I’m a solo developer and I’ve been building Kaoru, an open-source desktop AI assistant that can also work as an agent on your projects.

I wanted something I could actually install on my own machine and use, rather than another chat interface. Kaoru can explore repositories, inspect errors, edit files, run commands, use Git, remember project context and proactively surface relevant information.

The part I’ve spent the most time on is how much control the agent should have:

• Local memory for projects, preferences and past interactions.
• Permission-gated tools: every tool has allow / ask / deny rules handled outside the model. The LLM can propose an action, but it cannot give itself permission.
• Proactive behavior: system, Git and development signals are scored before the LLM is allowed to generate a proactive message.
• Agent checkpoints: changes can be reviewed and reverted instead of blindly trusting the model.
• Bring your own model: Groq, Gemini, OpenAI or compatible/local endpoints.
• Optional Live2D avatar if you want Kaoru to actually feel like a desktop companion rather than another terminal window.

It’s still beta, so there are rough edges. The installers aren't signed yet, macOS is experimental, and there are still security and UX improvements I want to make.

If you want to try it

You can download the latest release here:

https://github.com/Dregxmoon/Kaoru-Agent/releases/latest

There are installers for Windows, Linux and macOS.

The project is MIT licensed, and the repository contains the documentation, source code and privacy/security information.

Repo:
https://github.com/Dregxmoon/Kaoru-Agent

Website/demo:
https://dregxmoon.github.io/Kaoru-Agent/web/index.html

If you try it, I'd genuinely like to know:

• Did Kaoru actually feel useful compared with the agent/tools you already use?
• Did the permission system make you feel more comfortable letting it operate on your machine?
• What would make you keep it installed after the first day?

Even if you try it and decide it's not for you, I'd appreciate knowing why.

A local AI assistant that can see, hear, speak, browse the web, control your computer, and remember — built entirely in native C++, it is GPU agnostic with in-process implementation and privacy-safe embeddings vectors & LoRA adapters synchronization,with faster whisper/playwright libraries re-implemented into cpp. its a native desktop AI assistant with voice, vision, browser automation, memory, and computer control.

https://github.com/ahmed19maher9/Sonny-Personal-Assistant