AI

Settings → AI is the one place you choose where AI runs on this Mac. Set it up once, and everything that uses AI runs there: the Playground, where you talk to your models yourself, and every extension that uses AI. Nothing is sent anywhere you did not set up, and you can see what was used on the Usage page.

AI needs no account and no licence to start. On macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on, it works as soon as Lumi is installed, and what you send never leaves the Mac. A provider on a key of your own needs Pro.

These settings are the same in every profile.

The switch

The switch at the top of the pane turns AI on and off. Off, every AI action is refused, Lumi asks no engine whether it is there, and the provider list is not checked. Everything under the switch stays as you left it, dimmed, and comes back as it was when you turn it on again.

Where AI runs

The pane's first page shows providers as three rows, one per group, each with how many of its providers are ready. A row opens the group's providers, or straight onto the provider's page when the group holds only one — as With your Claude plan always does:

Each row says where the provider stands:

Click a row to open the provider's page.

Models

A provider's page lists its models. Turn on the ones you want — only those can be chosen as the default model, in the Playground, or by an extension. A provider with no model on cannot be used. Apple Intelligence is the exception: it has one model, always on.

• A list of more than eight models has a search field, and All / On to show every model or only the ones that are on.
• LM Studio lists its models in two groups: Loaded, in memory now, and Downloaded.
• Refresh asks the provider for its list again.
• A model marked Thinks can reason before it answers. How much it does is chosen per request, up to Most thinking.
• Models under Retiring still work, until the day shown. Turn on a newer one before then.

On this Mac

Apple Intelligence comes with macOS 26. It must be turned on in System Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri; until it is, its page says so, with a button that opens that pane. It reads at most 6,000 characters at a time, and About this model lists the languages it answers in. It suits short rewrites and fixes best.

Apple Speech comes with macOS 26 too, and turns speech into text for the extensions that ask. It hears dozens of languages; About this model says which are on this Mac. macOS downloads another when an extension needs it, once you agree in the panel Lumi shows.

Lumi Models are models Lumi downloads and runs itself, from a list Lumi signs, with no other app to install. Its page lists them together, each tagged with its kind, and chips narrow the list — press several kinds to see each of them:

• Text: models that write — Qwen3 4B, Gemma 3 4B, Qwen3 1.7B and Gemma 3 1B. The Qwen3 models can think before they answer.
• Speech to Text: Whisper models, for the extensions that hear.
• Speaker Recognition: a model that tells voices apart.
• Speech Detection: Silero VAD, which hears where speech starts and stops. It comes built into Lumi — tagged Built-In, and on from the start — and while it is on, every live recording is cut into sentences by it rather than by loudness alone, so fewer words are lost under a fan or music in the room. Switched off, Lumi goes by loudness as before.

Each row says how big the model is and how much memory it uses while it runs; Download fetches it, checks every byte against the list, and turns it on. A model whose licence asks to be accepted — Gemma's — shows it first. The switch beside a downloaded model turns it off without removing it, and Remove frees the disk. A built-in model is kept up to date the same way: when Lumi's list names a newer copy, its row offers Update…, and Remove deletes only the update you downloaded, going back to the copy Lumi came with. Lumi needs Apple silicon to run them, and offers only the ones that fit this Mac. When an extension asks for a model and none is ready, Lumi offers the one it would download, in a panel at the pointer; nothing downloads until you agree.

Ollama and LM Studio run the models you downloaded in them. Lumi looks for each only at its default address on this Mac:

The page offers Get when the app is not installed and Open when it is, and checks again by itself, so the warning goes as soon as the app answers. Server shows the address and the version that answered there.

With your Claude plan

Claude Code uses the claude command on this Mac, signed in with your own Claude account. Install it, then run claude in Terminal and sign in. Its page offers both, and checks again until it is ready.

• Signed in with a Claude plan, it is free in Lumi, and requests count toward your plan's usage.
• Signed in with an API key or a cloud such as Amazon Bedrock, it is a key of your own, and needs Pro.

Its models are haiku, sonnet, opus and fable, and each runs the latest model of its line. Account shows the email and organisation Claude Code is signed in with. Lumi shows them only — it never signs anyone in, and never reads or keeps Claude Code's sign-in.

Bring your own key

Paste a key from your account with the provider. Lumi checks it by listing your models, then keeps it in your Keychain. The pane only ever shows its last four characters, and no extension ever sees it.

A key is sent only to the address it was checked against. If a provider moves to a new address, its key stops working until you press Verify Again…. Replace… changes a key, and Remove Key… takes it out of your Keychain.

Other (OpenAI-compatible) works with any service that speaks OpenAI's API: give it the Base URL its API answers at, up to /v1, and a key.

OpenAI and Groq turn speech into text too, on the same key. Their page lists the speech models with the others under Models, each tagged Speech, with a switch. The chips above the list filter it, alone or together: Text and Speech to text show their kind — both of them when both are pressed — and On only the ones turned on. The speech model the list suggests is on once you add a key. A model marked Text while it is said gives an extension the words as they are spoken; the others give them when each pause comes, and a file once it has been heard. Groq is offered for speech alone for now — its page says so — and its row shows Speech only.

The provider list

Which providers Lumi offers, and what Lumi knows about them, comes from a list Lumi checks at most once a day while AI is on. The list is signed, so Lumi uses only a list it can verify. The refresh button beside Providers checks at once, and its tooltip says when the list was last checked.

The list lets Lumi add a provider, or turn one off, without an update to Lumi itself. A provider turned off this way disappears from the pane, or, if you saved a key for it, says Turned off by Lumi.

