Manual

Ancilo at a glance

Ancilo brings an AI to your Mac that runs entirely on your computer. You chat with it, let it work with your files or program with it. Your questions, documents and answers do not leave the computer – except where you explicitly allow it, such as for web search.

The AI is a language model that Ancilo downloads once and then runs locally. How well and how fast it answers depends on the model and on your computer. Small models run on computers with 8 or 16 GB of memory too, but are more likely to make mistakes. Check important information.

• Requirements: a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 13 Ventura or later.
• Disk space: a model needs roughly 1 to 40 GB, depending on its size.
• You need the internet to download models and updates – and for web search, if you turn it on. Otherwise Ancilo works offline.

Install, start, update

Open the downloaded Ancilo.dmg and drag Ancilo into the Applications folder. Start Ancilo from there. The app is checked (notarized) by Apple and starts without a warning.

Ancilo consists of the window and a background service that starts when you log in. You work in the window; the background service loads the models and does the work. When you close the window, Ancilo stays available through its icon in the menu bar: “Open Ancilo” opens the window again, “Check for Updates…” looks for a new version, “Quit” ends the app.

You install updates with one click from the menu bar. If you like, Ancilo looks for updates daily by itself: turn on “Look for updates automatically” under System. Nothing is ever installed without your consent.

From version 0.4.1, “Settings…” (⌘,) in the “Ancilo” menu goes straight to System, and “Help” leads to this manual.

Setting up

On first start, “Set up” guides you through everything needed in five steps. You can change each step later with “Set up” in the header.

• What do you want to use Ancilo for? – “Chat and write”, “Programming” or “Work with my documents”. The recommendation follows from it.
• The AI for your computer – Ancilo checks memory and chip and recommends a model that runs well on it, with its download size and the memory it needs. One click downloads and starts it.
• Consideration for your computer – how much of your computer Ancilo may take (see “Consideration for your computer” below).
• Claude Code and Codex – only if you use one of these programming assistants. Otherwise skip it.
• Projects and documents – a project for something you want to build, and a folder of documents you want to ask questions about. Both can wait.

How the app is laid out

At the top left you choose one of the three areas: “Chat” (speech bubble), “Tasks” (computer) and “Code” (brackets). Below are the area's conversations, tasks or projects. You can drag the edge of the left column to make it wider or narrower.

The header has “Set up” and “System”, and from version 0.4.1 also “Manual”. On the right you choose the “Expert view” and the language (DE/EN). The expert view also shows models and roles, comparisons, Coding Tasks, changes in detail and a terminal – you do not need it day to day.

The bar at the bottom shows how your computer is doing (“All calm”, memory, processor) and whether Ancilo is working. A click on it opens the resource settings.

Chat

“New chat” starts a conversation. Enter sends, Shift+Enter starts a new line. While Ancilo works, you see what is happening – “Loading the model …”, “Searching the web …”, “Writing the answer …” – and after a few seconds a clock.

If no model is loaded, the first question loads one. Depending on the model and computer this takes a few seconds to a few minutes; after that Ancilo answers quickly. After a break, Ancilo frees the memory again – when depends on the resource setting.

You rename or delete conversations in the left column. Ancilo answers in your language.

Documents and projects in Chat

With the paperclip next to the input – or by dragging and pasting – you give a conversation documents: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel and other spreadsheets, CSV and text files, and on the Mac photos and scans (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP). Ancilo reads them in a sandboxed process on your computer and keeps only their text. Answers name where they found something, e.g. [Contract.pdf, page 3].

For photos and scanned PDFs, Ancilo recognizes the text with macOS text recognition. Text recognized this way is marked “text recognized – may have mistakes”. A conversation with documents stays with the AI on this computer for good: it never goes to a cloud model.

For folders you keep asking about – contracts, manuals, receipts – you add a chat project under “Projects” with “Add a folder”. Ancilo reads the documents in it and keeps them current; chats in the project answer from these documents. Ancilo changes nothing in the folder. The project page shows what was read and what was not – with the reason.

Web search

For current facts, Ancilo can look things up on the web. It is off until you turn it on under System in “Web search”. You choose where to search: “Wikipedia” (no account) or “Google (through Serper)” with your own free key from serper.dev – the app explains the three steps.

Whether Ancilo asks before a search is decided by the “Web search” switch next to the input – one switch for Chat, Tasks and Code. When it is off, Ancilo shows you the search words and searches only once you agree; you can change the words. When it is on, Ancilo searches by itself when needed.

Only a short search query goes to the provider, never your whole question or the conversation. Note: in conversations with documents and in tasks, an automatically chosen query may contain words from your documents. If you do not want that, keep the switch off there. Answers with web search name their sources.

