Zeph

Zeph is a free Mac companion that gives AI agents a voice-first, glanceable interface and can optionally extend that interface to a small desk device. It is meant for moments when opening another window, finding a hotkey, or speaking toward a laptop microphone breaks the flow of work. A user can press to talk, dictate into an application, send a prompt to an agent, or look at a compact status card. The Mac app works on its own, while supported ESP32-based boards add the dedicated screen, microphone, and physical controls that define the full hardware experience.

System-wide dictation is the most immediate use. Zeph creates a virtual microphone and can type spoken text where the cursor is active, so the same push-to-talk action works across apps and fields. It can also connect to agents and show information such as a running task, a rate limit, continuous integration status, a result, or an approval request. Through MCP, an agent can put something on the device display and read the user's response. That turns the screen into a focused endpoint for short interactions instead of a miniature version of a busy desktop. Notes and short prompts can be captured without reaching for a phone or changing away from the current application.

ZephOS organizes the device around glances, apps, extensions, MCP, and the Mac companion. Glances are cards the user arranges, with the visible card deciding what the buttons and microphone do. Apps run one at a time in a sandbox on the device and can pair with a Mac-side component for work that exceeds the board's resources. Extensions add model, speech, and tool providers. The companion flashes and names a device, keeps it connected over Bluetooth or USB, provides the virtual microphone, and handles models, speech, or workflows that are better suited to the Mac.

The integration model avoids locking the user to one AI provider. Zeph can point at cloud services such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, OpenRouter, Deepgram, and Vercel AI Gateway, usually with the user's own key. It also supports local options including Apple Intelligence, LM Studio, Ollama, Llama, MLX Whisper, Whisper, and ONNX components. The library distinguishes what runs on the Mac from metered cloud services, which helps users make a deliberate choice about latency, privacy, and cost. Claude Code and Claude Desktop have guided MCP setup, while Codex, Cursor, and other MCP clients can connect through the base device skill.

Privacy is a central part of the design rather than a separate enterprise promise. Audio and state stay on the device by default, local model and speech combinations can operate without an account or external key, and the product describes stored data as encrypted. Users who prefer cloud models can still bring provider credentials or use available cloud options. The meaningful boundary depends on which extension is selected, so a local Whisper and Ollama setup has a different data path from a cloud transcription and model pair. Zeph gives the user that choice, but the user still needs to understand the providers they add. This flexibility is especially useful for people who want local dictation for sensitive notes but still use a cloud coding agent for development work.

The hardware ecosystem supports several Waveshare boards today, with additional Waveshare and M5Stack devices listed as experimental or coming soon. Full editions run apps as well as voice and glances, while Lite editions focus on the core voice and glance experience. Boards are bought from third-party stores and vary in screen, memory, microphones, and storage. Makers can use the SDK to build portable sandboxed WASM apps that target different Zeph devices. The software's portability is appealing, but selecting and flashing hardware is still more involved than downloading a normal desktop utility. Buyers should check whether a board is supported, experimental, or forthcoming before ordering it for Zeph.

Zeph is best for Mac users who spend substantial time with coding agents, dictation, local models, or ambient work signals. The companion app is free and does not require a Zeph subscription. It can be used without hardware, and local models can avoid provider charges, but a physical board costs extra and cloud APIs may be metered by their providers. Windows, Linux, iPhone, and Android versions are listed as coming later, and team fleet features such as bulk provisioning, a shared dashboard, SSO, and policy are also marked as coming soon. The current product is therefore strongest for individual Mac-based builders who value a private, physical control surface. Anyone mainly interested in voice input can try the free app first, then decide whether the glanceable hardware adds enough value to justify another device.