Elson.ai

Elson.ai is a local-first AI assistant for macOS. It is built around fast shortcuts, visible agent control, and a clearer boundary between simple commands and deeper agent work.

The product is useful when the user wants an assistant that sits close to the desktop. Instead of opening a chat app for every task, the user can trigger a shortcut, capture context, and send the right kind of request. Some actions should stay small and local. Other actions need a real agent session with screenshots, context, and a goal.

What it does

• Uses explicit shortcuts for different assistant modes.
• Captures useful screen context when the agent needs to see what the user sees.
• Routes shortcut intent in a clear way instead of relying on unclear state.
• Keeps history titles inside the primary prompt output so the agent has better context.
• Removes stale feedback-learning paths that made behavior harder to reason about.
• Ships installer and release artifacts for easier testing.

Recent work

The latest Elson work finished the shortcut cleanup that started in the previous Seb Builds update. Shortcut routing became explicit, stale shortcut handler state was deleted, and old history-summary helpers were removed. Agent prompts now receive clearer history titles in the main output.

The app also improved how agent screenshots are sent. Instead of giving the agent weak or confusing visual context, the flow now aims to pass useful screenshots and align the copy around agent mode. Release builds moved through refreshed installer artifacts and version bumps, including a release with distinct agent-goal feedback.

The next day of work adopted new Gemini defaults and shipped a bounded Gemini agent context loop. That points the product toward a more controlled assistant loop: enough context to help, but not an unbounded pile of stale state.

Value for users

The value is trust. If a user presses a shortcut, they should know what mode they triggered and what the assistant will do. The assistant should use the screen when that helps, avoid stale memory paths, and keep the result tied to the user’s real desktop task.

Current direction

The current direction is a simpler local agent loop. Elson should keep reducing hidden behavior, make shortcut modes easier to understand, and improve context capture without making the app feel heavy.

Public boundary

This page describes product behavior and public build work. It does not include private prompts, screenshots, keys, user history, or unreleased distribution details.