--- title: "hako: a small character on your Mac" description: "hako is a small character on your Mac that does your chores, explains what you circle and talks with you in one warm voice. It shows the plan first, checks its work after, and keeps an Undo." image: "https://hakoai.co/opengraph-image" --- # Nothing changes until you press Return. hako is a small character on your Mac that does your chores, explains what you circle and talks with you. It shows the plan first, reads every result back and keeps a one-click Undo. - macOS 15 or later - Native Swift - No login - Built-in chores work offline [Join the waitlist](https://hakoai.co/#waitlist) **Read back**: Every result checked. **Plan first**: A card with the counts. **Undo**: One click, for 7 days. ### In numbers - **≤ 200 ms** Stop all, from the key to the last effect - **0** network calls for a built-in chore - **7 days** to undo any change - **4,300+** automated tests in the repository ## How it works: Five steps, every chore. A model only reads what you meant. It never clicks, never decides a count and never edits your files. - **01 Ask.** Ask in plain words. Type in the bar or click Talk, typos and all. The matcher on your Mac reads what you meant. (Matcher · 0.05 ms median) - **02 Plan.** See the plan, with counts. Code works out exactly what will happen from your files and shows a card. Nothing has moved yet. (Duplicates card · 48 ms) - **03 Approve.** Press Return. The card is the permission: only its files and its verb can change. Esc cancels. (A card is a capability) - **04 Read back.** Every result, read back. Apple’s own frameworks do the work. Then code checks each result before it says done. (38 trashed and re-checked · 108 ms) - **05 Undo.** Undo in one click. The undo record is written before the change. Removed files go to the Trash, never deleted outright. (38 put back · 7 ms) Timings measured on an M4 Pro (docs/specs.md › Speed). One chore, “clean up duplicate downloads”, as the app prints it: ```text plan: Trash 38 duplicates from Downloads E2 Trash 38 · each byte-identical to its original Keeps 6 that differ from their original Keeps 4 with no original 3 changed in the last 10 minutes; not included. 2 are in iCloud only; not touched. Frees about 76 MB Sent to plan this: nothing (no model call) receipt: Done. 38 trashed, nothing deleted. Undo for 7 days. undo: Put back 38. All where they were. ``` ## What it does Every panel below is redrawn from the app’s own renders, word for word. ### Circle anything to explain Press ⌃⌥⌘C and loop an error, a chart or a paragraph. Only the inside of your loop is sent. ### Talk to hako Click Talk and it answers aloud, then listens until you say “that’s all”. Speech is recognised on this Mac. ### The notch, like Dynamic Island On a Mac with a notch, it shows what hako hears, does and says. ### Replies from Gmail or Mail Say “just sum up” on an open email. Drafts land in that account’s Drafts. ### History, kept on this Mac Chats and circled pictures by day, for 30 days. Never uploaded, never sent to a model again. ### Pick your hako Four characters in five colours and three sizes, or None for just the buttons. ### The characters - **Box buddy** (the default): hako means box. A soft box with its lid worn like a cap. - **Orb buddy**: The orb you know, now with a small body. - **Pixel box**: The box in crisp pixels. Sharp even when tiny. - **Mochi**: One soft, squishy shape. Calm and easy to read. - **None**: Just the buttons, no character. Colours: Lavender, Sky, Rose, Snow, Graphite. Sizes: S, M, L. Done stays green and waiting stays amber in every colour. ## Works with what’s already on your Mac. Apple’s own frameworks do the work, and Apple Events only where an app has no framework. - **Mail** (Apple Events): Reply drafts and summaries. A send waits for a card and a 20-second hold. - **Gmail in Chrome** (Apple Events): The open message, found in Mail. Only the tab’s title and address are read. - **Calendar** (EventKit): Events read back and undoable. “what’s next?” needs no model call. - **Reminders** (EventKit): Reminders read back, with Undo. - **Contacts** (Contacts): A name you say, turned into an address. - **Files** (FileManager): Desktop, Downloads, Documents: move, rename, Trash. Never deleted. - **PDFs** (PDFKit): Merge, split, rotate and find words. The originals are never touched. - **Photo files** (ImageIO): Convert, resize and strip location, as new copies beside the originals. Connecting soon: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, GitHub. ## Private by default. Easy to stop. - **No login, no account, no tracking.** Built-in chores need nothing. Your own API key, if you add one, stays in your login Keychain. - **Removed files go to the Trash, never deleted.** The undo record is written before every change, and Undo lasts 7 days. - **Chats and circled pictures stay on this Mac.** Kept 30 days for History, then deleted. Never uploaded, never put in a prompt again. **Stop all (⌃⌥⌘.).