How It Works
HiveMind OS is a privacy-first AI agent that runs entirely on your machine.
Unlike cloud-based AI assistants, HiveMind OS keeps your data, conversations, and memory local. You stay in control of what (if anything) leaves your computer.
The Big Picture
HiveMind OS has two main parts: a daemon (the engine) and a desktop app (the dashboard).
The daemon is a lightweight Rust service that runs in your system tray. It does all the heavy lifting — talking to AI models, running tools, storing your knowledge graph, and enforcing privacy rules.
The desktop app is just a window into the daemon. It sends requests over a local API that never touches the internet. You can close the app and the daemon keeps working on background tasks.
Why does this matter?
Because the daemon runs independently, your scheduled tasks, background agents, and memory all persist — even when the app window is closed. And because communication is local-only, no data leaks out through the UI layer.
The Agent Loop
When you ask HiveMind OS a question, here's what happens behind the scenes:
The agent can loop through the think → act → observe cycle multiple times, gathering information and refining its answer before responding. Different strategies (like ReAct or Plan-then-Execute) control how the agent approaches complex tasks.
Where Your Data Lives
Everything stays on your machine by default:
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Conversations & memory | SQLite databases in your local data folder |
| Knowledge graph | SQLite with full-text and vector search |
| Configuration | ~/.hivemind/config.yaml (global), .hivemind/config.yaml (project override) |
| API keys & credentials | Your OS keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, etc.) — never stored as plain text |
When you do connect to cloud AI providers (like OpenAI or Anthropic), HiveMind OS's classification system controls exactly what data is allowed to leave your machine. Every piece of data is labelled — Public, Internal, Confidential, or Restricted — and the system blocks or redacts anything that would cross a privacy boundary.
System Tray
The daemon lives in your system tray (menu bar on macOS). From the tray icon you can:
- See at a glance whether the daemon is running or stopped
- Jump straight into your latest conversations
- Open settings or manage bots
- Start or stop the daemon without opening the full app
Learn More
- Privacy & Security — How the classification system protects your data
- Agentic Loops — Deep dive into reasoning strategies
- Tools & MCP — How the agent interacts with external tools
- Knowledge Graph — How long-term memory works
- Providers & Models — Connecting to AI backends
- Bots — Creating custom agents with personas and skills