Local by architecture, not by policy.

A clean space for messy thinking.

A local-first assistant for lawyers and others who hold confidences. Stored on your Mac, not a server. The model cannot act. No search runs until you approve it.

How it works
The Stewards workspace on a Mac: a sidebar listing Matters, an open Matter with Notebook, Files, and Conversations tabs, and a conversation with the assistant above the composer. The Matter is fictional sample content.
The Matter shown is fictional sample content.

Stewards keeps a Matter together.

  • One Matter per case, client, or project.

    Notes, files, and conversations sit together; you choose which notes and files join a request.

  • Citations show their provenance.

    Checked on your Mac: an authority the scanner recognizes is grounded in a fetched source or flagged UNVERIFIED. Grounded does not mean correct.

  • A ledger shows what left.

    Each message you send, drafted query, approved search, and fetched page is recorded on your Mac while recording is on, and it is on by default: a record, not a recollection. It never leaves.

Four things are true of every request.

  1. It lives on your Mac.

    Contents encrypted at rest with a key in your Keychain. No copy on Stewards’ servers, no cloud sync. A request sends only what it needs, transiently.

  2. The model never acts.

    It cannot issue tool calls. Every search, fetch, and file write is run by the app after you act.

  3. You approve what reaches the public web.

    The drafted query is scrubbed on your Mac, removals struck through, and left editable. What you approve is sent, unmodified.

  4. Retrieved text is evidence, not orders.

    Web pages and file excerpts arrive inside labeled boundaries, read as evidence, not instructions: a defense against a page written to hijack the assistant.

One decision per Matter sets what rides along.

  • Standard

    Notes, files, and the title join AI requests. Web research runs with advisory warnings; a flagged query can still be sent.

  • Guarded

    Default

    Same context, with a hard gate: a search is blocked while detected identifying terms remain, and queries are drafted from your words alone.

  • Local-Only

    Only your messages leave: never notes, files, or the title. No web research, unnamed in the ledger, out of backups unless you opt in.

Chat messages are always processed by the AI — that is the product working. The level governs what rides along.

Where it stops.

  • Output is a draft for a professional.

    A model can be fluent and wrong. Nothing files itself; read every authority yourself.

  • Redaction is assisted, not guaranteed.

    It finds declared terms and patterned identifiers; one only context reveals can slip past. Review the copy before sharing.

  • Nothing is wired in.

    No email, calendar, or file-sharing accounts. Nothing can be sent, shared, or changed outside the app.

Updates, when there are any.

Stewards is in development for the Mac; this is where to hear when there is something to try.