Atticus is a macOS menubar voice assistant that uses Claude (Pro/Max via claude -p) and Apple's on-device speech to let you control your Mac by holding ⌃⌥Space and talking. It performs fast, policy-safe actions like arranging windows, opening apps, searching file contents, reading the screen, typing replies into apps, and playing music. Simple recurring tasks become learned shortcuts that run instantly without AI; more complex requests are handled by Claude Code in a sandbox that can only write to a scratch folder. Audio never leaves the machine, dangerous commands (rm, sudo, disk tools, shutdown) are blocked by default, and every exact command is logged and confirmed before destructive actions run.
Installation and operation are scripted (curl install) and require macOS 26 or later, a paid Claude plan with Claude Code, and Apple command-line tools; Peekaboo is optional for clicking inside apps. The project includes Swift and Python components (Atticus.swift, atticus.py), a web-based overlay UI, tests, and a selftest. Cost and performance targets are tight: median AI asks under $0.002 and ~5-6 s, with a cited per-ask plan cost of about $0.14¢ (~700 asks/$1). Anonymous daily usage counting is optional, updates run at login by default, and the code is MIT-licensed.
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