What Does Toby Do?

Toby is a personal AI assistant that connects to the tools and systems you already use. Chat from the terminal, the local web UI, or the native macOS app. Here is what it can do for you.

Context-aware AI support

Toby uses AI together with third-party integrations to give you context-aware assistance in day-to-day life. Connect Gmail, Todoist, Slack, and other services so Toby can read your email, tasks, calendar, and chat history—and help you act on what matters. See Integrations for the full list.

Audio recording and transcription

On macOS, Toby can record microphone input and system audio output, then produce transcripts you can review, search, and summarize. Use Listen mode for foreground recording, or ask Toby to summarize a saved transcript in chat.

Chat where you already work

Toby integrates with chat apps like Slack so you can talk to your assistant in interfaces that feel familiar. Mention Toby in a channel or DM and it responds in thread, using the same personas, skills, and memories as the terminal and the native app. See Slack for setup.

Native macOS app

On macOS, the native Toby.app gives you a SwiftUI chat and configuration surface. It starts the daemon when needed, then uses the same localhost API as the web UI for sessions, streaming chat turns, and configuration. It also hosts the native API server for permission-gated work such as Calendar and Accessibility. See Toby.app.

Deep macOS integration

Toby is built for the Mac. It can control system settings and UI elements on your personal computer—Wi‑Fi, battery, audio, shortcuts, and more—so you can ask for changes in plain language instead of hunting through System Settings. See macOS integration.

Scheduled automation

You can schedule actions to run at regular intervals. A schedule runs a prompt with a chosen persona on a cron timetable—for example, summarize your email every morning and post the result to Slack or anywhere else Toby can reach. See Schedules.

Configuration in the terminal, browser, or native app

Configure your assistant from the terminal with toby config and related commands, use the local web UI served by the daemon to browse sessions, memories, and settings in a browser, or open the Toby.app setup guides for each integration on macOS. All surfaces edit the same configuration under ~/.toby/.

Personas

Create different personas to change how your assistant operates: tone, priorities, model choice, and instructions. Switch personas in chat or assign one to a schedule so the same task can be handled differently depending on context.

Where to go next

Ready to set up Toby? Continue to Getting Started.