Make your AI work beyond the chat.
A universal local execution layer that helps your AI work with your files, operate your apps, and automate tasks on your computer.
Free to start · Apple silicon · macOS 14 or newer
Files
Your AI sees names, sizes and dates, never what is inside a file.
Reading inside documents and scans, comparing two versions of a file and checking that a save really landed are being tested now.
Your Mac
Melvin uses each app’s own controls first, so it works without taking over your screen or your cursor.
Next, and being tested now: the actions other apps offer to Shortcuts, then the buttons and menus of an app that offers nothing else. Both are switched off for now.
Automations
Automations run while Melvin is open on your Mac, and no chat needs to be open. When Melvin cannot tell what to do with a file, it waits and asks you or your AI instead of guessing.
Automations are being tested, and are switched off for now.
One request
“Whenever I download an invoice, rename it properly, put it in the right client folder and get it ready for my bookkeeping.”
It reads a few of your invoices, works out where the number, date and total are, and shows what Melvin would do with the invoices already in Downloads.
One window, one sentence: what it may do, and where. Nothing runs until you choose Turn on.
Melvin waits for the download to finish, reads it, renames it 2026-10-01_Acme_INV-1042.pdf, files it in Clients, Acme, Invoices, adds a line to your bookkeeping sheet and drafts the email to your bookkeeper.
What was done, and anything that needs you. A new client, a missing invoice number or a scan it cannot read waits for your answer.
Nothing is sent for you: the email waits in Mail until you press Send. Undo a run and the invoice goes back where it was, under its old name. The bookkeeping sheet is a CSV file, which Numbers and Excel open.
Automations are being tested, and are switched off for now.
Every AI
An automation watches the folders you choose and runs when a file lands or changes, as well as on a schedule.
Melvin runs from your menu bar, so automations, and tasks your AI already sent, carry on with the chat closed.
Each action reports what really happened. Each folder and each app has its own permission, every task is logged, and file changes can be undone.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok all reach your Mac through one set of tools and one set of permissions, with your Mac and iPhone on one Melvin account.
How it connects
Download it on your Mac and sign in. Sign in to Melvin on your iPhone with the same account to add it too.
Click Melvin in the menu bar, choose Connect an AI app, then Copy connector link. Your private link is copied.
Add it as a connector in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok, and press Allow. It then works in that app on every device.
Your Mac has to be awake with Melvin open. If it is not, your AI tells you when it was last seen. On iPhone, Melvin asks you to open it, because iPhone only lets it act while it is open. Set it up
You stay in control
Your AI app asks you before Melvin moves, renames or deletes anything, or runs one of your shortcuts. Melvin reaches only what macOS and iOS let it, as you chose when you set it up.
Melvin never deletes anything. A clean up is planned before anything moves, so you can ask to see the list first, and moves and renames can be undone.
An automation starts only after you approve its sentence on your Mac, and stops when you take its permission back or pause it.
Every task is on your Activity page. Take back any permission, pause an automation, or disconnect a device or every AI app, on your Devices page.
Your AI app asks before anything changes
Moving, renaming or deleting files, and running a shortcut, wait for your approval there.
In your AI app
Turn on the automation “Invoices”?
Your Mac shows the sentence it will follow, word for word. It runs only after you choose Turn on.
Turn on or Not now
macOS and iOS keep their own permissions
Melvin reaches your files, calendars and other data only where your Mac or iPhone lets it.
Given at setup
One local execution layer for the AI you already use, like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok. You ask in the chat. Melvin checks it is you, your Mac or iPhone does the work, and your AI tells you exactly what happened.
Find files by name, kind, date or size, show what is taking up space, find duplicates, organize a folder, open apps and run your shortcuts. It also works in Mail, Notes, Calendar, Reminders, Contacts and Music: it searches and reads, writes mail drafts, and adds events, reminders and notes. A draft waits in Mail until you press Send.
Run your shortcuts and tell you its battery. iPhone only lets Melvin act while the app is open, so Melvin asks you to open it. It does not use your other iPhone apps.
Only what a task needs. Finding and organizing files shares names, sizes, dates and where they are, never what is inside them. Device status shares battery, free space on your Mac, and whether each device is online. Reading your mail or notes shares what it was asked to read. A shortcut you run sends back whatever it returns.
You tell your AI once what should happen when a file lands in a folder, such as renaming an invoice and filing it by client. Your Mac asks you to approve it in one sentence, then Melvin does it on your Mac each time, with no chat open. When it cannot tell what to do with a file, it waits and asks. Automations are being tested, and are switched off for now.
No. Melvin never deletes anything. It can create folders and move or rename files, and moves and renames can be undone.
Yes, awake with Melvin open. If it is not, your AI tells you when your Mac was last seen.
No. Your AI talks to Melvin, and your Mac and iPhone keep their own connection out to Melvin. Nothing on them is opened to the internet.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok, on the web and on your phone, and Meta’s Muse too. You add Melvin once in each app. A ChatGPT dot can use Melvin as well wherever ChatGPT lets dots use your connectors.
Remove any permission, pause an automation or disconnect a device on your Devices page, or disconnect every AI app at once. Tell your AI to stop and Melvin stops at the next file and says what was already done.
Free to start, no card needed. Paid plans add more usage when you want it.
From the lab
Engineering09/03/2026
An agent doing a thirty step task at 95 percent per step finishes 21 percent of the time. Two measurements put the harness sixteen and eighteen points ahead of the model on identical weights. Verification is the lever, with our own numbers on how far it reaches today.
Privacy & Permissions08/25/2026
A plain English breakdown of every macOS privacy permission an app can request, what each one actually grants, and how to audit what you've already given away.
Engineering08/18/2026
Same Chrome window, same second. The accessibility API returned the tab strip in 77ms. Screen capture plus OCR returned 17 lines in 509ms. Neither one had the page. Measurements from one Mac, including the failure modes that report success.
Your permissions, your devices, your control. Free to start: download Melvin, connect your AI, and ask for your first thing.
Available for Apple Silicon Macs. Windows coming later.