Default model

Each extension can choose a model for each of its actions. The default model runs when it doesn't, and in the Playground under Default Model. Left on The first one that is ready, Lumi picks one for you. The defaults have a page of their own, Default models, one for each kind of task; its row on the pane's first page names the text default.

When a request cannot run on the model it asked for — the model was switched off, its app is not open, it needs Pro — Lumi tries, in order:

1. the default model;
2. a model on this Mac: one you downloaded in Lumi Models, then Apple Intelligence, then Ollama, then LM Studio;
3. each other provider in the pane's order, on the first model you turned on.

The extension is told that its request ran on another model. A default model that needs Pro on a copy without it says Paused, and requests run on the first free model that is ready until Pro is back.

Playground

Playground, at the top of the pane, opens a chat beside the settings. Use it to try a model, compare two, or check that a provider is set up. It runs through everything an extension's request would: the model chosen, your plan, your limits.

• Choose the model and how hard it thinks on the chips under the message. A model that cannot think answers without thinking.
• ⌘↩ sends, from anywhere in the Playground. Return starts a new line, and ⌘. stops an answer.
• Each answer shows the model that gave it, its thinking folded away, and what it cost. Copy copies it. Run Again sends the same message on the model and options chosen now, which is how you compare two models.
• It is a conversation: each message goes with the ones before it, so the model remembers what you told it. A stopped or refused exchange is left out, and the oldest are left out when the whole would pass Longest input. New Chat starts over.
• Escape or ✕ puts it away. What you wrote stays while you visit other panes, and goes when Lumi quits. None of it is written to disk.

The Playground never asks before sending: you typed the message and chose where it goes.

Extensions that use AI

An extension that uses AI says so when you install it, and is listed under Extensions & Privacy, one row each. Its row opens its page: the switch at the top turns its AI on or off, and its choices are below. Off, Lumi refuses everything it asks.

Only what the extension sends goes — its instructions and its text, typically what you selected. It never sees your keys, and it can only use the providers you set up here.

An extension that turns speech into text is listed here too, with a choice for speech beside its choice for text: it hears with the speech model you chose under Default models — Apple Speech, one you downloaded in Lumi Models, or OpenAI's or Groq's on your key. It gets the text, never the sound. While it records the microphone or what your Mac plays, Lumi's icon in the menu bar shows a dot, and its menu has a row naming the extension with a Stop. A recording also stops at your Longest recording, when the extension is switched off, and when your Mac sleeps or its screen locks.

An extension can also ask which voice said what. That takes a second model, one that tells voices apart: download it in Lumi Models (its Speaker Recognition chip shows it), and choose it under Default models › Speaker recognition. It runs on this Mac, so nothing of the sound leaves it for that. A recording's voices are numbered as they are first heard — a call's two sides are always told apart — and a file's are found once it has been heard.

An extension with the audio-levels permission is told how loud what it records is, so it can draw it moving — never the sound itself. Lumi keeps what it sends coarse on purpose: a reading about every 128 ms of the loudness and a few pitch bands, eased so slowly that neither the words nor the voice can be made back from them — Lumi measured it with the speech and speaker models it runs itself.

An extension can also keep the audio of what it heard, as a file, to play back beside the transcript. Keeping a recording is not AI — an extension may record with no AI at all — so it is described on its own: Recordings.

Voices an extension remembers

An extension with the voices permission can ask Lumi to remember a voice from one of its recordings, so it can name that person the next time they speak. Lumi asks you first, at the pointer, with a few seconds of their voice to play — at least five seconds of it, and only while the recording is fresh. Remember only people who know you are doing it.

Lumi keeps the voice, not the extension: a voiceprint, a measure of how somebody sounds, and those seconds of them speaking, encrypted and on this Mac only, never in a backup. The extension gets a name and an id, never the sound, and no other extension recognizes the people it remembers. In Settings › AI › Extensions & Privacy, open the extension and then Voices to play each one, rename it or forget it — one at a time or all of them — whether the extension is switched on or not. An extension that no longer asks for voices still shows them there until you forget them. Removing the extension forgets its voices too.

Asking before text goes online

With Ask before sending online › Text on, at the top of Extensions & Privacy and the default, Lumi asks you before an extension's text leaves this Mac. The question names the provider and the extension, and shows the text and its length:

The question stays up until you answer it: clicking elsewhere does not send the text or refuse it. Text that goes to a model on this Mac is never asked about.

Don't ask again for the extension remembers your answer. It is checked to begin with, so each extension is asked about once. Uncheck it to answer for this text alone: Lumi asks about that extension each time from then on, and the box comes unchecked, as you left it — as it does once you pick Ask Each Time on the extension's row. Each extension's row shows what Lumi does with its text, and you can change it there:

Asking before speech goes online

What is said is asked about apart from text, with Ask before sending online › Speech and a choice for speech on each extension's page: an extension you let send text has not been let send what a room says. Lumi asks once per recording, before any of it is heard, when the speech model is OpenAI's or Groq's. The question names the provider, the model and the extension, and says what would be heard — the microphone, what your Mac plays, both in a call, or a file and how long it is — never which app; you pick that afterwards, when the extension asked for one. Its answers are the text question's: Send, Don't Send, and Use a speech model on this Mac when one is ready.

Limits

Limits hold for every request, from an extension or from the Playground. They have a page of their own, Limits, where Restore Defaults puts them back; each field's range is its tooltip.

Usage

Usage shows what AI was used for, month by month: requests and tokens, how they compare with the month before, and each provider's share. It is counted on this Mac from what each provider reports, and none of it leaves the Mac.

Privacy

Lumi keeps no copy of a request or an answer. Keys stay in your Keychain. The network is used only to check the provider list, and to reach a provider when you or an extension asks it something. See Privacy.