The Zimac desktop app

Zimac is a local-first AI workspace for Mac and Windows. Conversations, working memory, documents, profiles, and most app state live on your device; the model route you choose receives the prompt and selected context needed for each answer.

What the app is#

The desktop app brings together a roster of specialists, a shared local memory layer, and dedicated workspaces for planning, review, data, design, operations, people, and connected services. You can stay in a conversation and ask for work in plain language, or open a Studio when the work benefits from a persistent visual surface.

It is a native window backed by the operating system’s WebView: WKWebView on macOS and WebView2 on Windows. The interface ships inside the application. The app does not require you to maintain a localhost web server or keep a browser tab open.

Install & start#

1. Download the installer for your platform. On Mac, open the DMG and move Zimac to Applications. On Windows, run the per-user installer; it does not require an administrator account.
2. Choose model access during setup. You can use Zimac’s hosted gateway, connect a supported provider directly, or point the app at a compatible local endpoint.
3. Ask a real question. The initial conversation is enough to create your first chat. Add files, integrations, or durable memory only when you want them.
4. Open Settings when you need to change the route. Setup can be rerun without deleting your notes or memory.

Choose a model route#

The app separates its local working state from model inference. Your route determines where a prompt is processed:

For step-by-step provider setup, use Getting started.

Chats, Studios & panels#

The main conversation belongs to the selected specialist. Switching specialists changes the expertise and available tools, while chat history stays organized by teammate. Three other surfaces handle different kinds of work:

• Studios are full-screen workspaces such as Projects, Gantts, Review, Design, Datasets, Workflows, and Connections. Open the Studio picker or ask a specialist to open one.
• Panels slide over the conversation for smaller collections and controls: Memory, Documents, Clipboard, Output Formats, Plugins, Playbooks, Settings, and more.
• Slash commands are direct shortcuts. Type / in the composer to browse the commands available in your build.

Context & actions#

Zimac can answer from local memory, documents, mounted folders, calendar and mail sources, connected services, or context you attach for one turn. Availability depends on what you have configured. A source being connected does not mean every item from it is copied into memory.

Read operations and external changes are different. Connections and Workflows classify operations by risk; exact writes can pause for a one-time approval. Other first-party cards similarly show the payload before a consequential action. Always read the card: an assistant draft, suggestion, or preview is not proof that the external action already happened.

How replies show their work#

While a response forms, Context Bloom can show host-observed recall, tool activity, and specialist consultations. It compacts when prose begins and disappears when the turn settles. The host does not derive it from confident assistant prose, and it is not hidden chain-of-thought.

For a substantive settled answer, an expandable Decision trace can group the evidence available to that turn as Observed, Recalled, Inferred, and Unknown. It is a bounded, host-created availability ledger—not a sentence-by-sentence citation map, confidence score, or record of private model reasoning. The separate References view lists links named in the answer without claiming they were verified.

The reply toolbar also offers deterministic Copy as transforms for Slack mrkdwn, Jira wiki markup, an email draft, and plain text. The email option opens the default mail app and copies the full body to the clipboard because a long mailto: draft may be clipped.

Daily-flow assists#

• Clipboard Smart hints (Mac) recognize a recent stack trace, pull-request or issue URL, tracker key, meeting link, or IP address locally and offer it as Quick Ask context. They do not replace selected text or a query you typed; concealed password-manager copies are never recorded.
• Meeting-exit capture can offer one zero-token debrief line after a 1:1 with someone in People. Filing adds it to that person's profile; dismissal is silent, and the same occurrence is not offered twice.
• Delivery governor holds deferrable notices during a selected-calendar meeting or a too-short gap, and on Mac can also respect detectable Focus state. It releases or batches fresh items in the next gap; urgent approvals and imminent prep bypass the queue.
• Evening Wrap is an optional, off-by-default local summary of the day's meetings, memories, commitments, debriefs, and rhythms. It spends no model tokens and can carry one “Tomorrow starts with…” line into the next Morning Brief.

Frame & Sight#

On macOS, Frame lets the main app recede to a thin, click-through border while an interactive edge tab follows across Spaces and displays. Its tray can surface bounded Volition, Night Shift, and Cadence cards; you can open the full text, return to Zimac, give feedback, snooze, or dismiss supported items. The neutral Frame does not itself observe the screen.

Sight is the optional observation leg. It is off by default, requires Screen Recording permission, and must be armed with an explicit Observe click for each session. The current build observes the primary display, excludes Zimac's windows and the cursor, samples changed frames at no more than one per second, and runs OCR on device. Raw pixels are never persisted or transmitted. Secret-redacted recognized text may use your configured model route for distillation, and accepted memories carry receipts and undo.

Platform differences#

Feature cards and connection status in the app are authoritative for the build and device you are using. A guide may describe a capability that only appears when its platform, permission, credential, or plugin is available.

What stays local#

Durable chats, working memory, notes, documents, profiles, plugins, playbooks, pairing state, and learned preferences are stored under Zimac’s local data locations. Sensitive app-private stores use opaque .zdata files and are encrypted when at-rest sealing is active; portable exports and plugin manifests keep their interoperable formats. Zimac normally stores the data key and provider credentials in macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager, with an owner-only, non-synced local fallback. If no key location is writable, sealing is unavailable. Legacy .json stores remain readable for migration and are removed after the next successful write.

Some features necessarily use services outside the device: the model route you choose, third-party integrations you connect, org-readable Sites, account and licensing services, and encrypted team relay. The exact disclosure contract differs by feature; “local-first” is a storage default, not a claim that networking never occurs.

Backups & recovery#

Open Settings → Account & security → Data backups to inspect local snapshots or request a backup immediately. Backups are compressed and integrity-checked, and the app can recover a damaged memory log from a good local snapshot at launch.

The visible restore action restores the memory store from the newest backup; it does not promise to roll every other app store back to the same point. In-app backups remain on the same device, outside iCloud by default, so they are not a substitute for a separate machine backup.

Before moving encrypted data or retiring a computer, use Settings → Recovery key to export a passphrase-wrapped recovery code and keep the code and passphrase separately. Import it on the destination computer and relaunch Zimac before opening the moved data. Zimac receives neither value and cannot recreate either one.