Proboscis

Your computer, within reach. A voice assistant that runs on your own Mac, and answers when you call from your iPhone.

Proboscis is a voice assistant that runs on your own Mac. Call it from your iPhone wherever you are and talk naturally: it listens, thinks, answers out loud, and can get things done for you.

How it works

Your Mac does the thinking. Speech recognition (Whisper), the language model (Qwen) and the voice (Qwen3-TTS) all run on your Mac. No cloud AI service hears your conversations. Your iPhone is the microphone and speaker.
Your own private network. The iPhone reaches the Mac over Tailscale. Pair once by scanning a code on the Mac.
Tools, with your OK. Connect MCP servers, signing in with OAuth and choosing exactly what each may do, and use built-in Mac tools for apps, Shortcuts and files. Anything that could change or delete something asks first: say yes or no, or tap.
Light when you're not calling. The language model unloads when it's idle and wakes when you call: the Mac rings, says hello, and answers within seconds.

Requirements

A Mac with Apple silicon and at least 32 GB of memory (the language model alone uses about 19 GB). About 22 GB of models download on first launch.
An iPhone. The iPhone app is in beta on TestFlight: request an invite.
Tailscale on both, signed in to the same account.