Why Ducter
- One partner, not a wall of sessions. You write "Fix the flaky compaction test in HawDB
and tell me when it's done." Your partner starts the task, watches it, and comes back with
the result, its proof and Merge into main. You can open any task and steer it yourself.
- Your agents, your subscriptions. Tasks run on Claude Code, Codex, pi or DeepSeek Harness,
signed in as you, with your own skills and settings. No Ducter account, no API key to start.
- Your computers. It lives on your Mac, or on a Linux server you own, at home or in the
cloud, so it keeps working while your laptop sleeps. Lend it more computers to run tasks on.
- Quiet until it matters. Done comes with proof, a question comes with a default it will
take if you don't answer, and on a quiet day you hear nothing. Reply to a task's result and
that task carries on.
- Open source and self-hosted. Hosted agent workbenches come and go, and the best personal
AIs are closed. Ducter is Apache 2.0 and runs where you put it, so nobody can wind it down
for you (why it exists).
- Ready the first time. One line installs it; it sets up what's missing and greets you with
things to start from your own folders and accounts.
Where you use it
| |
|---|
| Mac | The desktop app, Apple silicon. Ducter can live here and run tasks here. |
| Linux server | x64 or arm64, at home or in the cloud. Runs as a service and stays on. |
| iPhone and iPad | One app, in public beta on TestFlight. On a wide iPad, On hand stands beside the conversation. |
| Android | The Ducter app, from each GitHub release; it updates itself, and a foldable opened like a book shows the conversation and On hand on either side of the fold. Or your phone's browser. |
| Terminal | The ducter command, on the Mac or the server. |
A phone needs an address it can reach from outside: Ducter on a server with your own domain, or
a Mac at home set up From outside with your domain on Cloudflare (Your phone).
Get Ducter
You need Claude Code or
Codex signed in with your own account; if neither is there,
the Mac app installs one and walks you through signing in.
On a Mac (Apple silicon), paste this into Terminal. It installs the signed app and the
ducter command, and opens it:
curl -fsSL https://ducter.ai/install.sh | sh
Or download the .dmg from the latest release.
On a server, run it as a service, then give it your domain (HTTPS, and a code for your Mac
and phone):
curl -fsSL https://ducter.ai/install.sh | sh -s -- --service
ducter domain ducter.example.com
On iPhone or iPad, join the TestFlight beta and
connect with the address and code from ducter pair.
With your AI agent: ask it to "Install the ducter-deploy skill from
github.com/wey-gu/ducter/tree/main/skills and deploy Ducter on my server."
(For AI agents)
Building from source, the walkthroughs and every command: Install and
Getting started.
What it looks like
What you can hand it
- Coding work. Each task gets its own git worktree and
ducter/… branch; merging is your call.
- Reviews and write-ups. "Review this week's open PRs." "Write the v0.4 release notes."
- Things that take time. Wait for a CI run, keep trying until the tests pass, or run every
Monday at 9 (Waiting and routines).
- The web. It browses in its own Chrome; watch it from your phone and take a turn when a page
needs you (Your devices).
- Your Mac's apps, and a phone of its own. With Use the computer on a Mac, a task exports
the Keynote deck or answers the mail in that Mac's apps, in the background, with Stop in
reach; password managers, banks and System Settings stay out of reach. Use a phone gives it
an Android phone of its own, running on a Mac with Apple silicon, for apps that live only on a
phone. Anything that sends, pays or deletes waits for your Go
(Your devices).
- Errands. Book and buy with your saved sign-ins and cards, filled in without being seen, and
every payment waits for your OK (Autofill). A task that needs a key (a
deploy key, an API key) asks you with a card, never in the chat, and the key stays on your own
computer. Calls through Tuwa, after you tap Call (Phone calls; needs a Tuwa
account).
- Your mail and calendar. Say yes once, and it tells you only what needs you: a first look
over the last two weeks, then a morning message with at most three things, and right away only
when waiting would cost you (Accounts it can read).
- What you already decided. With Nowledge Mem (optional), your
partner and its tasks share one memory with your other AI tools.
Early preview. Expect rough edges and breaking changes. See the
changelog.
Under the hood
For people who already run several agents at once, what makes them hold up as one partner:
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
