A quiet companion for your Mac
A little less to remember. A little more room to think.
Wren is your personal execution companion for macOS. Capture what matters. Remember what needs doing. Let the important things stop slipping through the cracks.
Preview for macOS 14+ · Free during the preview
Illustration of the app. This website doesn't connect to your calendar, inbox or accounts.
See it first
Wren in one minute.
The real app on a real Mac: the menu-bar list, the main window, reminders and ChatGPT requests. Watch it, then decide whether to download the preview.
A little more room to think
Less remembering.
More doing.
Wren helps turn the things you mean to do into things you can actually follow through on. Capture a thought, keep track of a commitment, ask a connected tool to do a piece of work, and return when it is finished.
- CaptureType or say it in ordinary words.
- RememberDates become deadlines and reminders.
- DelegateSend a piece of work to a tool you connected.
- ReturnCome back to the result when it's ready.
01 / Capture, naturally
One place to capture what matters.
Start with a sentence, not a form. Give Wren a task, a commitment, a deadline or a reminder in ordinary language, then review what needs doing.
A global shortcut opens a small capture panel over whatever you're doing. Wren saves your exact words first, reads any date in them, and turns “I need to finish this report by Friday” into a task called Finish this report, due Friday. Moving, snoozing and completing work the same way: “move the research task to Sunday”, with a preview you confirm.
Available in the development build Works without any account, and without AI. An optional local model on your Mac can improve how sentences are read.
Illustrative task view
02 / Speak, naturally
Just say what needs doing.
Wren is being built around a simple idea: your personal assistant should fit into the way you already work. A quick voice command or keyboard shortcut should be enough to capture a thought, create a reminder or start a supported action.
- Hold ⌥Space anywhere: Wren says it's listening
- Speak while you hold the keys
- Your words appear as they're recognised
- Let go: the microphone turns off and Wren transcribes on your Mac
- Wren runs it through the same path as typing, and shows the result
In development
The voice pipeline is built: Wren uses Apple's on-device speech recognition and refuses to run if on-device recognition isn't available, and no audio is stored. It hasn't yet been verified end to end with a real microphone. Wren never listens in the background: the microphone opens only when you press the shortcut or click Voice, and closes when your command ends. Voice works only while Wren is running and you've allowed Microphone and Speech Recognition.
WrenIllustrative voice interaction
03 / Give the work a place to go
Ask GPT. Get on with your day.
Sometimes you do not need another assistant explaining everything to you. You need a tool to do a piece of work, finish it, and let you know when it is ready.
Say or type “Ask GPT to research the fundamentals of quantum physics.” Wren opens it on the ChatGPT website, in your own account, so it becomes a normal ChatGPT conversation you can continue and find in your history. Link that conversation in Wren and you're back in it with one click. Prefer the answer inside Wren? Switch to running it with your connected ChatGPT plan, and Wren tells you when it's done.
- No API key and no separate billing: the website is your own ChatGPT, and the in-Wren option uses your plan through Sign in with ChatGPT.
- Only your request is sent. Nothing else from Wren is attached unless you add it yourself.
- Honest status. Wren doesn't remote-control the ChatGPT website, so a website request shows “awaiting your submission”, never “done”. Results run in Wren stay in Wren, and Wren never claims they're ChatGPT conversations.
Requires account authorization A real request on a ChatGPT plan has been run through this pipeline in the development build. It needs a ChatGPT plan that allows app sign-in.
Illustrative request history
04 / Attention, not alerts
Your inbox, without the noise.
Your inbox holds more than messages. It holds decisions, opportunities, deadlines and things worth remembering. Wren is being built to help you notice what deserves attention and leave the rest alone.
The design: a short morning email digest, a quiet alert only when something genuinely urgent arrives, and a reason next to everything Wren highlights, which you can correct. Spam and Trash are never looked at, and email is sorted on your Mac by rules, never sent to an AI service.
- Reading messagesHeaders, labels and Gmail's short preview. Read-only permission.In development
- Assessing priorityWren's own reading, on your Mac. It changes nothing in Gmail.In development
- Marking a message as readA separate permission you'd grant on purpose, for one action on one message.In development
- Sending, archiving, deletingNot something Wren does.Not planned now
Built and tested with simulated mail. Connecting a real Gmail account is waiting on Google sign-in setup for the app.
Fictional, illustrative messages. Not a connected inbox.
05 / A thought becomes a next step
Remember it now.
Let Wren remind you later.
Reminders are handed to macOS's own notification system when you set them, so a reminder that was scheduled successfully can still arrive after you've quit Wren, as long as notifications are allowed and macOS delivers them. Completing, snoozing or moving it updates what's scheduled, without duplicates.
In development Scheduling is built and tested. A final live check of delivery after quitting is still to be done. A quit Wren doesn't listen for “Hey Wren” or check email.
- Set“Remind me to call Sam tomorrow at 10.”
- SavedIn Wren, with its time and status.
- ScheduledHanded to macOS notifications.
- DeliveredmacOS shows it at the time.
- Done or snoozedRight from the notification.
Illustrative notification. Delivery depends on your notification settings and macOS, including Focus.
06 / One quiet companion
At home on your Mac.
