Short answer: K-AI: A personal AI agent whose memory lives on your Mac: Kai watches the mail, chat and calendar you choose, runs errands such as reorders, bookings and forms on its own virtual computer inside your Mac, and waits for your OK on payments, deletions and account changes. Local Code: A private, open-source AI agent for Mac, iPad and iPhone that runs frontier-class open models on your own device, with Python, Node.js, a shell, office and media tools and a browser built in, so it can turn files into charts, decks, documents, videos and code without sending them to the cloud.

K-AI vs Local Code

Sourced facts only. “Unknown” means not verified yet.

Key facts side by side

Criterion	K-AI	Local Code
Type	personal agent	personal agent
Vendor	Kai Shade (independent project; operator named in the K-AI terms)	Draw Things team (Liu Liu and team, makers of the Draw Things image app)
Channels / category	Native Mac app (Windows builds exist internally but are not ready). Watches the Gmail or IMAP mail, Google Chat and calendar you choose. Cloud models (with secrets masked) or local models via a bundled llama.cpp server.	Mac app (direct download; Mac App Store release coming soon); the site also lists iPad and iPhone
Pricing / availability	Free public beta on Mac (7 Nov 2026). The local app is free and works with local models; an optional K-AI Cloud plan adds sync and browser access, but its price was not shown on the pages we checked (9 Nov 2026).	Free on your own hardware (USD 0). Optional cloud models: bring your own API keys at no markup, or prepaid cloud credit top-ups from USD 9.99, no subscription. Team setups on request
Launched	2026-11-07	2026-10-28
Funding (reported)	Unknown	Unknown
Channels confirmed	Desktop app, Email	Desktop app, Mobile app
Verified facts	Live in public beta on 7 Nov 2026, free on Mac, announced by its builder Kai Shade; The default agent, Kai, watches the inbox, chat and calendar you choose and tracks shipments, orders, bills, appointments and bookings as events; You set each category to handle, ask first or ignore: orders and trips are handled on their own by default, bills and account cases ask first; quiet hours are available; Approvals are enforced in code outside the model for spending, messaging as you, deleting, account changes and installs; each approval works once, for that exact action, for ten minutes; Memory, skills, notes, tasks, calendar and mail state live in a folder on your disk with a local vector store; you can export and import them; The agent works on its own Linux virtual machine booted with Apple's Virtualization framework, with a browser, terminal and desktop you can watch live; A privacy bridge on your Mac swaps card numbers, passwords, keys, ID numbers, emails and phone numbers for placeholders before a cloud model sees a request; names are not hidden; Local models run through a bundled llama.cpp server (from Qwen3 4B up to Qwen3 14B or Gemma 4 26B); with a local model nothing leaves the machine; Kai works while your computer is on; Mac only for now, and the first run downloads the virtual machine and a local model; The local app is free; optional cloud adds sync and browser access. The software is offered under the Apache License 2.0	Released to everyone and made fully open source on 28 Oct 2026, after a public beta that began on 12 Sep 2026; One app combines an inference engine for Apple Silicon, a coding harness tuned to each model and an agent runtime with Python 3.14, Node.js 24, a shell, LibreOffice, FFmpeg and a WebKit browser; Local models: Qwen 3.8 27B (min 16 GB memory), DeepSeek 4 Flash (min 32 GB) and DeepSeek 4.1 Flash 1017 (min 32 GB, 96 GB recommended, 376 GB on disk); SSD streaming lets big models run on smaller Macs; Works offline with a local model; prompts and files stay on the Mac unless you choose a cloud model from Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter or an OpenAI-compatible server; Runs inside Apple's App Sandbox with Hardened Runtime: no full-disk access, cannot launch other apps, and works only in folders you share; With your permission it reads Mail, Messages and Notes (read-only) and can edit Calendar and Photos; Makes slides, explainer videos, charts, images and code, and can drive a browser to log in to a site and book an appointment; Free on your own hardware; optional cloud credits from USD 9.99 or your own API keys at no markup; Source code published under the GPL-3.0 licence
Website	https://getk-ai.com/	https://getlocalcode.app/
Sources	[1] [2] [3]	[1] [2] [3]
Last checked	2026-11-11	2026-11-11

Frequently asked questions

What is K-AI?

A personal AI agent whose memory lives on your Mac: Kai watches the mail, chat and calendar you choose, runs errands such as reorders, bookings and forms on its own virtual computer inside your Mac, and waits for your OK on payments, deletions and account changes.

What is Local Code?

A private, open-source AI agent for Mac, iPad and iPhone that runs frontier-class open models on your own device, with Python, Node.js, a shell, office and media tools and a browser built in, so it can turn files into charts, decks, documents, videos and code without sending them to the cloud.

How much does K-AI cost?

Free public beta on Mac (7 Nov 2026). The local app is free and works with local models; an optional K-AI Cloud plan adds sync and browser access, but its price was not shown on the pages we checked (9 Nov 2026).

How much does Local Code cost?

Free on your own hardware (USD 0). Optional cloud models: bring your own API keys at no markup, or prepaid cloud credit top-ups from USD 9.99, no subscription. Team setups on request

Are K-AI and Local Code the same type of agent?

K-AI is listed as a personal agent and Local Code as a personal agent.

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Updated 2026-11-11