Calamo
Now on the Mac App Store
Calamo
Private AI. On your computer. For real.
A polished AI assistant for macOS that runs powerful open-source language models entirely on your machine. Chat with it. Ask it questions about your PDFs. Nothing you type or attach ever leaves your computer.
An AI assistant that respects your privacy
Most AI tools work by sending everything you type to a server somewhere — usually one owned by a company that logs it, analyses it, and may use it to train the next model. That trade-off is fine for casual questions. It is not fine for the work that actually matters: client documents, medical notes, financial spreadsheets, the half-baked ideas you want to think through in private.
Calamo takes a different approach. The entire AI runs locally on your Mac using Apple’s MLX framework and the on-board Neural Engine of Apple Silicon. There is no server. There is no account. There is no telemetry. After a one-time model download on first launch, the app works fully offline — you can turn off your Wi-Fi and it will keep responding.
What you can do with Calamo
Conversational AI
Brainstorm, draft, debug code, learn a new topic, or just talk through an idea. Streaming responses with proper Markdown rendering.
Drop in a PDF, ask anything
Drag a PDF into the chat. Calamo reads, indexes, and answers questions using only that document. Perfect for research papers, contracts, or long reports.
Organised threads
Every chat is saved automatically and lives in a sidebar, like a proper desktop app. Pick up where you left off — or delete a conversation for good.
Apple Silicon performance
Built on Apple’s MLX framework and tuned for the M-series Neural Engine. Real-time token streaming, low memory pressure, zero idle battery impact.
Genuinely offline
One internet connection on first launch to download the model, then never again. Use it on a plane, in a cabin, in a secure facility — anywhere.
One-time purchase
No subscription. No usage tiers. No tokens to count. Pay once on the Mac App Store and own it. Future updates are included.
The privacy promise, in plain words
Calamo collects nothing. That is not marketing language — it is verifiable in the Mac App Store privacy nutrition label, which lists every category as Data Not Collected.
- No accounts. You never sign in. There is nothing to sign in to.
- No telemetry. The app never reports usage, crashes, or analytics off-device.
- No prompt logging. Your conversations live in a local database on your Mac and nowhere else.
- No document upload. PDFs you drop in are parsed locally. The content never leaves the machine.
- One outbound connection, ever. The model is downloaded from a public open-source repository on first launch. After that, the app makes zero network calls.
How it works
- Install from the Mac App Store. Calamo is a sandboxed, code-signed Mac app. It installs like anything else, with no setup, no command-line steps, and no admin password.
- One-time model download. On first launch, the app explains exactly what it needs — an open-source language model, roughly 2 GB — and asks you to start the download. Nothing happens until you tap the button.
- Start chatting. Open a new conversation and ask anything. Drag a PDF into the window and ask about its contents. Every response is generated on your machine, in real time, with the cached model.
- Go offline whenever you like. Once the model is on disk, no further connection is required. Calamo runs entirely from local memory and your CPU/Neural Engine.
System requirements
Mac
Any Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer)
macOS
14 Sonoma or later
Memory
8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
Storage
Around 3 GB free for the AI model
Built by Oxin Studio
Calamo is made by Oxin Studio Inc., an independent software studio focused on private, well-crafted desktop apps. We believe useful AI does not have to come at the cost of your privacy, and that great desktop software is still worth making. Calamo is our take on what a personal AI assistant should be: fast, local, polite about its limits, and yours alone.
Common questions
Does Calamo really work without an internet connection?
Yes. After the one-time model download on first launch, Calamo runs fully offline. Airplane mode, no Wi-Fi, no Ethernet — it does not care. The model lives on your disk and runs in your Mac’s memory.
Which AI model does it use?
Calamo ships with Llama 3.2 3B, a respected open-source model from Meta, in a 4-bit quantised version optimised for Apple Silicon. It is fast, capable, and small enough to run comfortably on any M-series Mac. Support for additional models is on the roadmap.
How is this different from other AI apps?
Most AI apps are thin clients for cloud services — everything you type is sent to a server, processed there, and the response is sent back. Calamo runs the entire model on your machine. No requests are made. No data leaves your Mac. The privacy guarantee is structural, not just a policy.
Can I use it with my own documents?
Yes. Drag any text-based PDF onto a conversation and Calamo will parse it, index it, and answer questions about its contents. Everything stays on-device. Scanned image PDFs are not supported in this version.
Is there a Windows version?
A Windows version is being evaluated for future release. Calamo for Mac is the first product in the Calamo line; subscribe to updates if you want to be notified when other platforms are available.
What if the AI gives a wrong answer?
It will sometimes. AI-generated responses can be inaccurate or outdated — that is true of every language model, cloud or local. Treat Calamo as a thoughtful first-pass collaborator, not an oracle. Verify anything important.
Try Calamo today
A one-time purchase. No subscriptions. No accounts. No tracking. Just useful AI that lives entirely on your computer.