Short answer: K-AI is a personal AI agent that went live in public beta on 7 November 2026, free on Mac. Its default agent, 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 keeps its memory on your disk. Payments, deletions and account changes always wait for your OK.

By Agent Playbox Editorial · Published

K-AI personal agent: memory that stays on your Mac

Key facts

What is K-AI and who made it?

K-AI is a personal AI agent that keeps its memory on your own computer. Its builder, Kai Shade, announced on 7 November 2026 that it is live in public beta and free on Mac (Why I built K-AI). The motivation is simple: an assistant that understands your life is more useful, but its builder did not want a large AI company to own that knowledge.

K-AI grew from an earlier cloud version called K-AI Claw and is built on a fork of the open-source Odysseus workspace from its MIT-licensed period, with the license history laid out in the post. The terms name Kai Shade as the operator and offer the software under the Apache License 2.0.

What can Kai do for you?

It notices first

You choose which mail accounts (Gmail or IMAP), Google Chat and calendar Kai watches. From your inbox it picks out shipments, orders, bills, appointments, bookings and account alerts and tracks each one as an event, so “where’s my package?” already has an answer (K-AI blog).

It runs the errand

The product page shows everyday jobs: reorder the dog food, check what is pressing in your inbox, hold a table for four on Friday, renew a parking permit from your documents, start a return or check a budget sheet in Excel (K-AI Agent). For actions, Kai works on its own Linux virtual machine booted with Apple’s Virtualization framework, with a browser, terminal and desktop you can watch live, so your own screen stays yours.

How does K-AI keep you in control?

You set each category once: orders, deliveries, trips and appointments are handled on their own by default, while bills, payments and account cases ask first. Quiet hours hold everything but approvals (K-AI blog).

Approvals are enforced in code outside the model. Risky actions fall into classes — spend, message as you, delete, account change and install — and K-AI shows its own summary of what will happen. Each approval works once, for that exact action, for ten minutes. Deletes always ask, and during the beta payments and account changes always ask too. You can allow messages to specific people, such as letting Kai reply to a family member.

Where does your data live?

Memory, skills, notes, tasks, calendar and mail state live in K-AI’s folder on your disk, with memory search computed locally; you can export and import it (K-AI blog). On Mac it ships its own llama.cpp server and picks a model your hardware can run, from Qwen3 4B up to Qwen3 14B or Gemma 4 26B. With a local model selected, nothing leaves the machine.

When you want a frontier cloud model, a privacy bridge on your Mac swaps card numbers, passwords, keys, ID numbers, emails and phone numbers for placeholders and restores them in the reply. The post is open about the limit: names and the general topic of a request are not hidden, so fully sensitive conversations belong on a local model.

How much does K-AI cost and what is still rough?

The local app is free and works with local models; an optional cloud adds sync and browser access (K-AI Agent). A price for the cloud plan was not shown on the pages we checked on 9 November 2026, so we list it as unknown.

The builder lists the trade-offs plainly: Kai works only while your computer is on, it is Mac only for now (Windows builds are not ready), the first run downloads a virtual machine and a local model, and real-world forms and checkouts can trip it up, in which case it should stop and ask (K-AI blog).

How does K-AI compare with Nico and Local Code?

Nico from NativeMind is a voice-first personal agent for Apple silicon Macs, with a sandboxed on-device Worker. Local Code from the Draw Things team is an open-source private agent that runs models on your Mac. K-AI shares the local-first idea and adds inbox watching with per-category rules, a dedicated virtual computer and a masking bridge for cloud models.

See K-AI vs Nico and K-AI vs Local Code. If inbox and errands are your main job, the errand runner and inbox zero coach templates, plus the inbox triage and grocery ordering skills, are good starting briefs.

What should you watch next?

Watch for Windows builds, a published price for the cloud plan, and how reliably the agent handles real checkouts as beta users report back. We will keep the K-AI profile current. For more agents that keep your data close, see Nico, Local Code and the best personal AI agents of 2026.

Timeline: how did we get here?

Agent snapshot: what do we know so far?

Facts below come from the agent profiles in our directory, each linked to its source.

K-AI at a glance

Full K-AI profile

Nico (NativeMind) at a glance

Full Nico (NativeMind) profile

Local Code at a glance

Full Local Code profile

Related comparisons and guides

Agents in this story

K-AI

personal agent

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.

Nico (NativeMind)

personal agent

A voice-to-action personal agent that lives on your Mac: hold right ⌘, speak, and a sandboxed on-device Worker gets things done with your files, Mail, apps and browser logins — not on a cloud computer.

Local Code

personal agent

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.

Frequently asked questions

What is K-AI?

K-AI is a personal AI agent for Mac that keeps its memory on your disk. Its agent, Kai, watches the mail, chat and calendar you choose and runs errands on its own virtual computer inside your Mac.

Is K-AI free?

Yes, the public beta is free on Mac and the local app works with local models. An optional cloud plan adds sync and browser access; its price was not published on the pages we checked (9 November 2026).

Does K-AI pay or send messages on its own?

No by default. Payments, deletions and account changes always ask during the beta, and messages ask unless you allow a specific person. Each approval works once for ten minutes.

Does my data leave my Mac?

With a local model, nothing leaves the machine. With a cloud model, a privacy bridge masks cards, passwords, keys, IDs, emails and phone numbers first; names and topics are not hidden.

Does K-AI run on Windows?

Not yet. It is Mac only for now; Windows builds exist internally but are not ready.

Sources

Updated