[HN Gopher] Show HN: Machato -- A native macOS client for ChatGPT
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Show HN: Machato -- A native macOS client for ChatGPT
Machato is a tiny ChatGPT client that supports all basic features,
and more ! I was frustrated with other native implementations that
focused on quick access but didn't give easy access to a history of
what has been said. Since ChatGPT is a learning tool for me, I'm
always ruffling through past conversations. The client supports
markdown rendering as well as LaTeX. Feel free to try it out ! For
those who see this thread early, you can use the promo code
EARLY_BIRD to get a free lifetime license. Let me know if some
aspects can be improved or if there are features you'd like to see
implemented in native clients. EDIT: Since the early bird discount
has expired before this post could reach HN, I'll leave you with
50% off with the code MACHATO50 !
Author : fliife
Score : 30 points
Date : 2023-04-06 16:52 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (untimelyunicorn.gumroad.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (untimelyunicorn.gumroad.com)
| leobg wrote:
| Will it run on OS 10.13? And: Any plans for integrating audio?
| (Whisper speech to text and Elevenlabs or something as TTS.
| Should have a general toggle for when you want to work silently.
| And shouldn't read code or tables.)
| fliife wrote:
| It most likely won't work on OS 10.13. I've looked at this
| issue earlier today and I'm relying on libraries that require
| macOS >= 13.0. I might look into it if there is demand for it
| though, but this will probably require leaving out some
| functionalities for older OSes.
|
| As for audio integration, this in not on the to-do list, as I
| am looking to keep the client lightweight.
| morgango wrote:
| I just bought it. Very nice, does what you would expect.
|
| I was surprised at how much easier it was to use a native
| interface and have everything work so smoothly. I like the GUI
| touches (icons for new conversations, etc.). Very mac-like.
| smcleod wrote:
| This is really nice, you had my attention at native app - then
| sold me on the decent rendering of markdown, syntax etc...
|
| I love that it's a 100% native application (no Electron/Chrome
| garbage etc...), so refreshing to see an unbloated app these
| days. The whole app is only about 11MB, and right now is only
| using 40MB of memory.
| smith7018 wrote:
| 3 hr after post, 0 comments, 8 upvotes:
|
| Sorry, the discount code you wish to use has expired.
|
| welp
| fliife wrote:
| Yeah, there was some delay in posting and the early bird
| discount expired. I've updated the post with another discount !
| orsenthil wrote:
| How much will I be spending on OpenAI token / API while using
| this vs while using the chat webapp? What has been your
| experience?
| fliife wrote:
| I've used the API extensively over the last few weeks, and I
| have yet to go above $1. It's still technically more than the
| free ChatGPT web interface, but doesn't suffer from load
| balancing constraints.
|
| My experience has been that using it this way is fairly
| inexpensive. You can track your expenses in real time and put
| spending limits on OpenAI's dashboard, so you don't get a bad
| surprise at the end of the month.
| lagrange77 wrote:
| LaTeX rendering is a fantastic idea! Looks really nice.
| sparker72678 wrote:
| What sort of data (if any) do you, the developer, collect?
| fliife wrote:
| Through the app, none. The app uses your OpenAI API key and
| your Gumroad license key to verify access to both of those
| services. License management is handled via Gumroad, their
| privacy policy might enlighten you further. My impression is
| they only require an email and some billing info (Paypal or
| Credit card)
| smcleod wrote:
| I can confirm this to be true (at present).
|
| I just installed it and run little snitch to monitor and
| block network traffic in both directions.
|
| It didn't try to connect out to the internet at all until I
| started a new conversation thread, when it did it made two
| calls: 1. Gumroad license server 2.
| api.openai.com
|
| There has not been any analytics / tracking calls such as
| Sentry/NewRelic/Google etc.... thus far (and I'd block them
| if there was).
|
| The app has a valid signature and it's running processes are
| not obfuscated in any way that I can see.
| sparker72678 wrote:
| Fantastic -- bought a license!
|
| Love how simple it is; exactly what I was hoping.
|
| Do one for iOS, too! ;)
| Etheryte wrote:
| Out of curiosity, what does a native app offer in this context
| that using ChatGPT in a browser tab doesn't? I understand you can
| add shortcuts such as opening it and starting a new chat, but
| outside of that?
| fliife wrote:
| Multiple factors made me implement this:
|
| - ChatGPT Plus is crazy expensive, and the free tier is often
| down. I found it especially frustrating to not get access to my
| chat history when ChatGPT's load was high. Since alternative
| clients go through the API, their are exempt from load
| balancing.
|
| - A native client is lightweight and doesn't rely on web
| technologies. This is a matter of personal taste, but I like
| the look and feel of native apps better than web pages.
