The desktop app
Alexein on your computer - an assistant that remembers you, uses the apps you connected, does things for you on a schedule, and asks before it acts.
The Alexein desktop app is an assistant on your computer that remembers you. It reads and saves to your personal memory, the same memory your connectors, claude.ai and ChatGPT use. It can look things up and act in the apps you connected, search the web, read and edit the files you allow, and do things for you on its own: a reminder at 3, your day every morning, a word when the school emails.
Nothing is sent, changed or set up until you allow it.
Get the app
The app is for macOS, Windows and Linux. Open My memory › Desktop app: it has the download when installers are published. Until then, it says so, and your Alexein contact can give you a build.
Until the app is signed, each system warns once the first time you open it. On macOS, open System Settings › Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway; on Windows, choose More info › Run anyway.
Sign in
The app signs in through your browser, so there is no key to copy.
Open Alexein and choose Sign in with your browser. New to Alexein? You can create an account there, on the memory platform (memory.alexein.ai): an account on the developer console is a separate one.
Your browser opens My memory, at memory.alexein.ai. Sign in if asked. The card names your computer and what the app will be able to do: search and save to your personal memory, use the apps you connected under My memory › Connectors, and chat on your organisation's models with your seat's credits.
Select Allow. The browser says You're signed in, and the app carries on. Allow only a sign-in you just started from the Alexein app on this computer; Cancel shares nothing.
If the browser didn't open, choose Didn't open? Open the page again in the app.
The app gets a personal key of its own, kept in your computer's keychain and never shown. It opens your main
collection, me.
The app needs your personal memory on, with a seat. If it is off, the card says so: an Owner turns their own on there, and anyone else is told to ask an Owner. Without a seat, an Owner or Admin assigns one under My memory › Billing. If you belong to several organisations, the card lets you choose which one's memory to use.
Developer sign-in, on the first screen, takes a pasted API key instead: a personal key from My memory › Keys, or a project's key to test it. A project key saves to an app user of that project, visible to everyone on it, and not to your own memory, so connected apps and routines are off with one.
A local or test server
Most people never need this. Advanced, on the first screen, shows the Sign-in address. Leave it as it is to use Alexein. Change it only to sign in to a local or test server, such as one your team runs while it builds on Alexein.
Your accounts and memories
The account button sits at the bottom of the sidebar. Its menu shows who you are signed in as, and:
- Accounts: every account on this computer. Choose one to switch to it.
- Use another memory…: another part of your memory, such as a second collection. Each one is kept apart, and nothing moves between them.
- Add an account…: sign in to another organisation's memory, or with another account.
- Sign out of this account…: removes its key from this computer. Your memory stays in your Alexein account.
- Settings.
Switch Account or Memory… in the Alexein menu, or ⇧⌘A (Ctrl+Shift+A on Windows and Linux), opens the same menu. While an answer is still coming, stop it (⌘.) or wait, then switch. Switching away from an off-the-record chat deletes it.
Signed-in computers
My memory › Desktop app lists each computer signed in, with when it signed in and was last used. Revoke signs that computer out at once; its chats stay on it. On the computer itself, Settings › Account › Sign out removes its key.
Connect your apps
After you sign in, Connect your apps opens My memory › Connectors in your browser. Connect Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Notion and more there, then come back: each one shows up in the app. Skip for now leaves it for later.
Apps you connected work from the first chat, with nothing more to set up. Alexein can look things up in them and act in them, and asks before it sends or changes anything. They also feed your briefs, scheduled tasks and alerts.
Simple view
Alexein starts in Simple view: just chat, memory and your day. Model names, prices, the model chip, the Models settings tab and your key and account details are put away, and chats use Auto. Turn it off under Settings › General › Simple view to see them. See Simple view.
Choose a model
With Simple view off, the model chip in the message box picks the model for a chat: Auto, Fast, Balanced, Best or Premium, or any model under All models, each with its rate in credits. Which models are offered, and the default behind Auto, are set by an Owner or Admin under My memory › Settings › Models. See Choose a model for each choice, and Credits for what an answer uses.
A quick tour
- The sidebar, on the left: Needs you at the top, then your projects and chats, searched with the field at the top. One row holds what your routines brought today. Memory, Routines, Activity and Playbooks are at the bottom, above your account. ⌘B (Ctrl+B) hides and shows it.
- The chat, in the middle: your questions, Alexein's answers, the steps it took, and anything waiting for your OK.
- Memory in this chat, on the right: what each answer used and saved. See Chat and memory.
- Quick ask, from any app: ⌃⇧Space (Ctrl+Shift+Space on Windows and Linux) opens a small window to ask without leaving what you're doing. See Quick ask.
- The menu bar or tray icon: Quick Ask, New Chat, Needs You, Routines, Open Alexein and Quit Alexein. Alexein keeps running when you close the window, so routines and answers can still reach you.
Related
- Personal memory: what the app reads and saves to.
- Connectors: the apps you can connect.
- Seats and credits: what chat uses, and what a seat includes.