← Sistine

Documentation

Everything in the app and how to use it. Machine-readable version at /llms.txt.

Sistine is a native macOS app: a small animated ghost that floats above your windows and opens into a full AI chat with voice, documents, and a dock of pre-built mini-apps. It runs free on your own hardware with a local model, and it can borrow bigger brains, hosted models, your own API keys, or your existing Claude and ChatGPT subscriptions, when you choose. Requires macOS 14 or newer.

Contents

  • Getting started
  • The companion
  • Chat
  • Voice
  • Bring your own AI
  • Mini-apps
  • Abilities and approvals
  • Appearance
  • Privacy
  • Points and the Ghosts
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • FAQ

Getting started

When the app launches, download it, drag it to Applications, and open it. A six-page setup walks you through the essentials: how to summon the companion, voice permissions (skippable), and a one-click Set Up Free Local AI button that downloads and runs a model sized to your Mac's memory. When it finishes, the ghost appears in the corner of your screen and everything works, offline, with no account and no key.

Pricing is shown plainly during setup, before any paywall: the free tier is the product, not a teaser. Paid plans add web search, hosted models, and higher limits.

The companion

The ghost lives in a borderless panel that floats above every window and every Space, without ever stealing focus. Click it to open chat; click again to tuck it away.

  • Move it by dragging. With "Snap to nearest corner" on, it settles into a corner; off, it stays exactly where you drop it. It remembers its spot per screen.
  • Hover lifts it slightly; click makes it hop.
  • Drop a file on it (text, Markdown, RTF, PDF, or an image) to open chat with the file attached.
  • Global shortcut: press ⌥ Space (configurable) to toggle chat from inside any app.
  • Menu bar: open chat, push-to-talk, "Summarize My Screen", "Ask About Clipboard", pending reminders, updates, and settings are always one click away. You can hide the Dock icon and run menu-bar-only.
  • The chat window resizes from any edge, remembers its size and position, and ⌘⇧R rescues it to a sane default if it ever ends up somewhere unhelpful.

The home page shows the ghost, a one-line status of what needs your attention ("3 emails need a reply · 4 routine items left"), a composer, and a dock of mini-app icons. Hovering an icon lifts it and lights it up; right-click to remove apps you don't use, and the + button brings them back or makes a new app in Code.

Chat

Ask anything in the composer. Replies stream in with full Markdown, code blocks you can copy, and native answer cards: big-number stat rows, comparisons, timelines, charts, and product grids render as designed components, not walls of text.

  • Attachments: the + menu attaches documents and images; you can also drag files in or paste an image with ⌘V.
  • Look at My Screen and Use What I Copied attach a one-time snapshot of your screen or clipboard, with quick actions: Summarize, Explain, Rewrite, Draft a reply, Extract action items.
  • Conversations are grouped per module in the Chats list, with retention you control (forever, or 90, 30, 7 days). Share any exchange as a clean card image.
  • Memory: the assistant can keep short notes between conversations. The memory is a plain text file on your Mac that you can read, edit, or delete, in whole or line by line.

Voice

One microphone button, two idioms: hold it to talk walkie-talkie style (release to finish) or click to latch recording until you click again. Esc cancels. A status row shows "Getting ready…" while the engine warms up, then "Listening, go ahead" with a live transcript as you speak, so no words get lost.

Transcription is Apple Speech, on-device. The app records only while you hold the button or the push-to-talk shortcut, and never listens in the background. Sistine can also speak responses aloud, with a choice of system voice, speaking rate, and an option to skip code blocks.

Bring your own AI

Sistine works with whatever intelligence you already have. Four ways in, from free to frontier:

SourceWhat it isCost
LocalOne click sets up a model on this Mac, sized to its memory, bound to localhost. Nothing leaves the machine.Free forever
Another computerPoint the app at a Mac on your network running Ollama or LM Studio. Discovered automatically, picked from what is actually installed there.Free
CloudHosted models on Plus and Pro plans with no setup, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with your own key, kept in the macOS Keychain.Plan or your own rates
Your subscriptionsThe Code module signs in with Claude Code or Codex. Your Claude or ChatGPT plan does the coding; the rest of the app keeps using your own model.Your existing plan

The app is smart about local models: it detects Ollama and raises the context window so long prompts don't get silently truncated, routes image questions to a vision-capable model when your main model can't see, and routes tool use to a tools-capable model when yours can't call them. A capability line under the model picker tells you what your choice can do before anything fails mid-conversation.

