AI SYSTEM 6
THE AI HAS
A DESKTOP NOW.
Boot the Live System Watch the 50s Demo
CHAT IS AN APP.
NOT THE WHOLE COMPUTER.
Drag the modern chat bubble to the Trash. The desktop keeps working.
SOURCES GO IN.
FILES COME OUT.
Nothing becomes permanent until you choose to keep it.
SAME WORK.
SIX MAC ERAS.
The interface changes. The work stays.
Things This 1988 Computer Should Not Be Able to Do
THE DESKTOP BOOTS
IN TWO FLOPPIES.
Your model doesn't.
Boot-critical browser payload. Heavy tools load later.
YOUR MODEL.
OUR DESKTOP.
AI System 6 — The Film
50s Demo
Plays here via Bilibili — or watch it on the site.
READY TO BOOT?
Read Me
What this is
AI System 6 is a local-first writing environment for source-based writing, shaped like a Macintosh desktop. AI can search, read, map, write, review, chart, present, and make — but every result lands in a visible object: a scrap, a file, a manuscript, a chart, a disk. AI output stays temporary until you save, clip, insert, or export it. The AI helps read, organize, draft, and review; it does not get to silently become the writer.
The route
Searcher finds sources; Reader opens the evidence; Time Machine revisits archived pages. Scrapbook keeps only what you deliberately clip. DocMap turns research into a visible map. 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 finished visual artifacts.
Local-first, inspectable
Durable project data lives in your browser's IndexedDB; the server is a small, stateless Node.js process with no application database. Model inputs, prompts, and run records are designed to remain visible. Provider credentials stay outside project files, chats, backups, and exports. You can explore the whole desktop with no model connected.
Bring your own model
AI System 6 is model-agnostic: LM Studio or Ollama for local models, DeepSeek or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint in the cloud. The desktop is the product; the model is a setting in the Control Panel.
The floppy budget
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.
No framework
Plain JavaScript, concatenated — no framework, no transpiler. The classic interface is grounded in real System 6.0.8 resources and period Macintosh interaction patterns, not redrawn from memory. This site works the same way.
git clone https://github.com/surfine/AI-System-6.git
cd AI-System-6
npm install
npm startWhy 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.