** One flag that every action and every model call checks first. hako stays halted until you choose Resume. ### What leaves your Mac Without a key nothing leaves your Mac except what you approve: a send through Mail or Calendar, Zoom or Motion once connected, and the natural voice’s download when you press Download. With your key, hako also talks to `api.anthropic.com`, and sends it only: - Your words when the matcher misses, with file names masked - Your chat words, once chat is on - An email or a document, after a reading card you click - The area you circle - Screenshot text, if you turn on screenshot naming - The shapes of past runs (verbs, counts, sizes) during nightly practice Menu › Privacy lists everything sent off your Mac today. More: [the site’s own privacy page](https://hakoai.co/privacy.md), about the waitlist and the sales form. ## Free on your Mac. Pro at launch. Everything that runs on your Mac is free, with no account. Pro adds chat, circle to explain and email help, with no API key to set up. ### Free: $0 When the signed download is ready - Everything on your Mac: chores, voice, Undo, rules, history. - No account and no usage limit. - Chat and circle to explain with your own API key. ### Pro (at launch): $10.99 / month or $99.99 / year · 14-day free trial Everything in Free, plus: - Chat with hako, with no API key to set up. - Circle anything on screen to have it explained. - Email summaries and reply drafts. - Answers from your PDFs and documents. - 1,200 credits a month: about 400 circles or 6,000 chat replies. - Every card shows its credits before you approve. ### Enterprise: Talk to us For teams on managed Macs - Pro for everyone on one invoice at a volume price. - Help deploying to managed Macs. - A direct line to the builder. Paid through Lemon Squeezy, with a license key instead of an account. Prices and the credit allowance may change before launch. Team plans come later. On your own key, the caps compiled into the app: $0.50 a task before it asks, $1.50 an hour, $3 soft and $6 hard a day, $1 a night for practice. ### Talk to sales Pro for a team, deployment to managed Macs, or something else. Tell us what you need. [The form on the page](https://hakoai.co/#sales) asks for a name, a work email, the company, the team size (5–20, 21–100, 101–500, More than 500), what you need (Pro for everyone, Deployment to managed Macs, Single sign-on, Data kept in one region, Invoice billing, Something else) and anything else. Used only to reply to you, and deleted once the request is closed. ## Join the waitlist One email when the signed download is ready. Join at https://hakoai.co/#waitlist: an email address, and if you like, the first chore you’d hand it. We'll email you once, when the signed download is ready. No tracking. Your address is used for that one email and nothing else. In a browser with WebMCP, the page also offers the tool `join_hako_waitlist`, which uses the same form. ## Questions ### Do I need an API key? No. Screenshots, duplicates, sorting, PDFs, photos, renames, events, reminders, dictated replies, the mail digest and finding words in a PDF all work offline with no key. Your own API key, from the Anthropic Console, adds chat, explaining what you circle, reply bodies, answers about a document and phrasings the matcher misses. It is kept in your login Keychain, on this device only. At launch, Pro adds the same features without a key. ### Can I use it today? Not yet: there is no signed download. Join the waitlist and you’ll get one email when it is ready, and no other. ### What does Pro cost? $10.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a 14-day free trial; in Korea about ₩17,000 a month, tax included. Pro isn’t on sale yet: it starts at launch, and the amounts may change before then. Everything that runs on your Mac stays free. ### What’s a credit? About one cent of cloud AI use. On the planned rates a chat reply is 0.2 credits, an email summary 1, a reply draft 3, a circle 3, and a question about a PDF 1 for every 5 pages, at least 3. Every card shows its credits before you approve. Pro comes with 1,200 a month. ### Do you sell to teams? Yes, through Enterprise: Pro for everyone on one invoice at a volume rate, help deploying to managed Macs, and a direct line to the builder. Use Talk to sales. Team plans come later. ### Can I change how hako looks? Yes. Settings › Character has Box buddy, Orb buddy, Pixel box and Mochi, in five colours and three sizes, or None for just the buttons. Done stays green and waiting stays amber in every colour. ### Which Macs does it run on? macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. The natural voice needs Apple silicon. ### Can it delete my files? No. Removed files go to the Trash and nothing is deleted outright. Duplicates are trashed only after code compared every byte, and checked again afterwards. Undo puts them back. ### What permissions does it ask for? Only what a chore needs, when it needs it: Desktop, Downloads or Documents for file chores; Calendars, Reminders and Mail inside your own request; the microphone and Speech Recognition only after you turn voice on; Screen Recording only the first time you circle something. It asks for no Accessibility or Input Monitoring. ### Why does the app say Tally? The project was called Tally until October 2026. The app and its code still use that name, and move to hako in a later change, together with your saved key and data. ### Is it open source? Not yet. The code is private for now. