About AI System 6
The AI has a desktop now.
A Macintosh System 6–inspired workspace where AI can search, read, map, write, review, chart, present, and make — across real apps and visible files.
Open the Live Desktop Download for Mac Source on GitHub
Recorded from the live system, not a concept render: one desk, six release appearances. Try them on this very page — Special menu, up in the corner.
Not Another Chatbot
Most AI products put every task into one chat window. AI System 6 gives the work a place to live.
| In a chatbot | In AI System 6 |
|---|---|
| Context disappears into a prompt | Sources, scraps, prompts, and outputs remain visible |
| One conversation owns the workflow | MultiFinder keeps multiple working apps open together |
| Generated text quietly becomes the document | AI output stays temporary until you save, clip, insert, or export it |
| The model is the product | Use LM Studio, Ollama, DeepSeek, or another OpenAI-compatible provider |
| The endpoint is another answer | The endpoint is a file, manuscript, chart, slide deck, cover, or 3D artifact |
One Desktop. A Complete Route.
SEARCH→READ→CLIP→MAP→WRITE→REVIEW→PRESENT
- Searcher finds sources; Reader opens the evidence.
- Time Machine revisits archived pages through the Wayback Machine.
- Scrapbook keeps only the material you deliberately clip.
- DocMap turns research into a visible map of ideas and relationships.
- Question Sheet → Outline → Section Drafts → TeachText carries one manuscript from messy intent to finished prose.
- Review Desk checks factual and structural risk — including generic AI-mouthpiece drift.
- ClioChart, ClioStage, and Cover Glass turn the same work into charts, slides, and a finished visual artifact.
No invisible agent maze. The sources, files, prompts, and handoffs stay on the desk.
Things This 1988 Computer Should Not Be Able to Do
- Run modern AI locally through LM Studio or Ollama.
- Search and read the web, including historical snapshots.
- Transcribe audio and OCR images and documents from a File Floppy.
- Turn Markdown data into editable visual projections with ClioChart.
- Build and present Markdown slide decks with ClioStage.
- Render refractive WebGL typography in Cover Glass.
- Edit a 3D iPhone colorway and export USDZ for AR in CMF Studio.
- Switch the entire desktop between six release appearances — System 6, Platinum, Aqua, Snow Leopard, Yosemite, and Liquid Glass — without moving the work.
The classic interface is grounded in real System 6.0.8 resources and period Macintosh interaction patterns — not redrawn from memory.
Built Differently
- Local-first: durable project data lives in IndexedDB; the server has no application database.
- File-native: Project Hard Disk, File Floppy, Scrapbook, TeachText, and Project CD are working objects, not decorative metaphors.
- Inspectable: model inputs, prompts, and run records are designed to remain visible.
- Deliberate: AI may help read, organize, draft, rewrite, and review — but it does not get to silently become the writer.
- No framework, no transpiler: plain JavaScript, concatenated, plus a small stateless Node.js server.
System Floppy Budget
A build gate caps the boot-critical payload at 2,978,000 bytes — about two 1.44 MB floppy disks. Heavy tools load lazily, from a third disk.
Why System 6?
Because a desktop makes state visible. A disk tells you what lasts. A floppy tells you what is temporary. A Scrapbook contains only what you chose to keep. A Trash can makes deletion honest.
The retro interface is not the product. It is the constraint that keeps AI work legible.
Get It
On your Mac
Apple silicon beta (M1 or later, macOS 13+). Same workspace, real app window, everything on your machine.
From source
MIT licensed. No build step worth mentioning.
git clone https://github.com/surfine/AI-System-6.git
cd AI-System-6
npm install
npm startBring your own model: LM Studio, Ollama, DeepSeek, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Provider credentials stay outside project files, chats, backups, and exports. You can also explore the desktop with no model connected.