Sidekick (macOS)
Sidekick is a tiny macOS app that lives next to your cursor. Ask it anything about what’s on your screen, and it flies to the exact pixel, draws a highlight ring, and explains out loud. No tab-switching, no copy-paste.
Download
Sidekick ships as a signed, notarized macOS app. We publish a single universal-binary DMG that runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs (macOS 13 Ventura or newer).
Download for macOSThe button always resolves to the latest build. You can also browse every version on the Sidekick Releases page. First launch, you may need to right-click the .app and choose Open so Gatekeeper accepts the publisher signature.
Permissions
On first launch, Sidekick walks you through a quick setup with one-click buttons. macOS requires you to grant each permission explicitly in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
Accessibility
Lets Sidekick move and control the cursor so it can point at the exact element you ask about.
Automation
Allows Sidekick to read the on-screen UI and detect the frontmost app via macOS System Events.
Screen Recording
Allows Sidekick to capture a screenshot so it can see your screen and answer about it.
Microphone
Required for push-to-talk so you can hold the hotkey and ask out loud.
What Sidekick can do
Pixel-perfect pointing
Glides to the exact element, pulses a ring, and labels it. AX tree first, then vision fallback.
Voice push-to-talk
Hold the hotkey, ask out loud, hear the answer. Say “stop” to cancel, “repeat” to replay.
Step-by-step lessons
Teaches one step at a time. Say “next” to advance, with no extra wait between steps.
Per-app memory
Keeps conversation context separately for each application.
Sign in with OpenCharts
No API keys to paste
Sidekick’s default provider is Theo, powered by OpenCharts. Click Sign in with OpenCharts and it opens your browser to log in, then auto-connects and keeps the session fresh. After that, vision pointing, spoken answers, and voice transcription all run through Theo.
Prefer your own keys? Open Settings → Account and switch the provider to Gemini or OpenAI, then paste your key.
Auto-update
Always on the latest version
Sidekick checks for updates on launch and verifies each one against an embedded public key, so only releases from our build pipeline can install. You can also check any time from Settings → Account → App updates, which shows your current version and an Install & Restart button when a new build is available.
Privacy
A built-in privacy guard
- Sidekick skips the screenshot when a password manager, banking, or login window is in front.
- It also skips the screen for “who is…” identity questions.
- Screenshots are sent for a single request to answer your question and are never logged or persisted.
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