A free, private team of AI agents that lives on your Mac, remembers everything, and actually does the work. No subscription, no cost — runs on free cloud AI tiers by default, or 100% offline on Ollama.
Not a chatbot. A doer — with a crew. SAM researches, remembers, and takes real action on your Mac (web, files, terminal, email, calls, GitHub), and when a job's big it assembles a team of specialist agents to tackle it in parallel — all running free on your own machine.
Free forever · Local-first & private · 40 free AI brains · A team of agents · Ask-first safe
curl -fsSL https://richhabits.github.io/sam/install.sh | bashmacOS · Linux — one paste. Windows: irm https://richhabits.github.io/sam/install.ps1 | iex
⭐ Star SAM if you want a free, private AI that actually does the work.
Most "AI assistants" just talk. SAM works:
- 🤝 A team of AI agents — for a big job SAM assembles a crew (research, code, writing, strategy, growth, deals) that runs in parallel and synthesises one answer. Plus 🥷 the Ninjas — a problem squad that hunts down blockers, debts and loose ends.
- 🐝 The Swarm — long-running, continuous background agents that survive restarts and pause to ask for your approval on risky actions.
- 🧠 40 free AI brains, auto-rotating — Groq · Cerebras · NVIDIA · DeepSeek · Gemini · Mistral · GitHub Models · SambaNova · Together · Fireworks · and 20 more. One hits a limit, it hops to the next.
- 📐️ 167 real tools — web, files, terminal, email, iMessage, calls, calendar, music, camera & vision, screenshots, GitHub (read, commit, push, PRs).
- ⏰ Scheduled Tasks — run background routines on a cron (hourly, daily, weekly) e.g.,
/schedule daily 09:00 | summarize the news. - 📱 iOS Companion — drop notes to SAM from your iPhone/Watch via an iCloud folder; text notes are processed instantly, voice memos when Whisper is installed.
- 💻 Native desktop app — Mac/Windows/Linux desktop UI with a global
⌥Spacehotkey to summon SAM anywhere. Build it withnpm run build:mac(or:win/:linux). Note: package the app from a path with no spaces — native modules can't build otherwise (the web app has no such restriction). ✈️ Autopilot — lifts the routine work autonomously; the serious stuff still asks. And it reaches out first with a morning brief + nudges.- 👁️ It can see — looks through your camera, knows your people by sight ("hey Alex"), and 🛡️ Guardian mode watches for intruders.
- 🧭 Semantic memory · 💼🏠 Business & Personal minds · 📍 live progress tracker · 🗣️ two-way voice.
- 🎨 Skins — Jarvis HUD, Ember, Stealth. Clean premium UI, light/dark, streams as it types.
- 🔒 Private by design — your keys, memory, vault and documents stay on your machine. Only the prompt you send goes to the brain you pick (and nothing at all in offline/Ollama mode).
| SAM | ChatGPT Desktop | Typical open chat UI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free (£0/mo) | $20/mo | Free |
| Runs on your machine | ✅ | ❌ cloud | ✅ |
| Works fully offline | ✅ (Ollama) | ❌ | |
| Takes real actions | ✅ 167 tools | ❌ mostly chat | |
| Team of agents | ✅ parallel crew | ❌ | ❌ |
| Your data stays home | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Free brains, auto-rotating | ✅ ~40 | n/a | ❌ bring your own |
| One-paste install | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ usually setup |
| Telemetry | none | yes | varies |
macOS / Linux:
curl -fsSL https://richhabits.github.io/sam/install.sh | bashWindows (PowerShell):
irm https://richhabits.github.io/sam/install.ps1 | iexDetects your OS, downloads the right build, verifies the SHA-256, installs it, and launches SAM. Re-run any time to update. Then open http://localhost:8787 — free out of the box, no key or setup.
(macOS also: brew install --cask richhabits/tap/sam.)
Download SAM — works free out of the box, no API key needed:
- Mac (Apple Silicon M1–M4): open the
.dmg→ drag SAM to Applications → right-click → Open (once — it's unsigned) - Windows: run
SAM-Setup-…exe→ if SmartScreen appears, click More info → Run anyway (once — it's unsigned)
"Windows says the file isn't safe" / "Windows protected your PC" — that's expected, and it's not actually unsafe. It's the exact same build our CI tests; Windows just shows this for any app that isn't code-signed (a paid publisher certificate), until the app builds download reputation. To proceed: if your browser flags the download, choose Keep; when the blue SmartScreen box appears, click More info → Run anyway. (Mac shows the same kind of prompt — right-click → Open.) The permanent fix is code-signing — see below.
