maic

Puts the AI in mac.

A tiny local CLI that turns a plain-English description into the right macOS-specific shell command, using the on-device model shipped with macOS (Apple's FoundationModels framework).

Everything runs on-device — no network, no API key, nothing leaves your Mac.

$ maic list files in this dir sorted by size, largest first
ls -laS

$ maic show my primary local IP address
ipconfig getifaddr en0

With the zsh integration enabled, the suggested command is placed on your prompt instead of just printed — ready to run, edit, or discard, exactly as if you'd typed it:

$ maic flush the DNS cache
# …a beat while the on-device model thinks…
$ sudo dscacheutil -flushcache && sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder█   ← now on your prompt

Press Enter to run it (it lands in your shell history like any command you typed), edit it first, or Ctrl-C to discard. Nothing runs on its own.

Because it's told to assume the BSD userland that ships with macOS, it prefers stat -f, sed -i '', pbcopy, mdfind, networksetup, etc. — not GNU/Linux flags.

Requirements

• macOS 26 or later on Apple-Intelligence-capable hardware (Apple silicon).
• Apple Intelligence must be turned on: System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri → turn on Apple Intelligence. The model downloads in the background the first time; until it's ready maic will tell you so.
• Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install) — full Xcode is not required.

Install

One line — downloads the latest release, verifies its checksum, installs to ~/.local/bin, and enables the zsh integration (set MAIC_NO_SHELL_INIT=1 to skip that):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/emarref/maic/main/install.sh | bash

Pin a specific version, or install somewhere else:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/emarref/maic/main/install.sh | bash -s -- v0.1.0-beta.1
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/emarref/maic/main/install.sh | PREFIX=/usr/local/bin bash

Download a release manually

Prebuilt arm64 binaries are attached to each GitHub Release. Download maic-<version>-macos-arm64.tar.gz, then:

tar -xzf maic-<version>-macos-arm64.tar.gz
cd maic-<version>-macos-arm64
# The binary is ad-hoc signed, not notarized, so macOS quarantines it on download.
# Clear the quarantine flag once:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine maic
./maic --version
# then move it onto your PATH, e.g.:
mv maic ~/.local/bin/

Verify the download against the published .sha256 if you like:

shasum -a 256 -c maic-<version>-macos-arm64.tar.gz.sha256

Build from source

For hacking on maic, or if you'd rather build locally than download a release:

./build.sh                # builds release, installs to ~/.local/bin/maic
# or choose a location:
PREFIX=/usr/local/bin ./build.sh

Or just build in place:

swift build -c release
.build/release/maic <your request>

Usage

maic <what you want to do>          suggest the command
maic --init zsh                     print the zsh integration (for ~/.zshrc)
maic -h                             help

Shell integration (zsh)

maic never runs anything on its own. Instead it hands you the command to run, edit, or throw away. The install.sh one-liner wires this into your ~/.zshrc automatically; from a source build, add it yourself:

eval "$(maic --init zsh)"

Then maic <task> places the suggested command on your next prompt, editable and cursor-ready. Press Enter to run it (it enters your shell history normally), tweak it first, or Ctrl-C to discard.

Why a shell function rather than doing it all in the binary? A child process can't type into its parent shell's line editor — so the command is handed back to zsh (via print -z), which is also what makes it land in your history and lets cd or export actually stick.

Skip the automatic setup with MAIC_NO_SHELL_INIT=1 when installing. To remove the integration later, delete the block between the # >>> maic shell integration >>> and # <<< maic shell integration <<< markers in your ~/.zshrc. Without the integration (or in a pipe, $(…), or a non-interactive shell) maic simply prints the command, so x=$(maic …) still works.