# macOS Projects at AI Tinkerers

> Canonical HTML: https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/macos
> Markdown URL: https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/macos.md
> Technology record last updated: 2026-09-18T15:13:48Z
> Generated: 2026-10-09T17:43:43Z

Automate macOS environments using Homebrew for package management and Zsh scripts to orchestrate local developer setups.

Standardize local environments by combining Homebrew (the missing package manager for macOS) with native Zsh or Bash scripting. Use `brew bundle` to manage dependencies via a Brewfile: this ensures every machine runs identical versions of Git, Node.js, or Docker. Scripting automates the heavy lifting by symlinking dotfiles, configuring `defaults write` commands for system preferences, and installing CLI tools. This approach eliminates manual configuration drift and cuts onboarding time from hours to minutes.

- Official technology site: https://brew.sh
- Public AI Tinkerers demos and talks: 7
- Result page: 1 of 1

## Recent Public Talks and Demos

### [Sage - Personal Agent with custom UI, based on Pi](https://boston.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_TeO_3xh0L7w)

Self-modifying agent for a personal use based on Pi (running on a home server), with a custom web UI and phone app. I'll demo the app end-to-end with the web and discuss the approach and the technology used, with a focus on Pi, which I think many folks could learn from.

- Event context: AI Tinkerers Boston: Agentic AI Systems — 2026-09-28 — Boston
- Public talk page: https://boston.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_TeO_3xh0L7w

### [Who do you trust with the keys](https://wellington.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_qfaqOJP3MfU)

Local agentic tool use is powerful, but full of stories of leaked credentials and deleted files. I’ll show example posts of the issue, some approaches to protect against it, play code and demo of user-level protection in practice.

- Event context: AI Tinkerers Wellington: Inaugural Meetup · 26 August 2026 — 2026-08-26 — Wellington
- Public talk page: https://wellington.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_qfaqOJP3MfU

### [Mac Companion](https://islamabad-rawalpindi.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_TJdw2lkaKBQ)

Mac Companion is a native macOS voice agent, with three modes: Transcription (live, Parakeet/Whisper), Companion (notch-anchored async shell), and Assistance (voice-to-tool-calls, coming next)

- Event context: AI Tinkerers Islamabad - July 18, 2026 — 2026-07-18 — Islamabad Rawalpindi
- Public talk page: https://islamabad-rawalpindi.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_TJdw2lkaKBQ

### [From Autonomy to Observability: Running AI Agents Safely on Your Own Machine](https://seattle.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_NbyMxlacro8)

AI agents are getting better at taking action, but most local setups still behave like black boxes. Once an agent can run commands, open ports, or spin up background processes, the real challenge isn’t intelligence, it’s knowing what’s actually happening on your machine. In this demo-driven talk, I’ll show how I’ve been experimenting with local-first AI agents that execute real system actions, and why I had to build observability alongside execution. I’ll demo two open-source tools: Deskmate, a local execution agent, and Riva, a local monitoring layer that makes agent behavior visible. We’ll look at real examples of agent workflows, failure modes, resource usage, and how visibility changes how much you can trust autonomy. The goal is not to pitch a framework, but to share lessons learned from running agents locally and open up a discussion on what responsible agent tooling should look like.

- Event context: AI Tinkerers Seattle Meetup: Dev Tools Track — March 9th, 2026 — 2026-03-10 — Seattle
- Public talk page: https://seattle.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_NbyMxlacro8

### [Big Models, Small Machines: Run Full-Precision LLMs on Low Memory](https://london.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_xXYe9n5TkH0)

Running LLMs on edge devices often means choosing between expensive hardware or accuracy loss from quantization. This talk will present a custom inference strategy that enables running full-precision models on low-memory machines. For example, a 1.7B parameter model can run on an 8GB Mac at full precision with minimal memory footprint. Note that I have been able to run a SmolLM2-1.7B with as little as 250MB as an example. The demo will walk through the approach, show it in action, and discuss challenges/trade-offs and potential real-life applications, and next steps for improving.

- Event context: AI Tinkerers x MongoDB - Demopalooza — 2025-10-07 — London
- Public talk page: https://london.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_xXYe9n5TkH0

### [Edge AI: exploring the capabilities of Apple’s VLM](https://raleigh.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_55jgZ4RgKLY)

Apple has released a VLM that’s a quantized fine tuned version of Qwen they’ve optimized for iOS and macOS Apple Silicon devices. I want to show some experiments on when it works and when it fails. For example how good is it at Q&A? How responsive to prompting is it? What languages can it work with both visually and textually? Are resource usages different on different hardware? What tunability does Apple offer by default?

- Event context: AI Tinkerers - Raleigh Inaugural Meetup (September 2025) — 2025-09-30 — Raleigh
- Public talk page: https://raleigh.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_55jgZ4RgKLY

### [Remember anything & interact with everything with Pieces for Developers](https://cincinnati.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_tFtjjW_oeAA)

Learn how Pieces for Developers uses advanced RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) paired with LLMs to give developers long-term memory superpowers.

- Event context: AI Tinkerers - Cincinnati Inaugural Meetup (October) — 2024-10-30 — Cincinnati
- Public talk page: https://cincinnati.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_tFtjjW_oeAA

## Related Technologies

- [Linux](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/linux) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/linux.md)) — 7 public demos
- [Access control lists (ACLs)](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/access-control-lists-acls) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/access-control-lists-acls.md)) — 1 public demo
- [Agent SDK](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/agent-sdk) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/agent-sdk.md)) — 3 public demos
- [Apple MLX](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/apple-mlx) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/apple-mlx.md)) — 1 public demo
- [BERT](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/bert) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/bert.md)) — 179 public demos
- [BLOOM](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/bloom) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/bloom.md)) — 115 public demos
- [Claude Code](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/claude-code) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/claude-code.md)) — 226 public demos
- [Cloudflare Access](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/cloudflare-access) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/cloudflare-access.md)) — 1 public demo
- [CPU](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/cpu) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/cpu.md)) — 3 public demos
- [Deno](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/deno) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/deno.md)) — 8 public demos
- [Deskmate](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/deskmate) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/deskmate.md)) — 1 public demo
- [GPT-3](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-3) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-3.md)) — 191 public demos
- [GPT-4](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-4) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-4.md)) — 529 public demos
- [GPT-5](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-5) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-5.md)) — 30 public demos
- [GPT 5/6](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-5-6) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/gpt-5-6.md)) — 1 public demo
- [iOS](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/ios) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/ios.md)) — 8 public demos
- [Llama-2](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/llama-2) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/llama-2.md)) — 227 public demos
- [MCP](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/mcp) ([Markdown](https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/mcp.md)) — 133 public demos