WAKE // SAY ITS NAME
Always there, never eavesdropping
Starts with your computer and listens only for its wake phrase. It checks the voice is yours before it answers, and nothing leaves your machine until both pass. A double clap works too.
NEUTRALGood evening. What are we looking into?
Ponderica · a voice and vision assistant that lives on your computer
It listens, looks, does the work and waits for your yes.
MAC FIRST WINDOWS IN DEVELOPMENT
MOOD //
POKE THE ORB PRESS / TO ASK IT ANYTHING
LVL —
PK —
MIC LIVE
Optional. Your audio never leaves this page.
RECORDED // FROM THE WORKING BUILD
No window. It works on top of yours.
This is the actual overlay, not a mock-up. The orb rests in the corner; ask for something and its findings arrive as cards over whatever you have open.
JUMP TO //
Recorded from the Mac build with a scripted session. The grinders, figures and sources in it are invented examples; the desktop behind is staged.
CAPABILITIES // WHAT IT DOES
One assistant. Ears, eyes and hands.
Say its name and talk. It answers out loud, puts its work on screen as cards, and shows you where every fact came from.
VOICE // 8 FEELINGS
A voice with character
A dry, loyal manner with eight feelings you can hear and see on the orb. Talk over it and it stops at once to listen.
RESEARCH // WITH RECEIPTS
Cards that cite their sources
Ask it to look into anything. It works in the background and puts findings on screen as they turn up. Every card carries its sources; anything unsourced is flagged.
EYES // CAMERA
Points at things
"What's on my desk?" It names what it sees, boxes the objects you ask for, and keeps the boxes on them as they move. Frames are never stored.
HANDS // NOTES + FILES
Tidies up, and can put it back
Searches and adds to your notes, finds, previews, moves and renames files in folders you allow. It asks first, logs every change, and undoes any of them. It never deletes.
WEB // BROWSING
Clicks through sites for you
Reads pages, fills in forms and uses online services in its own browser window. It stops for your spoken yes before anything is sent, booked or bought, and leaves passwords and payment to you.
OVERLAY // NO WINDOW
Lives in the corner of your screen
Just the orb, resting in a corner. When it has something to show, cards float over whatever you have open. Drag them, resize them, and click straight past them.
GESTURES // HANDS-FREE
Stop it with a wave
With the camera on: hold up an open palm to stop it talking, swipe to clear the cards, hold a fist to end the conversation.
EYES // YOUR TURN
Point at something.
Click anything on the desk and it boxes it, the way it does through your camera. Or ask it what it sees.
HANDS // YOUR YES
Nothing moves until you say so.
Every change is proposed first, carried out only after your yes, logged, and undoable. In the app you say it out loud. Here, hold the button.
PROPOSAL // FILES
DESKTOP 14
PICTURES / SCREENSHOTS 0
CONFIRM // WAITING ON YOU
"Shall I move the fourteen screenshots off your Desktop?"
Waiting. Nothing has been touched.
SESSION // SIMULATED
Watch it work.
Pick a request. This is a scripted preview with example data, so nothing here touches your files, camera or the web. The orb in the corner reacts the way the real one does.
PONDERICA // IDLE
SAY //
DEMO MIC ▾
LVL -61.0
PK -58.2
GUARDRAILS // YOU DECIDE
Capable. Never unsupervised.
The rules are written into the code, not left to the assistant's judgment. Try them.
KILL SWITCH // ONE PRESS
ARMED. Ends the conversation, stops every job, closes the mic.
ALSO: Ctrl + Shift + K · THE MENU BAR · AN OPEN PALM
DAILY LIMIT // SPENDING
Your ceiling on cloud costs
Every paid call is estimated before it runs and counted after. At your limit, it stops and tells you. Set one, then run the session above.
0.00 USD used todayEXAMPLE COSTS
HOUSE RULES // IN CODE
- Your yes, out loud. Nothing is sent, posted, booked, bought, moved or renamed without it.
- Nothing is deleted. "Delete" means moved to a trash folder, and every change can be undone.
- Ears stay home. Listening and speaking run on your machine. No audio leaves before the wake phrase and voice check.
- Eyes forget. Live indicators whenever the camera or mic is on. Frames are never stored.
- Keys stay locked. API keys live in your system keychain, never in files or the browser.
- Allowed folders only. It works in the folders you allow and nowhere else.
PRICING // PLANNED FOR LAUNCH
One price. Your own keys.
You pay for the app. Your AI providers bill you directly for what you use, at their prices, with nothing added by us.
PONDERICA // THE APP
12USD / MONTH
- 7 days free to start. A card is needed to begin the trial.
- Everything on this page. No tiers, no locked features.
- Cancel any time. If it lapses it simply stops; nothing of yours is deleted.
- Sold here, as a signed download. Not in the Mac App Store.
YOUR KEYS // YOUR BILL
Bring your own AI
- Anthropic
- The brain, research, "what do you see?" REQUIRED
- Gemini
- Camera highlight boxes OPTIONAL
- YouTube
- Video search OPTIONAL
- Setup walks you through each key, with pictures.
- From our own heavy use: about 10 to 15 cents an hour of talking, and 17 to 30 cents a research report. Yours will vary.
REQUIREMENTS // WHAT IT RUNS ON
Mac first
- Chip
- Apple silicon, M1 or later
- System
- macOS 14 or newer
- Memory
- 16 GB
- Disk
- A few GB for the voice models, downloaded with your consent
- Windows
- In development. The waitlist will tell you.
QUESTIONS // STRAIGHT ANSWERS
Before you ask.
Or ask the orb itself: press / anywhere on this page.
Does it listen to everything I say?
It listens for its wake phrase on your own machine, and the audio before that phrase is held briefly in memory and never written to disk. Once you wake it and the voice check passes, your words are turned into text locally, and that text goes to your AI provider so it can answer.
Why do I need my own API keys?
So the AI costs are yours, visible, and capped by you. Your keys are stored in your system keychain, are never sent to us, and are never logged. You can set a spending limit with each provider as well as inside the app.
What can it do without asking?
Only what you allow. Reading, looking things up and showing cards can be set to simply happen. Anything that changes a file, sends, posts, books or buys is proposed first and waits for your yes. Payment details and passwords are always left to you.
Why isn't it in the Mac App Store?
App Store apps must run in a sandbox that blocks controlling other apps, which is a large part of what Ponderica does. Selling it directly keeps every feature. The download will be signed and notarized so macOS opens it normally.
Can I change its name and how it talks to me?
Yes. It answers to Vesper by default and you can rename it during setup, along with how it addresses you.
When can I get it?
It is in development and running daily on its maker's Mac. Mac comes first, Windows after. Join the waitlist and you'll hear when the download is ready.
10
WAITLIST // EARLY ACCESS
Be first to meet it.
Ponderica is in development, Mac first and Windows after. Join the waitlist and you'll hear the moment it's ready to download. No spam, no sharing.
JOIN THE WAITLIST ↗ DOWNLOAD FOR MACOpens a short sign-up form in a new tab.