SoulNode by Saluca Labs

An agent with a face. On hardware you own.

Kovi is a robot bust with eyes, lids, brows and a jaw that move under cast silicone. It runs SalucaOS, keeps a record you can read, and stops when you say stop.

One email when the Kickstarter goes live on 5 January 2027, so you can claim an early-bird tier. Then the build updates, if you want them. Unsubscribe any time.

Illustrated concept of Kovi: a rounded robot bust in a knit hood and zip hoodie, with glowing headphones, on a workbench.

AI-generated concept of Kovi. In development, not the finished product.

09:14:02 heard "Kovi, what's on today?"
09:14:03 model local, on your machine
09:14:05 said "Two meetings. The first is at ten."
09:14:21 stop owner said "stop", motion halted
each entry chained to the last, so a deleted line shows

Illustration of the record format. SalucaOS runs in simulation today.

Who does the body answer to?

Most talking devices answer to someone else's server: what they heard, what they did and when they stop is decided somewhere you cannot see.

We think a machine in your home should keep its record where you can read it, and stop when you say stop. SalucaOS keeps a hash-chained record of what the agent did, takes a stop from its owner, and runs on hardware you own. Kovi is the first body it wears.

A stop you can touch

Kovi has a mechanical switch in the servo supply. Whatever the software is doing, the motors stop when you flip it.

Running
Try it. On this page it only turns the glow off; on Kovi it cuts power to the motors.

Cast by hand, in one shop

Every part we sell is cast in a silicone mould made from a printed master. The printer makes the tooling once; the casting makes each piece.

  1. Master

    Printed once at full infill, then sealed and polished.

  2. Mould

    Silicone poured around the master. Kovi takes a set of 31.

  3. Cast

    Resin, epoxy, pigmented plaster and platinum silicone, some with glow pigment.

  4. Finish

    Trimmed, assembled, tested and packed by hand.

What exists today, and what does not

We would rather show you the start than pretend we are further along.

PartWhere it stands
Kovi's sculpt, expressions and mechanism drawingsDone, in CAD
Game boards: chess, Chinese checkers, GoDone, print-checked CAD
SalucaOSRuns in simulation
Masters, moulds and the first castsScheduled for November 2026
A working Kovi, filmed uneditedPlanned for December 2026

Games from the same moulds

Mancala, Chinese checkers, backgammon, Go and chess, cast by hand in the same resin, with pits and lanes that glow.

CAD render of the cast chess board with a glowing cyan border and circuit traces.
CAD render of the chess board.
CAD render of the cast Chinese checkers star board with glowing coloured lanes.
CAD render of the Chinese checkers board.

Open by design

The campaign pays for the work, and the stretch goals open it up.

$500,000

SalucaOS goes open source. The commercial licence ends and becomes paid support.

$2,000,000

Everything opens. The rest of our software follows, with paid support.

Who is building this

I'm Cristian Ruvalcaba. I spent more than twenty years in security: an intern in 2003, then security engineering, consulting and SIEM engineering, and later teaching cybersecurity. That is why Kovi runs on hardware you own, on an agent runtime with an audit log.

I have lived with chronic illness since 2005, and with a traumatic brain injury. In 2026 I was diagnosed with ADHD and social (pragmatic) communication disorder.

A job application once asked me, "How do you use AI in your day-to-day work?" I spent the next six months answering it. Agents helped me explore that question at length, across several domains: they do the planning and the leg work, and I build. Kovi is part of my answer.

My life in context, the public timeline this story comes from.

Questions

When does the campaign launch?

Tuesday 5 January 2027 at 7:00 Pacific, on Kickstarter, for 30 days.

How much will Kovi cost?

Prices are announced at launch. The early-bird tiers are limited, which is why the alert exists.

Do I need a powerful computer?

SalucaOS runs on hardware you already own, with a local model or a cloud model you choose. We will publish the requirements with the prototype.

What happens to my email?

We use it to tell you about the launch and, if you stay subscribed, the build. We never sell it, and nobody else gets it to market to you.