Your questions never
leave your Mac.
Locke is a helper for questions, paperwork, and writing. It does its thinking on your Mac itself — not on a company's servers. No account, no subscription, and it works with the Wi‑Fi off.
Download Locke Free · Apple Silicon · macOS 14 or newer
The airplane test
Turn off Wi‑Fi. Locke keeps answering.
Cloud chatbots go quiet the moment the internet does — your questions were never being answered on your computer in the first place. Locke's whole brain lives on your Mac, so a dead spot changes nothing.
It's the first thing to try after installing: flip Wi‑Fi off, ask something, and watch the answer arrive anyway.
Simulated conversation — the real one runs on your Mac.
This lease says it “auto‑renews.” What does that mean for me?
It means the lease starts over by itself when the term ends — usually for another year — unless you give written notice first. Look for a “notice period”: 30 or 60 days is common. If you drop the lease in here, I'll find the exact clause.
Answered with the Wi‑Fi off
Private by physics, not by promise.
Cloud chatbots keep your conversations on someone else's computers, protected by policies that can change. Locke is built so the private part never happens anywhere else. Three things follow from that:
It can't leak.
The thinking happens on your Mac, and web access is a switch that starts off — so there's no quiet phoning home. Watch Activity Monitor if you like; the network stays boring. No server means no server logs: nothing to breach, subpoena, or train on.
It can't bill you.
There's no account to create, no card on file, no trial with a timer. Locke is free on your Mac — a commitment, not a promotion. If we ever sell anything, it will be new things added alongside. Never this.
It can't be used against you.
In 2025, a court ordered one AI company to keep even the chats people had deleted, and thousands of private conversations turned up in search results. None of that can happen to words that never left the house.
The things people actually ask it.
Real jobs from real kitchen tables — the kind you'd rather not type into a website.
- “Read this letter from Medicare and tell me what it actually says.” a PDF, dropped in
- “Is this email from “PG&E” real, or a scam?” a screenshot, checked on the spot
- “Help me write something for Carol's funeral. Warmer. Shorter.” no one else sees the drafts
- “What's the word for when a contract renews by itself?” 11:40 pm
- “Read this contract. What should I push back on before I sign?” a PDF, with any reading limits shown
- “Make this recipe work for twelve people instead of four.” Sunday, 4 pm
- “Summarize this intake form and flag what I should ask about.” a therapist's laptop — nothing left it
- “What does atrial fibrillation actually feel like?” 3 am, door closed
What it does. And what it never does.
It does
- Explains and answers in plain language
- Reads PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets, and notes you drop in
- Reads pictures — a photo of a form, a screenshot of a suspicious email
- Helps you write, and rewrites until it sounds like you
- Takes dictation, transcribed on your Mac — your voice isn't sent anywhere either
- Starts ready to chat — no setup choices or extra model download
It never does
- Never asks for an account, an email address, or a card
- Never sends your words anywhere — web access is a switch, and it starts off
- Never changes or deletes your files; it only reads what you hand it
- Never interrupts you with upgrade banners
- Never talks to you in computer terms
- Never needs the internet for private chat — storms, planes, and dead spots included
Medicare-notice.pdf · 3 pages
Read this letter and tell me what it actually says.
Here's the short version: nothing is wrong, and you don't owe anything.
- It's the annual notice. Your Part D premium goes from $34.20 to $36.80 in January.
- Your coverage itself isn't changing.
- You only need to act if you'd rather switch plans — that window is October 15 to December 7.
Want me to go through it line by line?
For the family installer
Setting this up for someone you love?
You're the family IT department — you know the bar. Locke was designed for that hour at the kitchen table: install it, turn the text size up, and do the Wi‑Fi trick. Then leave without worrying, because the worst case is she doesn't use it — not that she gets charged, tricked, or has her questions end up in someone's logs.
Your checklist, honestly answered: it can't leak — with web access off there's no traffic to see, and you're welcome to verify with Activity Monitor or Little Snitch. It can't charge her — there's no account and nowhere in the app to enter a card. It can't touch her files — it reads what she hands it and changes nothing. And when something goes wrong, it says what happened in plain words, so she calls you less, not more.
“I set my mom up with an AI that can't leak, can't charge her, and works with the Wi‑Fi off.”
Straight answers.
Is it really free?
Yes. Locke on your Mac is free: no account, no trial, no feature that quietly stops working. Someday we may sell optional extras — like access to bigger brains that run in the cloud, clearly labeled and always your choice. What's free today stays free.
How is this different from ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a service: your words travel to company servers and live under a privacy policy — and, as 2025 showed, can be kept even after you delete them. Locke is an app: it runs where Photos or Pages runs, and your conversations stay on your own disk. Cloud chatbots are still stronger on long, difficult problems; for reading letters, checking scams, and help with writing, Locke is plenty — and it's the one that works in a dead spot.
What does my Mac need?
Apple Silicon — an M1 from 2020 counts — and macOS 14 or newer. The same tested model is included for every supported Mac, so chat is ready when Locke opens.
Does it ever touch the internet at all?
Locke may check for app and model updates, download optional on-device features you choose, or open web pages when you've turned web access on. If you allow it, Locke also sends anonymous usage counts; those never include your words, and you can switch them off. Your conversations have no server to go to.
Where do my conversations live?
On your Mac, in your own user folder — and nowhere else. We don't have servers that see them, so there's nothing for us to lose, leak, or hand over.
No account. No cloud. No jargon.
It's just Locke.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · model included