PCButler
your Mac's concierge.

One local-first AI agent that replaces CCleaner, Autoruns, Activity Monitor, BleachBit, Stacer and a Google tab. Journaled. Reversible. Plain English.

Install in 30 seconds Download .dmg (3 MB)
3 MB download 0 telemetry Local AI by default Undo on every action macOS 12+

One concierge, twelve fewer apps.

Your Mac has accumulated a half-dozen single-purpose utilities. Most of them are unmaintained, ad-supported, or both. PCButler does what they do in one window, then explains its work.

You currently have

  • CCleaner / BleachBit / OnyX for caches and /tmp
  • Autoruns / Login Items pane for startup management
  • Activity Monitor for processes
  • Disk Utility / Daisy Disk for disk usage
  • EtreCheck for diagnostics
  • The App Store > "Apps" page for uninstalls
  • Console.app + Google for errors
  • Time Machine GUI for snapshots

PCButler shows you, in one dashboard

  • Live disk usage, sorted by recoverable bytes
  • Every launch agent ranked by likely-safe-to-disable
  • Top processes and largest installed apps
  • One-click move-to-trash with byte-for-byte rollback
  • Local AI that explains any error in plain English
  • APFS snapshots taken and restored from the dashboard
  • A Recent Actions timeline you can undo at any time

How it works.

A tiny native helper does the privileged work. A browser dashboard loads WASM skills that analyse what the helper sees and recommend actions. Skills can be updated without touching the signed binary.

+------------------------------------------+ | Browser (dashboard at 127.0.0.1:PORT) | | React + WASM skills (signed by you) | | - disk-cleaner | | - startup-pruner | | - log-explainer | +------------------+-----------------------+ | WebSocket (token-auth) v +------------------------------------------+ | PCButler Helper (Rust) | | Journal (SQLite WAL, reversible) | | PlatformOps trait (macOS today) | | Snapshot manager (APFS via tmutil) | | Trash with hourly auto-purge | | AI proxy: local Qwen 0.5B / cloud Haiku | +------------------+-----------------------+ v macOS system

What's in it.

15

Helper methods

Read your processes, startup items, disk usage and installed apps. Create and roll back APFS snapshots. Disable and re-enable launch agents. Move files to a reversible trash. Every mutation is journaled.

3

WASM skills out of the box

The brain layer is a hot-loadable WebAssembly module. disk-cleaner classifies /tmp; startup-pruner ranks your launch agents by likely-safe-to-disable; log-explainer pattern-matches common errors and falls back to local AI when the catalog misses.

~1 s

Local AI, no API key

Embedded Ollama runtime with Qwen 2.5 0.5B by default. Asks like "what's filling /tmp?" stream tokens grounded in your current snapshot. Cloud tier (Anthropic Haiku) is opt-in, BYO key, and shows you the cost in cents per question.

0

Lost data

Every action that touches your filesystem is journaled with a pre-image. Disabling a launch agent saves the whole plist. Moving a directory to trash keeps it for 30 days before permanent purge. The Recent Actions panel is a time machine for everything you did, with a button per row.

0

Telemetry

The helper does not phone home. There is no analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no auto-update beacon. Cloud AI calls only happen when you explicitly select the cloud tier; they leave your machine with your key and never via us.

∞

Extensible

Any WASM module that exports analyze(input)->output can be a skill. Future plan: a marketplace where the community publishes signed skills for narrow use cases (Xcode cleanup, Logic Pro caches, Adobe trashes, language-specific dev caches), updated independently from the helper.

Privacy stance.

What stays on your Mac

  • The helper binary and all telemetry it reads
  • The action journal (SQLite in your Application Support dir)
  • The trash (same dir, you control retention)
  • Every local AI request and response
  • The dashboard token (file mode 0600, fresh per install)

What leaves only when you say so

  • Cloud AI requests, only when you pick "Cloud" in the dropdown
  • Sent directly to Anthropic with your API key
  • Token + cost reported back so you see what each question costs
  • Nothing is sent to PCButler servers (there aren't any)

Install.

Pick whichever you prefer. Both deliver the same 4.7 MB .app to /Applications.

  1. Option A — one-line installer (recommended)

    Paste this into Terminal. The script downloads the .zip, verifies its SHA-256 against a hash baked into the script (so a tampered host cannot trick you), and copies the .app into /Applications. It also asks if you want Ollama installed for the local AI tier.

    curl -fsSL https://pcbutler.ohayoo.com/install.sh | sh

  2. Option B — .dmg, drag to Applications

    The classic Mac way. Right-click the .app the first time you launch and pick "Open" to bypass Gatekeeper (the alpha is unsigned; notarised build pending).

    Download PCButler-0.1.0.dmg (3 MB)

  3. Option C — auto-start on login (optional, after either above)

    Installs a LaunchAgent so PCButler boots when you log in. Double-clicking the .app at any time opens the dashboard whether the LaunchAgent already started the helper or not.

    curl -fsSL https://pcbutler.ohayoo.com/releases/v0.1.0/install-launchagent.sh | sh

  4. Option D — opt-in to the cloud AI tier (optional)

    Export your Anthropic API key in the helper's environment. The dashboard auto-detects it and surfaces the "Cloud · Haiku" option in the Ask box. Costs about $0.0001 per short question.

    export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
# relaunch PCButler

SHA-256 manifest for all release artefacts: /releases/v0.1.0/SHA256SUMS

FAQ.

Is this for non-technical users?

Not yet. The alpha targets people comfortable with the terminal. The dashboard itself is approachable, but the install is for a developer audience during alpha. A signed installer ships next.

Why a browser dashboard and not a native window?

Because the dashboard ships at 50 KB gzipped, runs anywhere, and can be opened from a phone on the same network if you choose to bind beyond localhost. The helper is native so it can actually do the OS-level work; the UI does not need to be.

Why WebAssembly skills?

So we can update the analysis logic without re-signing or re-notarising the helper. New patterns to recognise in /tmp, a smarter startup classifier, a better error catalog — all ship as a 100 KB .wasm, hot-loaded, signed by the publisher.

Will you support Windows and Linux?

Yes. The PlatformOps trait in the helper is OS-agnostic; today only the macOS implementation exists. Windows port (Registry-based startup, VSS for snapshots) and Linux (systemd, btrfs/restic) are on the roadmap.

How is this different from X?

CCleaner and BleachBit do not have an action journal you can rewind. Autoruns does not have AI. AI assistants in your browser do not have privileged access to your filesystem. PCButler combines all three with an explicit rollback discipline.

How will you make money?

The local tier is free forever. A planned Pro tier covers cloud AI inclusive (no BYO key), multi-device sync of your action history, and a Team tier with fleet management. The architecture is built so the free tier costs us nothing to run.

What's the trust model for skills?

Today the helper serves only skills that ship in its own resources, signed by us. The roadmap is a registry where third parties publish signed skills under their own certificate chain; the dashboard refuses unsigned skills. Hot-swap is a feature, not a vulnerability.

I found a bug / I want a feature.

Open an issue at github.com/Tomahawk888/PCButler/issues. The alpha is being actively developed, response time is typically same-day.