYou're not renting a computer powerful enough to think for you — that's the expensive path. Instead, this connects to a shared brain that only charges for the exact seconds it spends answering. Most solo use runs $3–15 a month this way, instead of $250+ a month to keep a dedicated one running around the clock.
6

Give it a memory

docker run -d -p 6333:6333 \
  -v qdrant-data:/qdrant/storage \
  --name qdrant --restart always \
  qdrant/qdrant

Paste this the same way as Step 4. Then in your Step 4 screen, go to Settings → Documents and point it at this new memory.

Why this step mattersThis is the difference between a generic answer and a correct one. Without this step, the assistant is guessing from general knowledge. With it, the assistant checks your actual documents first — your notes, your records, your files — before it says anything back to you.
7

Connect your Google Drive and Photos

curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash
rclone config

The second command walks you through signing in to your own Google account, right there in the terminal. Once it's done, tell it which folder to watch — everything you add there afterward becomes searchable by your assistant automatically.

Why this step mattersThis is what makes the system yours instead of generic. Your photos, your notes, your files stay in your own Google account exactly as they were — this step only gives your assistant permission to read them, the same way giving someone a house key doesn't move the house.

The whole point

Seven steps. About a dozen lines of typing, most of them copy-and-paste. Two small monthly charges that together usually land under $90. No company in the middle deciding what you're allowed to keep, ask, or remember.

That gap — between how little effort this took and how much control it hands you — is worth showing people directly. Not as a sales pitch. As a demonstration that this is not out of reach.

Best Future Now & Forever.