Apfel — The free AI already on your Mac. It was shared on Show HN in 2026 and received 743 upvotes on Hacker News. Your Mac already has AI. Apple ships a language model with macOS -apfel unlocks it with one brew install. No downloads, no API keys, no config. The fastest path to local AI. apfel gives you CLI access with one brew install. From brew install to AI output in 12 seconds. Other local AI tools are great but require model downloads and configuration. apfel needs nothing - the model is already on your Mac. $ apfel --serve Server running on http://127.0.0.1:11434 # any OpenAI client works $ curl localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions ... $ apfel --chat -s "You are a coding assistant" Chat started. # remote MCP server over HTTPS $ apfel --mcp https://mcp.example.com/v1 "query" # server mode - tools auto-available to all clients $ apfel --serve --mcp ./calc.py How it works. apfel gives it a front door - with zero configuration. Apple exposes it through the FoundationModels framework - a Swift API that gives apps access to SystemLanguageModel . All inference runs on the Neural Engine and GPU. No network calls, no cloud, no API keys. But Apple only uses it for Siri Out of the box, the on-device model powers Siri, Writing Tools, and system features. There is no terminal command, no HTTP endpoint, no way to pipe text through it. The FoundationModels framework exists, but you need to write a Swift app to use it. What apfel adds apfel is a Swift 6.3 binary that wraps LanguageModelSession and exposes it three ways: as a UNIX command-line tool with stdin/stdout, as an OpenAI-compatible HTTP server (built on Hummingbird), and as an interactive chat with context management. The FoundationModels framework runs entirely on your Apple Silicon Neural Engine. "You can build experiences that are smart, private, and work without internet connectivity." - Apple Developer Your data stays yours.