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"SoftwareApplication","@id":"https://hakoai.co/#app","name":"hako","applicationCategory":"UtilitiesApplication","operatingSystem":"macOS 15 or later","description":"hako is a small character on your Mac that does your chores, explains what you circle and talks with you in one warm voice. It shows the plan first, checks its work after, and keeps an Undo.","url":"https://hakoai.co/","image":"https://hakoai.co/opengraph-image"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://hakoai.co/#site","name":"hako","url":"https://hakoai.co/","description":"hako is a small character on your Mac that does your chores, explains what you circle and talks with you in one warm voice. It shows the plan first, checks its work after, and keeps an Undo.","inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://hakoai.co/#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Do I need an API key?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No. Screenshots, duplicates, sorting, PDFs, photos, renames, events, reminders, dictated replies, the mail digest and finding words in a PDF all work offline with no key. Your own API key, from the Anthropic Console, adds chat, explaining what you circle, reply bodies, answers about a document and phrasings the matcher misses. It is kept in your login Keychain, on this device only. At launch, Pro adds the same features without a key."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I use it today?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Not yet: there is no signed download. Join the waitlist and you’ll get one email when it is ready, and no other."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What does Pro cost?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"$10.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a 14-day free trial; in Korea about ₩17,000 a month, tax included. Pro isn’t on sale yet: it starts at launch, and the amounts may change before then. Everything that runs on your Mac stays free."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What’s a credit?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"About one cent of cloud AI use. On the planned rates a chat reply is 0.2 credits, an email summary 1, a reply draft 3, a circle 3, and a question about a PDF 1 for every 5 pages, at least 3. Every card shows its credits before you approve. Pro comes with 1,200 a month."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Do you sell to teams?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, through Enterprise: Pro for everyone on one invoice at a volume rate, help deploying to managed Macs, and a direct line to the builder. Use Talk to sales. Team plans come later."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I change how hako looks?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes. Settings › Character has Box buddy, Orb buddy, Pixel box and Mochi, in five colours and three sizes, or None for just the buttons. Done stays green and waiting stays amber in every colour."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Which Macs does it run on?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. The natural voice needs Apple silicon."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can it delete my files?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No. Removed files go to the Trash and nothing is deleted outright. Duplicates are trashed only after code compared every byte, and checked again afterwards. Undo puts them back."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What permissions does it ask for?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Only what a chore needs, when it needs it: Desktop, Downloads or Documents for file chores; Calendars, Reminders and Mail inside your own request; the microphone and Speech Recognition only after you turn voice on; Screen Recording only the first time you circle something. It asks for no Accessibility or Input Monitoring."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does the app say Tally?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The project was called Tally until October 2026. The app and its code still use that name, and move to hako in a later change, together with your saved key and data."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is it open source?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Not yet. The code is private for now."}}]}]} ```