Get started with Osaurus in five minutes

Osaurus is a free Mac app for using AI. You chat with it, and it hands jobs to a small team of assistants that look after your calendar, mail, files, and research. Your chats, memories, and settings stay on your Mac.

This guide takes you from download to your first useful chat. It takes about five minutes.

What you'll need

• A Mac with an M-series chip (M1 or newer)
• macOS 15.5 or later
• About 4 GB of free space if you want AI that runs privately on your Mac

No account, no credit card, no setup in the Terminal.

Step 1: Install the app

1. Download Osaurus from osaurus.ai. The file ends in .dmg.
2. Open it and drag Osaurus into Applications.
3. Open Osaurus. A quick way: press ⌘ Space, type "Osaurus", and press Return.

The app is signed and checked by Apple, so it opens without security warnings. It updates itself, so you only do this once.

Tip: Want to chat offline the moment it opens? There's also a full download of about 4 GB with the Raptor 0.7 model already inside. It's linked from each release's notes.

Step 2: Choose how your AI runs

The first time you open Osaurus, a small welcome window appears. Click Get started, and Osaurus asks one question: What matters most to you?

Here's how to pick:

• Keep it private, on this Mac. Osaurus downloads Raptor 0.7, an AI model that runs on your Mac. It's free, works offline, and nothing you type leaves your computer. The download is about 3.7 GB, and you can start chatting while it finishes. Pick this if you're not sure.
• Start chatting right away. Uses Osaurus Cloud. There's nothing to download, and you get free credit to start.
• Use an AI account you already have. Sign in with ChatGPT, Grok, or OpenRouter, use Claude Code, or paste an API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and others.

Not sure what a "model" is, or why local matters? What is a local model? explains it in plain English.

Tip: Stuck on any screen? Click the dino. It explains that step.

Step 3: Meet your team

Your first chat opens with a short hello, followed by your team. Each teammate is an agent that looks after one part of your day.

You don't have to remember who does what. You always talk to Osaurus (the Orchestrator), and it picks the right teammate for you.

1. Pick a teammate and try one of its tasks, or type your own, like "help with my mail".
2. Click Allow when macOS asks. The first time a teammate needs one of your apps, such as Calendar or Mail, your Mac asks for permission.
3. Click Meet Another Teammate to try someone else, or Done to finish.

Every teammate asks before it sends, changes, or deletes anything.

Step 4: Open a chat from anywhere

This is the habit worth building. Wherever you are on your Mac, press ⌘; (Command and semicolon) and the chat window appears.

1. Press ⌘; from any app.
2. Type a question, like "What's on my calendar this afternoon?"
3. Press Return. The reply appears as it's written.
4. Press ⌘; again to hide the window.

You're set up

That's everything you need. A few things to try next:

• Run your first workflow. Click Workflows on the left edge of the window and click Run next to Morning Brief. See the Morning Brief guide.
• Let it work on a folder. Click the folder button in the message box and ask for a summary. See Work on your files.
• Talk instead of typing. Click the microphone in the message box. Your voice is turned into text on your Mac.

Next up: what a local model actually is, and why it matters for your privacy.