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Local AI

Local AI on your Mac, done right. Private by architecture.

Routines runs a local-first AI assistant for normal people. Your notes, meetings, and memory stay on your Mac as plain markdown and SQLite. Run a local LLM or bring your own key. Either way, the data never leaves your machine because there is no server to send it to.

Download for Mac How privacy works

01

Privacy by architecture, not a toggle

Most "private" cloud apps just promise not to look. Routines keeps your notes, meetings, and memory on your Mac as plain markdown and SQLite, so privacy is the default shape of the app, not a setting you hope someone honored.

02

Run a local LLM or your own key

Bring an Anthropic API key, sign in with your ChatGPT or Claude subscription, or point Routines at a local model. Either way the keys live in your macOS Keychain and the requests go out from your machine, never through us.

03

Memory you can read in Finder

Your assistant remembers context across days because that memory is markdown files on disk. Open them, edit them, back them up, delete them. No hidden vector store you cannot see.

04

Works whether you are online or not

Reading your routines, outputs, meetings, and memory hits your local database and works with the network off. Only the model call leaves your machine, and only to the provider you chose.

Cloud AI vs local AI

Why local beats a cloud toggle.

Typical cloud AIRoutines
Where your data livesOn a vendor server you cannot inspectOn your Mac, as markdown + SQLite
Who holds the API keyThe vendor, bundled into a subscriptionYou, in your macOS Keychain
Privacy modelA promise and a settings toggleLocal by architecture
Offline behaviorMostly unusableLocal reads work anytime

Go deeper

The local-first parts that make it work.

Privacy first

How data stays on your Mac end to end.

Local memory

Memory you can open and edit as markdown.

Routines vs Openclaw

A side-by-side on the local-first approach.

Recipes

Prebuilt routines you can run on day one.

Download

Get Routines for macOS, free for 7 days.

FAQ

Local AI, answered.

What is local AI, in plain terms?

Local AI means the app and your data run on your own computer instead of a company server. Routines stores everything on your Mac as markdown and SQLite, and only sends a request to a model provider when you actually ask the AI to do something.

Can I run a local LLM with no internet at all?

Routines can read your routines, meetings, memory, and outputs fully offline because they live in a local database. The text-generation step needs a model: point it at a local model you run yourself, or use a cloud provider with your own key when you are online.

Do you ever see my data or my API key?

No. Your notes and memory stay on your Mac, and your key lives in the macOS Keychain. Model requests go directly from your machine to the provider you picked. There is no Routines server in the middle and no account to sign up for.

How is this different from a cloud AI with a privacy mode?

A privacy toggle still sends your data to someone else and asks you to trust how they handle it. Routines is private by architecture: the data physically stays with you, so there is nothing to opt out of.

Keep your AI, and your data, on your Mac.

Local-first by design. Bring your own key or run a local model, free for 7 days.

Download for Mac