What is this?
The Hugging Bay is a community-run index of BitTorrent magnet links for AI models, weights,
and datasets whose licenses explicitly permit redistribution. Centralized hubs are single points of
failure — policy pressure, geo-blocking, bandwidth caps. A swarm is not. The Bay never hosts files;
it catalogs verified magnets and the fleet does the rest.
How to become a Sailor
- Get a torrent client that handles large multi-file torrents well (qBittorrent, Transmission, rtorrent).
- Pick ships from the under-seeded list — sorted so the most at-risk models surface first.
- Seed long-term. Ratio doesn't matter here; uptime does. A NAS in a closet beats a fast box that vanishes.
- Verify what you seed: compare SHA-256 checksums against the upstream release linked on each listing.
- Optionally upload torrents for models we're missing — open licenses only.
Crew ranks
Sailor — seeds and contributes. First Mate — trusted uploader with a track record of
clean manifests. Captain — verifies listings: re-hashes content against upstream checksums and
signs off. Captain-verified listings carry the 🏴☠️✔ badge.
Principles
- Index only, never host.
- Verification first. Every listing links its upstream source; SHA-256 manifests are checked before the badge.
- Open licenses only. If the license doesn't permit redistribution, it doesn't sail. See policy.
Sailors unite. ⛵🤗