|
| - Current native clients are both very new and ill-fitted to my
| needs (I really like the LaTeX rendering feature and I want to
| be able to browse my chat history)
| nickthegreek wrote:
| enjoying the app.
|
| - I would love a toggle to make the left hand chats just
| title, no preview to save space.
|
| - Reordering of chats.
|
| - When i am in a chat, the upper right should say the model
| but it just says 'GPT...'.
|
| - Ability to copy just code blocks to clipboard like in the
| traditional chatgpt plus interface.
|
| - Ability to export a chat.
| fliife wrote:
| Replying in order:
|
| - Noted ! This shouldn't be too hard to implement.
|
| - This is an important feature, I'm looking to implement it
| in the very near future.
|
| - I had this happen a few times. I'll try to troubleshoot
| the issue. In the meantime, I found that resizing the
| window fixed the issue.
|
| - Yup ! I've added it to the to-do list.
|
| - What kind of format would you find useful ?
|
| I'm happy you're enjoying the app.
| alfalfasprout wrote:
| it's $20/mo... that's pretty cheap no?
| motoboi wrote:
| expensive in brazil, at least.
| Method-X wrote:
| > ChatGPT Plus is crazy expensive
|
| $20 per month is not crazy expensive relative to the value it
| provides.
| smcleod wrote:
| *$20USD per month ($30AUD), which is pretty damn expensive
| when you don't live in the USA. The USD has been inflated
| in value for so long now we have to be careful what we buy
| in that currency.
| Etheryte wrote:
| I'm not so sure, would you mind elaborating? I can
| definitely see the benefit for some professions such as
| writers etc, but outside of that I haven't seen a use case
| yet where I've felt it's provided enough benefit to justify
| the price.
| fliife wrote:
| Depends on your usage, I guess. I personnaly couldn't
| justify it. In the last few weeks, I've used the API
| extensively and total cost comes to a few dollars max.
|
| Admittedly, the API doesn't provide nearly as many features
| as ChatGPT Plus does. To each their own !
| Method-X wrote:
| Not even kidding, I would pay $1000 USD per month for
| GPT4 access.
| motoboi wrote:
| Well, soon you'll can. Just select the GPT-4 32k and
| voila. 30 dollars a day.
| Method-X wrote:
| I'm on the waiting list for GPT4 API access. Giving this
| thing an entire projects codebase will be super
| interesting!
| JieJie wrote:
| You know you can use phind.com with GPT4 access in both
| expert and creative mode? It's fine-tuned for writing
| code, but it's good for other stuff, too. Or do you mean
| API access? There is a form to fill out and they seem to
| be pretty generous with handing out access.
|
| https://openai.com/waitlist/gpt-4-api
|
| (edit: They didn't email me, I checked one day and I was
| able to use model="GPT-4", but not the 32K model.)
| baggsie wrote:
| It's been a watershed moment for me and honestly, even
| after just a few months I can't imagine life without it.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Admittedly, the API doesn't provide nearly as many
| features as ChatGPT Plus does.
|
| A lot of the ChatGPT Plus features are features of the
| wrapper rather than the model, sure. Then again, that's
| what things like Langchain are for, right?
| [deleted]
| arco1991 wrote:
| This is cool, I like native apps better. Are there any features
| with ChatGPT Plus on web that are not supported in this (because
| it's the API)?
| fliife wrote:
| Yes. The new ChatGPT Plugins are not yet supported outside of
| the official web interface. Other than that, most third party
| client actually allow more customization (custom system prompt,
| temperature adjustment, ...)
| furyofantares wrote:
| Very cool.
|
| I'd love it if it gave me more info about the differences between
| some of the available models. I've been using GPT4 exclusively
| from the web interface; I don't know why I might select GPT4 vs
| GPT4-0314. I believe I do know why I want to use 32k, but others
| might not.
|
| Basically, I'd want an explanation as to how these differ from
| what's available in the ChatGPT web-app.
|
| The default temperature is 0.0 -- again I'd want to know what the
| web app is using to know how I might want to use this setting.
|
| edit: I guess an answer is my API key is only valid for 3.5
| anyway. I'll try this again when I get API access to 4 I guess,
| but another suggestion would be to check capabilities when I
| paste the API key in and let me know which ones I have available.
| fliife wrote:
| The UI sure needs a bit of work. I'll try to add more
| information about the different models.
|
| As for the default temperature, 0.0 is actually a bug ! I'll
| definitely fix that in the next release. The default intended
| value is 1.0. The API reference [1] describes what the
| temperature parameter does in more detail.
|
| While doing some testing, I also noticed that the app disables
| streamed responses by default. Make sure to check the
| appropriate checkbox in the settings to get token-per-token
| answers !
|
| [1] https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/chat/create
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(page generated 2023-04-06 23:01 UTC)