AAmbient
Beta download

Download Ambient for your Mac.

Install the app, let it connect, and Ambient will wait quietly in your menu bar until your Mac is idle, plugged in, and free to help.

Download Ambient
Ambient 0.2.1 · released April 28, 2026
Apple Silicon (M1 or later) macOS 13 or later Internet for first-time setup
Setup

Three steps, then you're done.

1
Download the app

Download Ambient.app.zip from this website, unzip it, then drag Ambient to your Applications folder.

2
Open the app and let it connect

On first launch Ambient registers this Mac automatically and starts in the menu bar. Private deployments can still ask for an invitation code if they keep invite-only enrollment enabled.

3
Leave your Mac alone

Ambient waits for your normal idle windows, does short jobs locally, and gets out of the way when you return.

Gatekeeper requires one extra click today. Ambient is still using an unsigned or ad-hoc-signed beta artifact. On first launch, right-click Ambient, choose Open, then confirm Open once.

What runs on your Mac

A background worker that transcribes short clips locally with Apple Silicon acceleration. No remote desktop, no file access.

When it runs

When your screen is idle and the Mac is plugged in — not while you're actively using the machine.

How to stop

Pause from the menu bar, quit the app, or uninstall it completely. No residue, no locked-in commitment.

Full trust and privacy details Permission prompts explained Earnings breakdown by chip
For developers

Prefer a terminal install?

The CLI path stays available, but it should not be the default path for new consumer installs.

One-line install

curl -fsSL https://hive.bestpricelc.com/install.sh | sh
Inspect script

Checks macOS 13+, installs Python 3.12 via Homebrew if needed, creates ~/.hive-compute/venv, and self-registers this Mac. Invite-only deployments can still pass HIVE_ENROLLMENT_TOKEN.

Useful commands

"$HOME/Library/Application Support/HiveCompute/runtime/venv/bin/hive" status
"$HOME/Library/Application Support/HiveCompute/runtime/venv/bin/hive" doctor
"$HOME/Library/Application Support/HiveCompute/runtime/venv/bin/hive" logs
"$HOME/Library/Application Support/HiveCompute/runtime/venv/bin/hive" start --no-idle-check

doctor checks config, Keychain, LaunchAgent wiring, and coordinator reachability. --no-idle-check is useful for testing.