https://apfel.franzai.com

apfel
Modes Demos Install 1.1k Stars
v0.6.31 * macOS 26+ * MIT

apfel

The free AI already on your Mac.

Every Mac with Apple Silicon has a built-in LLM. Apple locked it
behind Siri. apfel sets it free - as a CLI tool, an OpenAI-compatible
server, and a chat.

100% On-Device Zero Cost OpenAI Compatible
$ brew install Arthur-Ficial/tap/apfel Copy
github.com/Arthur-Ficial/apfel

Requires: Apple Silicon * macOS Tahoe * Apple Intelligence enabled

Watch it work.

Real commands. Real outputs. All running on Apple Silicon.

Terminal - apfel
$

Zero everything.

The AI is already installed on your Mac. Apple ships it with macOS.
apfel just gives you a way to talk to it - from your terminal, from
your code, from anywhere.

$0
Token Cost
No API keys. No subscriptions. No per-token billing. It's your
hardware - use it.
100%
On-device
Every token generated locally on your Apple Silicon. Nothing leaves
your machine. Ever.
4,096
Tokens
Context window for input and output combined. Enough for most
single-turn tasks and short chats.

The model under the hood

Apple ML Research
~3BParameters
4,096Context window
~3.5 bpwQuantization
Mixed 2/4-bitPrecision
Neural EngineRuns on
en, de, es, fr, it, ja, ko, pt, zhLanguages

Three ways to use it.

CLI tool, HTTP server, or interactive chat. Pick the one that fits.

>_

UNIX Tool

Pipe-friendly and composable. Works with jq, xargs, and your shell
scripts. stdin, stdout, JSON output, file attachments, proper exit
codes.

$ apfel "What is the capital of Austria?"
The capital of Austria is Vienna.

$ apfel -o json "Translate to German: Apple" | jq .content
"Apfel"
{ }

OpenAI Server

Drop-in replacement at localhost:11434. Point any OpenAI SDK at it
and go. Streaming, tool calling, CORS, response formats.

$ apfel --serve
Server running on http://127.0.0.1:11434

# any OpenAI client works
$ curl localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions ...
...

Interactive Chat

Multi-turn conversations with automatic context management. Five
trimming strategies. System prompt support. All on your Mac.

$ apfel --chat -s "You are a coding assistant"
Chat started. Type /quit to exit.
> How do I reverse a list in Python?

How it works.

Apple built an LLM into your Mac. apfel gives it a front door.

Apple ships an on-device LLM

Starting with macOS 26 (Tahoe), every Apple Silicon Mac includes a
language model as part of Apple Intelligence. Apple exposes it
through the FoundationModels framework - a Swift API that gives apps
access to SystemLanguageModel. All inference runs on the Neural
Engine and GPU. No network calls, no cloud, no API keys. The model is
just there.

But Apple only uses it for Siri

Out of the box, the on-device model powers Siri, Writing Tools, and
system features. There is no terminal command, no HTTP endpoint, no
way to pipe text through it. The FoundationModels framework exists,
but you need to write a Swift app to use it. That is what apfel does.

What apfel adds

apfel is a Swift 6.3 binary that wraps LanguageModelSession and
exposes it three ways: as a UNIX command-line tool with stdin/stdout,
as an OpenAI-compatible HTTP server (built on Hummingbird), and as an
interactive chat with context management.

It handles the things Apple's raw API does not: proper exit codes,
JSON output, file attachments, five context trimming strategies for
the small 4096-token window, real token counting via the SDK, and
conversion of OpenAI tool schemas to Apple's native
Transcript.ToolDefinition format.

hardware Apple Silicon (Neural Engine + GPU)
|
model Apple's on-device LLM (shipped with macOS)
|
sdk FoundationModels.framework (Swift API)
|
apfel CLI + HTTP server + context management
|
you Terminal, shell scripts, OpenAI SDKs, curl
4,096 tokens Context window (input + output)
1 model Fixed, not configurable
Swift 6.3 Strict concurrency, no Xcode
MIT license Open source

Power tools included.

Shell scripts in the demo/ folder. Install apfel first, then grab the
ones you want.

>_

cmd

Natural language to shell command. Say what you want, get the
command.

$ cmd "find all .log files modified today"
|>

oneliner

Pipe chains from plain English. awk, sed, sort, uniq - generated for
you.

$ oneliner "count unique IPs in access.log"
**

mac-narrator

Narrates your Mac's system activity like a nature documentary.

$ mac-narrator --watch
?

explain

Explain any command, error message, or code snippet in plain English.

$ explain "awk '{print $1}' file | sort -u"
./

wtd

What's this directory? Instant project orientation for any codebase.

$ wtd
++

gitsum

Summarize recent git commits in a few sentences.

$ gitsum

OpenAI compatible. For real.

Change one URL. Keep your code.

Drop-in replacement

apfel speaks the OpenAI API. Any client library, any framework, any
tool that talks to OpenAI can talk to your Mac's AI instead. Just
change the base URL.

  *  POST /v1/chat/completions
  *  Streaming (SSE)
  *  Tool calling / function calling
  *  GET /v1/models
  *  response_format: json_object
  *  temperature, max_tokens, seed
  *  CORS for browser clients

Python

from openai import OpenAI

# Just change the base_url. That's it.
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="http://localhost:11434/v1",
    api_key="unused"  # no auth needed
)

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="apple-foundationmodel",
    messages=[{
        "role": "user",
        "content": "What is 1+1?"
    }],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

Popular on GitHub.

From zero to 1,030 stars and counting.

1,030
GitHub stars
27 forks

818 stars on April 3 alone. Starred by engineers from Apple, Google,
VMware, NVIDIA, and Grafana.

Star on GitHub
0 200 400 600 800 1000 +123 +818 1,030 Mar 24 Mar 28 Apr 1 Apr 3

Data as of April 3, 2026

Get started.

Two commands. Ten seconds. You're in.

Homebrew

recommended

$ brew install Arthur-Ficial/tap/apfel
$ apfel "Hello, Mac!"

Build from source

requires CLT + macOS 26.4 SDK

$ git clone https://github.com/Arthur-Ficial/apfel.git
$ cd apfel && make install

View on GitHub

The apfel family.

Tools built on top of Apple's on-device AI.

apfel-gui screenshot

apfel-gui

Native macOS SwiftUI debug GUI. Chat with Apple Intelligence, inspect
requests and responses, logs, speech-to-text, text-to-speech - all
on-device.

SwiftUI
coming soon

apfel-clip

AI-powered clipboard actions from the menu bar. Fix grammar,
translate, explain code, summarize - one click on any selected text.

Under Heavy Development
apfel
GitHub MIT License 50 Examples Tool Calling Guide

Made on Apple Silicon by Arthur-Ficial