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Melvin
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Get Melvin for Mac.

One signed download, the macOS permissions you choose to grant, and an assistant that can actually drive your apps. Here is everything that happens between the download and your first task.

Public beta

Melvin 0.4.2

Apple Silicon · macOS 14 or newer · Released July 2026

The download is tied to an account — that is what the 30-day trial and your run allowance are counted against. Creating one is free and takes no card.

What’s new in 0.4.2How Melvin is secured

Available for Apple Silicon Macs. Windows coming later.

Installing it

  1. 1

    Open the disk image

    Double-click the downloaded Melvin-arm64.dmg, then drag Melvin onto the Applications folder in the window that opens.

  2. 2

    Launch Melvin from Applications

    Eject the disk image first so you are running the installed copy. Melvin opens its Home workspace and adds a menu bar icon plus a floating pill you can call up from anywhere.

  3. 3

    Grant the permissions you want it to have

    Onboarding walks through Screen Recording, Accessibility, Automation, and Microphone. Only Screen Recording is required — onboarding waits for that one. Accessibility is the next one worth granting: one grant covers the apps Melvin works with, instead of a separate Automation prompt for each.

  4. 4

    Sign in and give it a task

    Model access and web search come with your account, so there are no API keys to paste. Type or speak the first thing you want done.

System requirements

  • macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer
  • Apple Silicon (M1 or newer); Intel Macs are not supported in this build
  • At least 1 GB of free disk space
  • An internet connection for model access and web search

What macOS will ask you for

Onboarding walks through the first four. The rest macOS asks for the first time a task needs them. Every prompt comes from macOS itself, and you can revoke any of them later in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Screen Recording

Required

Lets Melvin see what you are looking at so it can act on it. Screenshots are used for the task you asked for and are not retained.

Accessibility

Recommended

Lets Melvin read window contents and drive the keyboard and mouse. This is the grant worth prioritizing: one grant covers the apps Melvin drives, sparing you a long tail of per-app Automation prompts.

Automation (Apple Events)

Recommended

The AppleScript path into Mail, Calendar, Reminders, and Safari. macOS asks separately the first time each app is touched, so Accessibility does most of this work for you.

Microphone

Recommended

Voice input. Recording starts when you click the mic and stops when you click it again — never in the background.

Calendar and Reminders

Optional

Read your schedule and create events or reminders. Skip it and calendar tasks are the only thing you lose.

Contacts

Optional

Resolves the right address when you ask Melvin to email or message a person by name.

Location

Optional

Weather, nearby places, and other answers that depend on where you are.

What it works with

Gmail and Apple Mail

Search Gmail through its read-only API, with Apple Mail and IMAP fallbacks. Drafts by default; sending asks first.

Apple Calendar

Read events, find free time, prepare calendar changes. Invites that include other people ask first.

Chrome

Attach to the frontmost tab, fill forms, extract text, and run multi-step site flows with your real session.

Notes, Reminders, Files

Read and write Notes, manage Reminders, find and save files by name or contents.

iMessage

Read recent threads; sending asks first. WhatsApp is not supported.

Slack (setup once)

Connect a workspace user token under Settings → Your apps. List channels, catch up, post. Posting asks first. No desktop-app fallback.

Google Docs (setup once)

Grant Docs access under Settings → Your apps. Find by title, read, append, or replace a named section. Writes ask first.

Mac GUI without a rail

For Finder rename/organize and similar native UI with no dedicated API tool. Ordinary Mail, Calendar, and Messages stay on their own rails — not a promise to drive every app.

Using it with your Chrome

Most of Melvin works the moment you install it. Driving your own Chrome — the one already signed into your mail, work, and school — is one extra opt-in step, because it needs a small browser extension. Melvin never takes over your screen; it opens only the tabs a task needs.

  1. 1

    Open Melvin’s browser settings

    Settings → Browser. Melvin prepares a ready-to-load extension folder for you and shows a Reveal extension folder button. Keep Melvin running while you do this.

  2. 2

    Load it into Chrome, once

    In Chrome, go to chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode (top right), click Load unpacked, and choose the folder Melvin revealed. Chrome 116 or newer.

  3. 3

    That’s the whole setup

    The Browser card in Settings flips to Connected. You never touch it again — Melvin re-links itself each launch, so restarts and updates just work.

The extension talks only to the copy of Melvin running on your own Mac, over a local-only channel that is authenticated on both ends. It is not on the Chrome Web Store yet, which is why the one-time Load-unpacked step exists.

If something goes wrong

macOS says Melvin cannot be opened
The build is signed and notarized, so this normally means the copy is still quarantined — for example it was moved between machines. Control-click Melvin in Applications, choose Open, then confirm once.
I granted a permission but Melvin still cannot act
macOS applies Screen Recording and Accessibility grants when an app restarts. Quit Melvin from the menu bar icon and launch it again.
I have an Intel Mac
This build is Apple Silicon only. There is no Intel build, and Rosetta will not help because the native helpers are arm64.
How do updates work
Melvin checks the stable release channel and updates itself in the background, so you only need to download from this page once.
How do I remove it
Quit Melvin, drag it from Applications to the Trash, and delete the ~/.melvin folder to clear local state. Revoke the permission grants in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Still stuck? The help page covers setup in more depth, and feedback reaches us directly.

Privacy on macOS

Melvin executes locally. A model request sends only the context needed for the task you initiated. Gmail access is read-only, credentials are stored with the macOS Keychain, and optional diagnostics are redacted. Read the privacy policy for the full breakdown.

Other platforms

Windows is not available yet. Melvin for teams is handled separately — see Teams for shared deployment and billing.