Nathan HaringBack to work
In progressNative Prototype · Local Agents

In development · macOS · SwiftUI · Python runtime · Local agents

Plumb Desktop

Your computer can do more before AI needs to.

Plumb Desktop explores a simple idea: computers can already do a great deal of useful work without asking a model to decide every step. Define a trigger, name an action, choose its permission, and observe whether the expected effect happened. AI is optional—not a prerequisite for automation.

The separate, shipping plumb CLI ↗

Origin

How it started

The CLI asks what evidence supports a claim about a repository. The native prototype explores a related question about automation on your computer: what can it do, what may it do, and how will you know it actually happened? It is a separate, unfinished product direction—not a shipped GUI for the CLI.

Features

What it does

  • Start with a bounded agent

    The current Create screen configures a watched folder, file extensions, destination, permission, pre-existing-file policy, and local run-mode choice.

  • Permission is part of the definition

    Ask each time, move automatically, or only watch. Capability and permission are different: knowing how to move a file does not mean the agent is allowed to do it.

  • Observe both sides of the action

    A file-move effect is checked against the source and destination. The model in the homepage explains this boundary without touching the visitor's filesystem.

  • Say what is not built

    The native Connect screen is explicitly unavailable. Local-program and scheduling work exists in the underlying runtime, but those choices are not yet exposed in the current native Create flow.

Under the hood

Engineering

  • One engine, a native projection

    SwiftUI views communicate with a Python runtime through a JSON boundary. Keeping the core behavior in the runtime avoids a second, divergent implementation inside the interface.

  • Confirmation is not a boolean

    The runtime requires current owner confirmation of the exact behavior being installed. The inspected prototype still needs its native confirmation flow aligned with that contract before the Start path can be presented as verified.

  • Working evidence, unfinished integration

    The scoped setup suite passed 37 checks, including a temporary-folder move, refusal behavior, derived AI requirements, and pre-existing-file handling. The native UI was inspected separately. Those tests are not a claim of signed distribution or a completed end-to-end desktop product.

Stack

  • macOS · SwiftUI
  • Python local runtime
  • JSON engine boundary
  • File observation · Effect verification
  • Explicit owner confirmation