millfolio

Get started

millfolio runs entirely on your Mac (Apple Silicon). The easiest way in is the Mac app — one download, no terminal. Prefer the command line? The mill CLI is right below. Either way, your data never leaves the machine.

⚠︎ Experimental. millfolio is an early research project — not ready to trust with data that truly matters yet.

recommended

Download the Mac app

One download, no terminal, no Homebrew — a signed, notarized native macOS app. Grab Millfolio.pkg from the latest release and double-click to install:

Download Millfolio.pkg →

On first launch the app sets itself up — it downloads the on-device engine and runtime and gets everything ready in a progress window (a one-time setup of a few minutes, no terminal). Then it opens millfolio in its own window. Your first question also downloads a model (several GB) from the in-app model catalog, so give the first run a little time and disk space.

The app keeps itself up to date — “Check for Updates…” lives in the millfolio menu-bar icon, and it also checks automatically in the background.

command line

CLI (Homebrew)

Note: XCode is required, including Metal extensions `xcodebuild -downloadComponent MetalToolchain`

Install the mill CLI from the tap:

brew install millfolio/tap/mill

Then set up the vault and ask:

# engine + weights + privacy-box + the local site (one time)
mill install
mill index ~/vault   # embed your documents on-device
mill start           # http://localhost:10000
mill stop            # shut it all down when you're done

# or one-shot from the terminal:
mill ask "When does my car insurance renew?"

testers

Testing pre-release builds

Pre-release (-rc) builds ship on a separate mill-dev channel that installs alongside the stable mill — its own Homebrew formula, its own mill-dev binary.

First time — install the dev CLI, then provision and start:

brew install millfolio/tap/mill-dev
mill-dev install
mill-dev start        # http://localhost:10000

To move to a newer pre-release, upgrade and re-run install:

brew upgrade millfolio/tap/mill-dev
mill-dev install      # refreshes the downloadable components

Everything else mirrors mill, under the mill-dev name:

mill-dev index ~/vault
mill-dev ask "How much did I spend on groceries?"
mill-dev status       # what's installed
mill-dev stop

⚠︎ mill and mill-dev share one install footprint, so run one at a time — mill stop (or uninstall it) before starting mill-dev, and vice-versa.

Requirements

A Mac with Apple Silicon (M-series), macOS 14+.
The first mill install downloads several GB of model weights.
An Anthropic API key — required to ask questions about your vault. Turning a question into a program over your data (the code-generation step) runs on the frontier model only; the on-device model isn't capable enough to write correct vault programs, so there's no local fallback for that step. Without a key a vault question hard-errors and asks you to set one. Set it in your environment before installing — it's read from there:
```
# macOS: add to ~/.zshrc, then reopen your shell
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-…
mill install
```
Only program-writing uses the frontier model, and only an aliased, frontier-safe manifest of your vault is ever sent — your raw data never leaves the Mac (see the privacy box). On-device chat and the embeddings/indexing that power search run fully locally and need no key. An in-app API-key field is coming for the native app, so .app users won't need the environment variable.

By using millfolio you accept the disclaimer — no warranty, no liability, privacy by design but not guaranteed.

New to it? The walkthrough runs the whole flow end to end on a sample vault, and the privacy box explains why your data stays private.

View millfolio on GitHub Source & docs

Uninstall

millfolio is self-contained: the engine, the toolchain, and the model weights all live under a single folder — so removing it is clean, with nothing scattered across your system.

# stop everything, then remove the CLI + tap
mill stop
brew uninstall millfolio/tap/mill
brew untap millfolio/tap

# unload + remove the launch agents (inference server + app server)
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/me.millfolio.server    2>/dev/null
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/me.millfolio.appserver 2>/dev/null
rm -f ~/Library/LaunchAgents/me.millfolio.server.plist \
      ~/Library/LaunchAgents/me.millfolio.appserver.plist

# everything else — bundle, toolchain, AND the model weights — is one folder:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Millfolio
rm -rf ~/.config/millfolio   # your on-device index (built by `mill index`)