A voice assistant that rides your Claude subscription

What it does

Atticus is a free, open-source macOS voice assistant: hold ⌃⌥Space, say what you need, let go. It arranges windows across displays, finds files by their contents, reads your screen, drafts email replies, and dispatches longer jobs to background agents while you keep working. The clever economics: it runs through Claude Code on your Claude Pro or Max plan (or Devin, Pi, or a local model), so there’s no API key and no per-token billing — the README pegs it around $0.0018 per ask.

The interesting bit

It learns. Ask for something novel once and it works out the steps; ask again and it runs instantly with no AI at all. Common commands (open apps, move windows, play music) skip the model entirely, which is why it feels fast rather than like a chatbot with a microphone taped on.

Key highlights

• Speech recognition stays on-device via Apple’s model, or local whisper.cpp for other languages — audio never leaves your Mac
• Safe mode sandboxes AI commands to a scratch folder; rm, sudo, and disk tools are always blocked, and deletes/sends/purchases ask first
• Screen awareness both ways: it reads what’s on screen, and can draw labeled diagrams or point at exactly where to click
• Dictate anywhere: hold fn to talk into any text field, with an optional AI cleanup pass that fixes mishearings and drops filler
• Hands-free mode with a custom wake word, plus a Meeting Copilot that takes notes during calls

Caveats

• Requires macOS 26 — a very fresh OS, so most Macs are currently excluded
• Apple’s built-in speech is English (US) only; other languages need the Whisper route and a model download (up to 1.1 GB)
• The “no API key” pitch depends on you already paying for Claude, Devin, or Pi — free only in the way your gym membership is free

Verdict

If you already have a Claude plan and a brand-new Mac, this is one of the more thoughtful voice-agent implementations around — the safety model and learned shortcuts show real care. If you’re on Windows or an older macOS, there’s a sibling project for Windows, but you’re otherwise out of luck.