A native macOS markdown notepad where on-device AI is a first-class formula. Type =apfel("love letter", 42), press Return, watch it stream inline. Compose with =math(365*24). Reproducible via seeds, cached deterministically, rendered in pale green.
No API keys, no accounts. Open the app, write, and formulas evaluate on your Mac.
Open apfelpad. Write in markdown like any notepad. Headings, bold, lists, paragraphs — it all renders inline.
Type =apfel(summarize this) or =math(365*24) anywhere in your text. Auto-quoting handles the rest.
Formulas evaluate and render in pale green spans right where you typed them. Results are cached and reproducible via seeds.
Every formula starts with = and renders inline. Type English — apfelpad handles the quotes.
apfelpad uses on-device Foundation Models for AI formulas. You need all four.
Required for Foundation Models. Apple menu > System Settings > Software Update.
On-device AI runs on-chip only. Apple menu > About This Mac must say M1, M2, M3, or M4.
Enable in System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri. Required for =apfel() formulas.
The AI engine. Bundled in Homebrew builds. Source builds: brew install Arthur-Ficial/tap/apfel.
Free. Signed and notarised. Apple Silicon only.
Download the zip, unzip, drag apfelpad.app to your Applications folder, and open it.
Download free (arm64)Signed and notarised by Apple. SHA-256 checksums in each release.
=math(2+2) and press Returnbrew install Arthur-Ficial/tap/apfelpad
Best for developers. Updates with brew upgrade apfelpad.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Arthur-Ficial/apfelpad/main/scripts/install.sh | zsh
Installs to /Applications and links apfelpad to ~/.local/bin.
git clone https://github.com/Arthur-Ficial/apfelpad.git cd apfelpad && make install
Requires Xcode command-line tools and apfel on PATH.
Every formula renders inline. The document is the interface.
Formulas evaluate and render in pale green spans right where you type them. No separate output pane. The result is the document.
Every =apfel() call goes to localhost via apfel and Foundation Models. No API keys. No cloud. No data leaves your Mac.
=apfel("prompt", 42) produces the same output every time. Share the document and the recipient gets the same results.
Every formula result is cached by its inputs. Re-opening a document shows results instantly. Change the prompt and it re-evaluates.
Type =apfel(hello world) and apfelpad canonicalises it to =apfel("hello world"). Type English. The parser handles the syntax.
Documents are .md files on disk. Open them in any editor. The formulas are just text. apfelpad renders them, other editors show them raw.
apfelpad is a native macOS editor built on top of apfel, an open-source CLI and OpenAI-compatible server that wraps the on-device foundation model. apfel handles all AI inference. apfelpad handles the formula parsing, caching, context resolution, and inline rendering on top of it.
apfel.franzai.com — the AI engine behind apfelpad. Also available standalone as a UNIX CLI and OpenAI-compatible API server for developers.
Inline results. Pale green spans. Click to edit. Toggle source view.
Math formulas show computed values. AI formulas show generated text. Both render as green spans in the document flow.
Toggle to source view to see the formula syntax. =math(365*24) becomes 8760. =apfel("prompt", seed) becomes the AI's response.
apfelpad makes one optional network call: checking api.github.com for new releases (togglable in settings). That's it.
Every AI call goes to localhost:11450 where apfel --serve runs on your machine. Documents are plain markdown files on your disk. No telemetry. No accounts. No cloud inference. Ever.
MIT-licensed. Use it, fork it, ship it. Bug reports, pull requests, and feature ideas all welcome.