The free tier is local and network only by policy. Hosted plans are capped by dollars, not message counts, and at the cap replies fall back to your local model rather than stopping.

Mini-apps

Modules are full pages inside the chat panel, each with its own ask bar that answers questions grounded in what's on screen.

Communication

ModuleWhat it does
EmailAll your inboxes in one place over IMAP with an app password: Gmail, iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo, anything. Sorts people from noise, flags what needs a reply, drafts responses in your voice, and sends over SMTP. HTML mail renders with JavaScript off and trackers blocked. Nothing of yours ever touches our servers.
TelegramYour own Telegram account in the panel: DMs, groups, channels, and bots, with a Radar tab where a local model flags likely spam from strangers for one-tap block or report.
ChatsEvery conversation with your companion, grouped by module, searchable.
CompanionshipA set of distinct companions, each with its own personality and its own persistent conversation. Personality shapes tone; every companion can still search, chart, and manage your lists.
HoldersThe Sistine holders' group chat, gated on signature-verified wallet ownership, with scam-flagging and moderation built in.
RecorderScreen recording with a countdown, optional camera bubble, and a demo editor: auto-zoom, click ripples, soundtrack, an AI-written voiceover script, and export.

Day to day

ModuleWhat it does
To-DosA window onto Apple Reminders. Items added here or by the assistant appear on your iPhone and Watch.
Recurring TasksStanding requests on a schedule (daily, weekdays, weekly). Results arrive as messages in a conversation named after the task. One-tap presets: Morning brief, Market close recap, Weekend plan.
RoutinesPick self-care goals once and get a short daily list, each item with a plain "how", an honest "why" backed by research, and any warning always shown.
StudyDrop in text, a PDF, an image, or a link and get a study sheet plus a scored multiple-choice quiz. Scoring is deterministic, no AI grades you, and every question carries an evidence passage verified to appear in your material.
BrowseA browser tab your ghost reads along with. Read-only by design: the AI cannot navigate, fill, or submit anything, and page text is fenced as untrusted.
StudioImage generation on your Mac with Apple Core ML Stable Diffusion. One-time model download sized to your machine; prompt enhancement built in.
CodeBuild a website or a program by describing it. No terminal, no diffs: conversation on the left, live preview on the right, a plain-English change list with Undo, and one-click publishing to a real web address with a QR code. Three autonomy levels, from sandboxed to trusted, each stated in plain words. Mini-apps you build can join the dock, sandboxed to to-dos, weather, and your watchlist only.
WeatherApple-Weather-style forecast for your chosen home spot, which stays on your Mac.
NewsHeadlines with a hero story and sections, zero setup.

Money and travel

ModuleWhat it does
MarketsA wall of the 50 largest US companies with live prices, a scrolling ticker, and full detail pages with charts, fundamentals, and news. Free API keys (Finnhub, Twelve Data) unlock live data in about a minute.
SubscriptionsDrop a bank CSV or a statement screenshot and see every recurring charge and one total. Statements are parsed locally and never leave your Mac. Ask which to cut and get cancellation steps and a retention-call script.
ShoppingCurated shopping that remembers who you shop for. A people rail files saves under each person with their occasions; a curator chat finds real products with prices, stores, and links.
TravelFlights and stays with real prices: airport autocomplete, calendar pickers, results sorted by price with a Best badge, and an ask bar that advises over the on-screen results.
MintClaim a Sistine Ghost, free for app users. See the Ghosts.
ExchangeBrowse the full collection offline with traits, rarity, and filters; live floor and volume from Magic Eden; trading links out to the venue. Non-custodial always: the app never holds funds, keys, or NFTs.
PointsDaily claims, holding accrual, levels, and a scoreboard. Points have no monetary value and only ever redeem inside the app.

Abilities and approvals

Abilities are what the assistant can do beyond talking, and every one is a switch in Settings. Tools you haven't enabled are never even shown to the model, so it can't be talked into trying them.

  • No approval needed: remembering and forgetting notes, web search, reading your to-dos, setting reminders.
  • Always asks first: opening links, adding calendar events, adding to-dos, price alerts, running your Shortcuts, running commands in a Code project, and reading your screen. The approval card names the exact action and target, "Not now" is the big button, and pressing Enter does nothing, so you can't approve by reflex.
  • Fails closed: scheduled and background runs cannot approve anything, so side-effecting tools simply don't run unattended.
  • Untrusted content is fenced: anything read from the web or your screen is wrapped in markers the model is told not to obey, and a page you didn't ask for requires approval before it's read. That closes the classic prompt-injection and data-exfiltration paths.

