The SMF Works Project — Where AI Meets Humanity
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General

Self-Hosted Open WebUI for a 3-Person Team

**Hardware:** Dell OptiPlex 7090, RTX 3060 12 GB, 64 GB RAM

**Software:** Docker, Ollama, Open WebUI, local document directory mounted for RAG

**Duration:** 7 days

What worked

  • Single-container deployment took under 10 minutes.
  • Local document RAG was accurate for internal PDFs and markdown notes.
  • Per-user conversation history and model selection were intuitive.

    • What didn't

  • Concurrent heavy users noticeably slowed token generation on a single GPU.
  • No built-in SSO; local account management is fine for tiny teams only.

    • Cost snapshot

  • Hardware: already owned
  • Electricity: ~$0.80/day under load
  • API spend: $0 (all local)

    • Verdict

    Open WebUI is a strong internal ChatGPT replacement for small teams with modest concurrency. Plan to add a second GPU or move heavy models to the cloud if the team grows.