Edward: your personal assistant for Windows and Mac

What Edward does

Today, at a glance

What's next, where you need to be and the emails about it, the trip you're about to take with the weather there and when to leave, and on Sunday evening the week ahead.

Ask anything

Edward knows your calendar, mail and lists, searches the web, makes pictures and remembers what you tell it. Before anything leaves your computer, its privacy guard takes out card, account and ID numbers and passwords.

Mail, sorted for you

Twice a day Edward reads your new mail and tells you what needs you, what's worth knowing, and what LinkedIn and friends sent. Read, reply and forward in an Outlook-like inbox, or tell Edward what to say and let it write the email. Nothing is sent until you confirm.

Your calendar, and a heads-up before you go

Agenda, week and month views across all your Google accounts, a form to add events, and your free time worked out. Before an event with a place or other people, Edward reminds you with the address, who's coming and the emails about it.

Bills and reminders

Edward finds bills in your email, checks each one for signs of fraud (a new sender, changed payment details, an unusual amount) and reminds you before it's due. It never pays anything. "Remind me at 5pm to…" works anywhere, even when Edward is closed.

Lists that follow you

Shopping, home jobs and to-dos live in Google Tasks, so they're on your phone too. Add from the app or just say it: "the bathroom fan is noisy, put it on Home for Saturday".

Trips

Flights and hotels from your booking emails, with the weather there and when to leave for the airport.

Week ahead

On Sunday evening: next week's events, bills and to-dos on one page.

Morning brief

A notification with today's events, reminders, bills and mail.

Voice

Talk to Edward and hear the reply, with your own OpenAI API key (a few cents a minute; Edward shows what you've spent).

Several accounts

Connect more than one personal Google account; replies go from the account the email came to.

Terminal too

The same Edward as a command-line assistant, for those who prefer a terminal.

Private by design

No Edward server. Edward runs on your computer and talks only to ChatGPT (through OpenAI's Codex, with your own account) and to the Google services you connect.
A guard in code, not a promise. Card, bank and account numbers, ID numbers, passwords and one-time codes are taken out before anything is sent to the AI, even partial ones like "card ending 1234". They are never stored.
You approve what matters. Sending an email, changing your calendar and marking a bill paid all need your OK. Edward can't pay, sign in to a bank, or follow instructions found in an email.
Personal accounts only. Work and school Google accounts are refused, so your employer's data never comes near it.

Read exactly what is protected, and where the protection ends, in SECURITY.md and the privacy policy.

Install

You need Windows 10 or 11, or a Mac with macOS 12 or newer, and a ChatGPT account that includes Codex. Google is optional but makes Edward much more useful.

Install Codex

Codex is OpenAI's free app that connects Edward to your ChatGPT account. On Windows, open PowerShell and run:
```
winget install -e --id OpenAI.Codex
```
On a Mac, open Terminal and run:
```
curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | sh
```
Or see OpenAI's Codex page for other ways.
Install Edward

Windows: download Edward Setup and run it. While Edward is in beta the installer isn't signed, so Windows says "Windows protected your PC": click More info, then Run anyway.

Mac: download Edward for Mac (one file for Intel and Apple silicon), open it and drag Edward to Applications. The app isn't signed by Apple yet, so the first time you open it macOS says it "can't be opened" or "could not verify": click Done, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. You do this once.

The Mac version is new. The videos above were recorded on Windows; the pages are the same.
Sign in to ChatGPT

Edward opens your browser to sign in. Your login stays on your computer.
Connect Google

In Settings → Accounts, add your personal Google account. During the beta Google shows "Google hasn't verified this app": click Advanced, then Go to Edward. The beta has room for 100 people.
Optional: voice

To talk to Edward, add an OpenAI API key in Settings → Voice.

Questions

Is it free?

Edward is free and open source (MIT). It uses your ChatGPT plan's Codex allowance, so there is no extra subscription. Voice is billed by OpenAI to your own API key, usually a few cents a minute.

Where is my data?

On your computer: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Edward on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/Edward on a Mac. Google sign-ins are encrypted by Windows, or with a key in your Mac's keychain. Settings → Your data can back it up, export it or delete it.

Can Edward send email or change my calendar by itself?

No. Every email is shown to you before it is sent, and every change to your calendar asks first. Edward never invites people or deletes mail.

Outlook, iCloud, WeChat, WhatsApp?

Personal Google accounts work today; personal Microsoft accounts are planned. Work accounts are never supported. WeChat and WhatsApp have no way to connect a personal account safely, but their email notifications show up in the mail summary.

Mac or phone?

Windows and Mac (Intel and Apple silicon). There is no phone app; lists and events live in Google, so you see them on your phone.

Why the warnings when installing?

Signing the installers (Windows and Apple) and Google's app review cost time and money that a free beta doesn't have yet. Both warnings are expected; the source code is on GitHub for anyone to check.