Nathan HaringBack to work
LiveNative Mac App · Private Intelligence

macOS · AppKit + WKWebView · Apple Foundation Models · SQLite · Local embeddings

Locker

Your inbox. Your Mac. Your call.

Locker is a private inbox for the Mac, not simply an automation layer over Apple Mail. A native shell brings together a local interface, mail services, on-device intelligence, and meaning-based search. The Today view organizes attention into priority items, flags, suggested replies, and a review path for the rest.

inbox.locker ↗
Locker — image 1 of 1

Origin

How it started

An inbox holds years of decisions, relationships, and context. I wanted useful intelligence without first making a remote copy of all of it. Locker began with local mail automation and grew into a standalone application, with the interface and the processing close to the person who owns the mail.

Features

What it does

  • A Mac application, end to end

    An AppKit shell hosts the local interface in WKWebView and coordinates bundled services, native notifications, attachments, and updates. Mail connectivity includes IMAP and a separate Apple Mail bridge.

  • Intelligence on the device

    A Swift helper integrates Apple Foundation Models for supported Macs. Local triage and summaries are designed to work beside the inbox; availability depends on the device and its model support.

  • Search by meaning, locally

    A bundled MiniLM embedding model and SQLite-backed storage keep the semantic index on the Mac. Remote model downloads are disabled in the embedding configuration.

  • An inbox with boundaries

    The screener, drafts, and review-oriented controls make intervention visible. The goal is useful assistance with room for a person to check an action before committing to it.

  • A daily view of the work

    The Today dashboard brings together priority messages, radar flags, suggested replies, subscription navigation, and a review-and-clear entry point. AI judgments still need scrutiny; a confident label is not proof of correctness.

Under the hood

Engineering

  • Native does not have to mean one rendering technology

    The application combines AppKit and WKWebView with bundled local services. That split makes the mail and intelligence pipeline available to a rich interface while preserving native integration points such as notifications, file handling, and updates.

  • Privacy is a set of explicit boundaries

    Local mail storage, a bundled embedding model, and on-device inference reduce reliance on remote processing. That does not mean the app never connects to the network: mail providers, licensing, updates, and optional cloud integrations have separate boundaries that must be described honestly.

  • Do not make the inbox wait for the whole pipeline

    The v0.5.17 release work separates import, triage, and backfill from waiting on every AI result. A usable inbox should not be held hostage by the slowest stage of its enrichment pipeline.

Stack

  • macOS · Swift · AppKit
  • WKWebView
  • Apple Foundation Models
  • TypeScript · Next.js
  • Bundled local Node services
  • Prisma · SQLite
  • MiniLM local embeddings
  • IMAP · Apple Mail bridge
  • Sparkle updates