aiButler

The AI butler who can manage your life.

aiButler is a phone-first AI companion for operators, founders, and small teams. It is being built as an approval-first executive butler with a CRM brain: it keeps relationship context close, helps triage inbound chaos, prepares follow-ups, and can hand work off to a trusted local desktop runtime when it is time to act.

The naming call for this fork is simple:

• public product name: aiButler
• domain: aiButler.me
• specialist sales / outreach agent: Mira

This should not be branded as Butler Clone. The clone/avatar concept is a feature layer inside aiButler, not the master brand.

What makes Butler different

• Phone-native companion: the phone is the daily surface for briefings, relationship memory, outreach prompts, and approvals.
• Trusted desktop operator: the Mac runtime handles higher-trust capabilities like files, secrets, and supervised computer use.
• Approval-first by default: risky actions create approvals and receipts instead of silently doing work in the dark.
• Local-first architecture: secrets stay in system keychains, receipts stay on-device, and local runtime remains the control plane.
• Open build: the goal is a public repo that people can inspect, extend, and help shape.

Product direction

The near-term product is not “another chatbot.” It is:

• a phone-based CRM AI companion
• a personal executive assistant
• a relationship-memory layer
• a trusted local operator that can act when you approve it

The first strong user stories are:

• “Who do I owe a reply to today?”
• “Give me my executive briefing.”
• “Draft my next follow-ups.”
• “Handle the desktop work after I approve it.”

Current surfaces

• aibutler-core: Python runtime, approvals, tools, memory, agentic orchestration.
• desktop: Tauri desktop shell for onboarding, secure config, and local control.
• mobile: Expo / React Native companion surface for phone-first usage.
• bridge: desktop bridge between phone and trusted local runtime.
• landing: public marketing shell.

What works today

• desktop onboarding for ElevenLabs config, macOS permissions, and Keychain-backed secret storage
• approval-aware local runtime with sessions, tasks, memories, approvals, and receipts
• supervised computer-use tools on macOS
• secure bridge pairing token model for mobile-to-desktop access
• phone UI for pairing, briefings, and quick-action Butler workflows

What is still in progress

• full mobile voice transport
• richer CRM / relationship-memory flows
• hardened QR pairing and device management
• repeatable packaging and release automation for public installs

Local development

# install dependencies
./scripts/setup.sh

# desktop shell
cd desktop && cargo tauri dev

# mobile companion
cd mobile && npx expo start

# local bridge
cd bridge && AIBUTLER_BRIDGE_ALLOW_LAN=1 python server.py

For first-run product setup, start the desktop app and use the onboarding flow instead of exporting secrets in the terminal.

Public repo principles

• keep the repo focused on Butler surfaces and runtime code
• keep personal media, keynote decks, and unrelated experiments out of the public tree
• prefer local-first and approval-first defaults over convenience that widens the attack surface
• document what is real, what is experimental, and what still needs work

Contributing

Start with CONTRIBUTING.md and SECURITY.md.

Architecture

See ARCHITECTURE.md.

Product profile

See PRODUCT_PROFILE.md.

GitHub launch copy

See GITHUB_PROFILE_PACK.md.