The full story · Jun 2026 to now · solo · 120 commits

Mei

An AI assistant built into the GNOME desktop that does things for you, and asks first.

600automated tests, about

38design decisions written down

10+model providers, local and cloud, behind one interface

0passwords it will ever type

The hard parts

A web page must not be able to give it orders

Problem: An assistant that reads files and pages can be tricked by text inside them into doing something harmful.
What I did: The approval rules live outside the model. Anything irreversible, involving secrets, or suggested by a file or page always asks you first.

Running commands without risking the machine

Problem: A useful assistant has to run commands, and commands can destroy things.
What I did: Commands run in a jail that sees only the folders you name, read-only by default, with no network unless you allow it.

Using apps the way a person would

Problem: Most desktop apps have no API for an assistant to call.
What I did: It reads a window's controls through accessibility and clicks and types for you. It never types passwords, and one key press stops it instantly.

It kept hearing itself

Problem: Talking over Mei through laptop speakers made it cut its own replies short and take its own words as a request.
What I did: I read every real conversation and measured echo cancellation in a sandboxed audio lab. Talking over Mei now needs the canceller or earphones, instead of hiding the symptom.

Also in it

Local models (Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio) and cloud models behind one interface
Finds, reads, writes and moves files; opens apps and switches windows
Memory you can search, pin, keep local or delete
On-device voice by default
Background tasks with notifications
"Ask about this" on the current window
An installer for apt, dnf, pacman and zypper that needs no sudo
API keys kept only in the system keyring

Built with

GitTypeScriptAutomated testingLLM APIsPythonArchitecture decision recordsLinuxTool callingHuman-in-the-loopBashSSELocal models (Ollama)Prompt-injection defenceSpeech (STT / TTS)pytestGNOME Shell extensionsGJSSQLiteComputer-use agentsSandboxing

Honest gaps

It is in active development and not released yet.

Watch the demo See the code All projects