Every release ships SHA-256 checksums in its notes (auto-generated by CI). To confirm your installer wasn't tampered with, compute the hash and match it:
- macOS / Linux:
shasum -a 256 SAM-*.dmg - Windows (PowerShell):
Get-FileHash SAM-Setup-*.exe -Algorithm SHA256
The builds are currently unsigned (the one-time "unverified app" warning is expected — see above). Removing that warning needs a code-signing certificate; the exact steps + costs are in docs/SIGNING.md, and CI signs automatically the moment the certs are added.
Prerequisites: Node.js 20.19+ or 22.12+ — or skip this: ./setup.sh installs it for you.
Paste these into Terminal exactly as-is (they're clean — no comments to trip up zsh):
git clone https://github.com/richhabits/sam.git
cd sam
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm startThen open http://localhost:8787, tell SAM your name, and go — SAM works free out of the box, no key needed. Want more speed or image/video? Add a free key in ⚙ Settings (optional — never required, and never by editing files).
Mac / Linux — prefer one command?
git clone https://github.com/richhabits/sam.git && cd sam && ./setup.sh
⚠️ Windows — do NOT use that one-liner. Windows PowerShell doesn't understand&&, and./setup.shis a Mac/Linux script (you'll getThe token '&&' is not a valid statement separator). Instead, the easiest path on Windows is the Download button — no terminal at all. If you really want source: run the commands one line at a time in PowerShell:git clone https://github.com/richhabits/sam.git cd sam npm install npm start(or
.\setup.ps1). Then double-clickSTART-SAM.batto launch any time.
No keys? You don't need any — SAM runs free out of the box. For a fully-offline brain, install Ollama; for more speed/power, add a free key in Settings (optional — 60 seconds).
👶 Want dead-simple, step-by-step instructions? See FREE-BRAINS.md — the baby-steps guide: ~15 minutes of copy-paste gets you fast, free AI that basically never runs out.
Open ⚙ Settings → API keys in the app and paste one or more. SAM rotates across all of them.
| Provider | Get a key | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Groq | console.groq.com/keys | fastest, generous free tier |
| Cerebras | cloud.cerebras.ai | blazing fast |
| NVIDIA | build.nvidia.com | capable, generous |
| Google Gemini | aistudio.google.com/apikey | adds photo/vision |
| Mistral | console.mistral.ai | free tier |
| GitHub Models | github.com/settings/tokens | free with a GitHub token |
More providers = more headroom, still free (one account each — SAM rotates across them). Nothing bills you unless you deliberately add a paid provider.
SAM ships generic — it becomes about you as you use it:
- Your name & style — set at first run; SAM adapts.
- Your brands/projects — edit
server/projects.ts, or drop avault/brands.json(gitignored — stays private) and SAM loads it. - Your memory — SAM learns as you chat; lives in
vault/on your machine only. - Your keys & voice — all in Settings, stored only in your local
.env.
Everything personal lives in gitignored local files — so you can share the code freely without sharing your world.
TypeScript brain (Express, one process) + React/Vite UI · model-agnostic agent loop · rotating key pool ·
semantic memory & tool routing (embeddings) · SSE streaming · markdown vault (no database).
npm start builds the UI and serves everything on port 8787.
npm start # build + run the whole app
npm run dev # dev mode with hot reload
npm test # run the test suiteSAM checks for updates on launch — a few seconds after boot it compares your checkout against the remote and, if a newer version exists, prints an "✨ Update available" note (and shows a banner in the app). Getting it is one git pull (or the in-app Update now button, which does a safe fast-forward). It never pulls behind your back or touches your local edits.
Same Wi-Fi (easiest): ⚙ Settings → 📱 Use SAM on your phone → Turn on phone access → restart SAM → scan the QR with your phone camera. It opens SAM already signed in; tap Share → Add to Home Screen to install it like an app (camera, voice, everything). A private token gates every request; loopback stays untouched.
From anywhere (free, private, encrypted): install Tailscale on your Mac + phone (both free, ~5 min) — then reach SAM from any network at http://<your-mac>.<tailnet>.ts.net:8787 over an encrypted mesh, no ports opened, no data through anyone's cloud. Best of both: private and everywhere.
- Local-first. Your keys, memory and data stay on your machine.
- Ask-first. Anything risky (sending, deleting, pushing, running commands) pauses for your explicit OK — or grant a standing "always allow".
- No telemetry. SAM doesn't phone home.
Proprietary — © 2026 HECTIC. All rights reserved. See LICENSE. Shared for personal use and testing; not for redistribution or commercial use without permission.
S.A.M. — it doesn't just answer. It handles it.