Tasks

In “Tasks”, Ancilo works with your files: make a spreadsheet of invoices, summarise contracts, sort photos by year. “New task” first asks for the folder (“Choose a folder”; the dialog opens in Documents), then “What should Ancilo do?” – with examples to click. You simply drag more files onto the input.

Ancilo never works directly in your folder, but in a copy that holds only what the task changes. That is why a task starts at once, even with large folders. When Ancilo is done, a card lists every change: new, changed, deleted, moved.

Ancilo reads documents, searches them, writes text, Excel and Word files and moves, renames and deletes files – all in the copy only, without commands and without access outside the folder. Text in documents is never taken as an instruction.

• “Keep” applies the changes to your folder. If you changed something there in the meantime, Ancilo writes nothing and says which files are affected.
• “Drop” leaves your folder as it is.
• “Undo” takes kept changes back – as long as the files have not changed since.
• Your home folder itself, Library and system folders cannot be used for tasks. Files that are only in iCloud and hidden files are left out.

Code

In “Code” you program with a local agent. A project is a folder; “Add project” creates one. In a session you describe what should be built or changed. The agent reads, changes files and runs commands – in a copy of the project, and commands in a sandbox without network and without access to your keys and personal data.

Below the input you choose the access: “Confirm each step” – the agent asks before every change and command – or “Work on its own” (the default). Either way, your project changes only when you keep the changes; after that they can be undone. The expert view shows changes in detail and a terminal.

Claude Code and Codex

If you use the programming assistants Claude Code or Codex, they can hand simple tasks – tests, renames, small fixes – to the AI on your computer. That saves costs and usage limits. Connect them under System in “Claude Code & Codex” with “Connect”; the assistant needs to be installed.

What handed-over tasks may do at most is set in Code under “Coding Tasks” (expert view), where you also see running tasks. Codex asks before each call of an Ancilo tool. What the cloud assistant itself processes is still up to its provider.

Models

Under System in “Models” you see your models and their state. “Start” loads a model; “Find another model” leads to recommendations for your computer – with quality, speed, download size and the memory needed. Models that do not fit your computer are marked, and Ancilo does not load them.

With several models, Ancilo shares the work between them: for example an all-rounder for chat and a specialist for programming. The expert view shows these roles and allows comparisons.

Documents, tasks and code always stay with models on this computer. Ancilo uses cloud models only if you add one yourself – and even then never for your documents or your code.

Consideration for your computer

An AI needs a lot of memory while it works. Under System in “How much of your computer may Ancilo take?” you set how much Ancilo may take. Ancilo never loads a model your computer has no room for right now, and frees memory when it gets tight.

“Right now” shows what Ancilo, other programs and free memory take up, which model is loaded and when it will be unloaded. “Unload all now” frees all memory at once.

• Eco – small model variants, memory freed after 5 minutes, your other programs always come first.
• Balanced (recommended) – answers quickly and frees the memory after a 15-minute break.
• Performance – stays ready for an hour and uses more precise variants when there is room.
• Maximum – models stay loaded; Ancilo no longer considers other programs, which may slow down.

What leaves your computer

Questions, answers, documents, tasks and code stay on your computer. Ancilo collects no usage data. Access keys – for Serper, for example – are kept in the macOS keychain.

Ancilo goes online only for: the model list and model downloads from Hugging Face, web search if you turn it on, and looking for updates. More on the page about privacy in the app.

• Privacy in the app

When something does not work

If that does not help, send us a short description. Useful are the Ancilo version, Mac model, memory, the model and the log files from ~/Library/Application Support/ancilo/logs/ (they may contain search queries, but no keys).

Removing Ancilo: quit Ancilo from the menu bar icon (“Quit”), drag the app from Applications to the Trash and, if you like, delete your data in ~/Library/Application Support/ancilo and the background service ~/Library/LaunchAgents/app.ancilo.daemon.plist.

• “This model needs about … of memory, but only about … are free right now” – close programs that use a lot of memory, or choose a smaller model. Under System, “Right now” shows who takes how much.
• The answer takes long – look at what the chat shows: loading a model for the first time takes longest. On computers with little memory, a smaller model helps.
• “Connecting Claude Code failed” – is Claude Code or Codex installed and callable in the Terminal? The message says where Ancilo looked for the assistant.
• A document cannot be read – very large files (over 50 MB), password-protected PDFs and files only in iCloud are not read; the message gives the reason.
• “Ancilo is not running” – open Ancilo from Applications or through the menu bar icon; the background service then starts again.

• Report a problem or send an idea