Web search is included with zero setup, 40 searches a day through our proxy, no account. Add your own free Brave key to make searches unlimited and cut our server out of the loop entirely.

Appearance

Four looks: Match System, Light, Dark, and Gallery, which hangs a public-domain masterpiece behind the panel's dark glass. Ten paintings ship with the app (Van Gogh, Vermeer, Hokusai, Monet, Turner, and friends), rotating on a half-hour clock. Pin the one you love, or add your own images and they join the rotation.

You can also rename your companion, give it a personality in one line, set its size and walking speed, choose where the chat window opens, and reduce animation.

Privacy

Private by default is an architecture, not a promise. The short version:

  • With a local model, nothing leaves your Mac at all. Conversations, memory, documents, and module data live in your user account, and sensitive stores are encrypted at rest.
  • Content goes to a cloud provider only if you configure one, and only when you submit a request.
  • Private mode, on by default per module, pins email, Telegram, bank statements, study material, and browsing to the local model even when hosted AI is enabled elsewhere.
  • Screen reading takes one snapshot when you ask, converts it to text, and throws the image away. Voice is on-device and only while you hold the button. Crash reports are off by default and shown to you verbatim before sending.
  • API keys live in the macOS Keychain. Updates are signed and verified before they can install. Delete any or all local data any time.

The full policy is in the app and at sistine.ai/privacy.

Points and the Ghosts

Sistine Ghosts is a collection of 2,222 generative ghost companions on Solana. Every ghost is grown from a hash: one algorithm, 2,222 tokens, no two alike, spanning 35 trait types from body and cloth to motion and presence. Most ghosts are calm and clean by design; the loud ones are rare on purpose.

  • Minting is free for app users and opens at launch. Get any Solana wallet, claim your one-per-person voucher in the app, and mint with one click. The app never generates or holds keys, and the network fee is under a cent.
  • Holders verify with a plain-text signature, never keys, and their own ghost comes to life on the desktop. Verification is read-only and cannot move funds.
  • The Exchange module browses the whole collection offline with trait filters and rarity ranks, reads live floor and volume from Magic Eden, and links out for trading. Non-custodial always.
  • Points reward showing up (daily claims by plan tier) and holding (accrual per verified token, computed on-chain-exactly). Levels run Rookie to Mythic. Points and credits have no monetary value, are never sold or airdropped, and only ever redeem inside the app.

The ghost renderer derives from a p5.js sketch at openprocessing.org/sketch/1138728 (CC BY-SA 3.0), substantially reworked; the artwork is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Keyboard shortcuts

ShortcutAction
⌥ SpaceToggle chat from any app (configurable)
⌘OOpen chat from the menu bar
⌘NNew conversation
⌘⇧SSummarize my screen
⌘⇧VAsk about clipboard
EscCancel voice, then back to Home, then collapse the panel
⌘⇧RRescue the chat window to its default size and position
⌘,Settings

FAQ

Is Sistine free?

Yes. The whole app runs free on your own hardware with a one-click local model, forever. Paid plans add web search ($9/mo), hosted models ($19/mo Plus, $49/mo Pro), and the most room on Max ($199/mo).

Does Sistine send my data anywhere?

Not by default. With a local model nothing leaves your Mac. Cloud providers see only what you send them, only when you ask, and private mode keeps your mail, messages, statements, study material, and browsing local even then.

What Macs does it run on?

macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. Apple Silicon gets the best local models; Intel Macs run smaller ones.

Can I use my ChatGPT or Claude subscription?

Yes, for the Code module. Sign in once with your own account and your subscription does the coding. Chat and the other modules keep using your companion's own model, since subscriptions don't allow general use in other apps.

What can the assistant actually do on my Mac?

Only what you enable, and anything with a side effect (opening links, calendar events, Shortcuts, running commands) shows an approval card naming the exact action, every time. Background runs fail closed.

How do I get a Sistine Ghost?

Get the app at launch. Minting is free for app users at launch: one voucher per person, minted straight to your own Solana wallet.

Questions this page doesn't answer: support@sistine.ai