Wren is designed to feel at home on your Mac: nearby when you need it, out of the way when you do not. One app, one bird in the menu bar, a main window when you want to look around, and a small panel when you just want to get something down. Closing the window keeps Wren nearby; quitting it means it has stopped.
Illustration, not a screenshot of a released build.
Connected, by choice
Your tools. Your permission. One quieter workflow.
Wren is being designed to work with the tools you already use. Connections are explicit, permissions matter, and an integration should be honest about what it can actually do.
Statuses describe the current preview, which you can download. This site never asks for access to your email, calendar or AI accounts; downloading only asks you to sign in with Google.
“Ask GPT” opens your request on the ChatGPT website as a real conversation, or runs it in Wren with your plan.Website: no sign-in in Wren. In Wren: sign in on OpenAI's own page; uses your ChatGPT plan, not an API key.
Requires account authorizationFind what deserves attention, a daily digest, quiet alerts for urgent mail, and Mark as read when you allow it.Read-only by default. Waiting on Google sign-in setup for the app.
In developmentUnderstand what's coming up: “what meetings do I have tomorrow?”, today's events in your briefing, and a reminder from any event.Read-only. The calendars already on your Mac need one macOS permission; Google Calendar directly needs the Google sign-in.
In developmentA voice shortcut and a Voice button, through the same path as typing, with a chance to edit what you said. Never listens in the background.Apple's on-device speech recognition. Needs Microphone and Speech Recognition permission.
In developmentSearch and read pages you've given Wren access to, include one in a request, and create a page after you confirm.Early work exists; it isn't verified with a real workspace yet.
Coming soonFind and summarise the work conversations and mentions that need you.Planned. Nothing has been built yet.
Coming soonWork with documents you choose, with explicit permission for each.Planned.
Coming soonConnect Wren to the automations you already use on your Mac.Planned.
Coming soonA different kind of assistant
Useful technology should feel like less technology.
- i.
Capture without friction
Express what needs doing in ordinary language. Wren saves your words first, and nothing you type is lost because something else failed.
- ii.
Local-first foundations
Your items, reminders, goals and history live on your Mac. The core of Wren works without an account or an internet connection.
- iii.
Connections by choice
External accounts are connected deliberately, and what Wren can do with each one depends on the permissions you grant. Disconnecting is one click.
- iv.
Actions, not just answers
Wren is built to help you follow through: set the reminder, hand off the piece of work, and bring you back to the result.
- v.
Quiet by design
Fewer interruptions, with the important commitments still in view. An alert should earn its place.
Why Wren?
Small bird. Quiet presence. Thoughtful purpose.
A wren is a small bird. The name felt right for a companion that should be useful without becoming the centre of attention: alert to what matters, close at hand when needed, and otherwise happy to let you get on with your day.
Wren is not meant to take over your work or your decisions. It is meant to help you keep hold of what matters, make room for the next step, and return your attention to the things you care about.
Independently built
A personal project.
A thoughtful purpose.
Wren is an independent project, designed and built by Shibaditya Deb.
Wren is being built around a simple ambition: create a useful everyday Mac companion that can help people capture commitments, delegate work and keep important things from being forgotten, without demanding constant attention in return.
The project is evolving in the open. Its design, implementation and roadmap continue to grow as the product becomes more useful.
Free during the preview
Good things take a little care.
Wren costs nothing for now.
Wren is currently free to use during its preview. There is no Wren subscription, no in-app purchase, and no charge from Wren for the features available in the current preview.
Connected providers have their own permissions, eligibility requirements, quotas and terms. Wren's ChatGPT connection uses your own ChatGPT account and plan rather than an API key you'd pay for separately; requests count toward your plan's usage, and the plan must allow apps to use it.
- No Wren subscription during the current preview.
- No Wren in-app purchase.
- No paid feature tiers or checkout flow.
- Third-party accounts and services remain subject to their own requirements.
- Future pricing, if any, will be communicated transparently.
Privacy
Your Mac. Your data. Your control.
Privacy is a product decision, not a line in the footer. Wren is designed around local-first foundations and explicit connections to external services. You should understand what stays on your Mac, what leaves it, and why.
Read the Privacy PolicyStays on your Mac
- Your items, reminders, goals, history and settings, in Wren's folder in your user Library.
- Voice: Wren uses Apple's on-device recognition and doesn't store audio.
- Email triage runs on your Mac, by rules.
- The optional local AI model runs on your Mac through Ollama.
Leaves only when you ask
- A request you send to GPT goes to OpenAI with your account, with only the text you chose.
- Connected accounts are read with the permissions you granted, when a feature needs them.
- Email content is never sent to an AI service.
- No analytics or tracking in the app or on this website.
Yours to inspect and remove
- Export your items and history, and make or restore backups.
- Disconnecting an account revokes Wren's access and deletes its sign-in and cached mail.
- “Remove all Wren data” deletes everything and signs out of connected accounts.
- Sign-in tokens are private files in Wren's folder, readable only by your macOS user, not the Keychain.
Good things take a little care.
Wren is still finding its wings. Try the preview, and follow along as it grows into the companion it was meant to be.
Download the preview Follow the journey (opens GitHub in a new tab)