Install the macOS desktop app
- Download the installer from
app.kosuke.ai/releases/desktop/stable/download.
It is a
.dmgfile that runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. - Open the
.dmgfile and move Sensei into your Applications folder. - Open Sensei.
- Sign in as you do on the web.
The window shows the same app as app.kosuke.ai. Links to pull requests, previews and the docs open in your default browser.
Connecting an integration also opens your default browser. When you finish there, the page says whether it worked and offers Open Sensei, which takes you back to Settings > Integrations in the app.
Go back and forward
The desktop app goes back and forward through the pages you opened, as Safari does:
- On a trackpad, swipe right with two fingers to go back and left to go forward. Each swipe goes one page, and only the page changes: the title bar and the sidebar stay where they are.
- Press ⌘[ or ⌘← to go back, and ⌘] or ⌘→ to go forward. In a text field, such as the message box, ⌘← and ⌘→ move the cursor to the start or end of the line instead.
A swipe over content that scrolls sideways, such as the session's tabs, a wide table, a code block or a preview, scrolls it instead. Swipes follow the Swipe between pages setting in System Settings > Trackpad > More Gestures, and a mouse wheel never goes back or forward. While a dialog such as Deck is open, ⌘← and ⌘→ stay with it; swipes, ⌘[ and ⌘] still go back and forward.
Use the menu-bar menu
Closing the window hides it. Sensei keeps running in the menu bar, and clicking its icon opens the menu.
| Menu item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Sensei | Brings the window back. Clicking Sensei in the Dock does the same. |
| Needs you | Your Sensei threads that need you, newest first. The number next to the icon is this count, the same as the Deck button in the app. With more than eight, Show All opens the Threads list. |
| Working | Your Sensei threads where Sensei, an agent or one of your own sessions is at work now. |
| Recent Threads | Your other Sensei threads, most recent activity first. |
| Projects | Your projects in every workspace you belong to. |
| Calls | Turns Record Calls on or off, pauses it, and opens your recordings in Finder. See Record calls. |
| Check for Updates… | Looks for a newer version now. |
| Quit Sensei | Closes the app. |
Threads from every workspace you belong to are listed and counted. Pick a thread to open it on the Sensei page, or pick a project to open it in the window.
Open Spotlight with a keyboard shortcut
Sensei Spotlight is a panel that finds your Mac's apps, files and Sensei items, and asks Sensei. Until a shortcut opens it, Open Spotlight is the first item in the menu-bar menu.
The shortcut is off until you turn it on, so a launcher such as Raycast or Alfred keeps ⌘Space. To use one:
- Open Settings > This Mac > Spotlight.
- Turn on Open Sensei Spotlight with a keyboard shortcut. It uses ⌘Space.
- To use other keys, click the shortcut and press the new keys, for example ⌥Space. Press Esc to cancel, or Use ⌘Space to go back.
A shortcut needs ⌘, ⌥ or ⌃. ⌘ with a letter, number or punctuation key alone is refused, because app menus use those.
The macOS Spotlight shortcut row says whether macOS Spotlight uses ⌘Space, and Open Keyboard Settings opens System Settings to change it. While macOS Spotlight uses ⌘Space and you chose ⌘Space, the switch reads Blocked and shows the steps: in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Spotlight, turn off Show Spotlight search, then press Re-check. If another launcher uses the same keys, both open: give one of them other keys.
Your choice is kept on this Mac only, through restarts and updates. Turn the switch off to give the keys back at once.
Record calls
The desktop app can record your calls on this Mac. It needs macOS 14.2 or later. Record Calls is off until you turn it on, and nothing it records leaves the Mac.
- Open the menu-bar menu, then Calls > Record Calls. You can also use Settings > This Mac > Calls.
- Allow the microphone and system audio when macOS asks. Without both, nothing records, and the menu says which one is missing.
- Join a call in Zoom, Google Meet in a browser, FaceTime or another app. Sensei notices the app on the microphone within about 5 seconds.
- Choose Record on the notification, or Record This Call in the menu-bar menu. With no answer in 60 seconds, Sensei skips the call. To skip the question, turn on Always Record Calls in the Calls menu or Settings > This Mac > Calls.
While a call records, the Sensei icon in the menu bar shows its recording dot. Choose Stop Recording to end it; that call is not recorded again. The recording ends on its own about 10 seconds after the app leaves the microphone. Pause Recording ends the current recording at once and records nothing until you clear it.
Each call is a folder with two audio files: system.m4a, what the other people say, and
mic.m4a, your side. Show Recordings in Finder opens the folder. Sensei deletes a call
shorter than 15 seconds, and a silent call shorter than 3 minutes. Delete a call by deleting its
folder.
Each call you send to Sensei gets its own thread, named after the meeting. With Google Calendar connected, Sensei uses the event that overlaps the call by at least 5 minutes, adds the date to a repeating meeting, and removes booking-tool words. With no event, it writes a short title from the transcript. A thread you renamed keeps your name.
Settings > This Mac > Calls also sets:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Always record calls | Off by default: each call asks Record or Skip. On records each call as soon as it starts, without asking. |
| Keep recordings | Deletes calls older than 7, 30 or 90 days, or 1 year. Forever keeps every call. The default is 30 days. |
| Never captured | Apps, by name or bundle id, that never start a recording, such as a dictation app. |
Sensei's own dictation never starts a recording.
Update the desktop app
The app downloads new versions in the background and installs one only when the app restarts or quits, so an update never interrupts what the Mac is doing. When one is ready, an Update ready card appears in the sidebar. Press Restart to update, or choose the Restart to Update item in the menu-bar menu, which names the new version. Your tasks keep running while the app restarts. If a newer version comes out before you restart, the app downloads it too and the card names the newest one, so one restart is enough.
A Mac nobody has used for 15 minutes restarts into a waiting update by itself: no one at the keyboard, no Sensei tool running on it or holding it, no call being recorded. A window you closed to the menu bar stays closed after it.
Install Sensei from your browser
On a computer, you can install the web app so it opens in its own window. In Chrome or Edge, open app.kosuke.ai and use the browser's install option.
Sensei needs a network connection. Without one, the installed app shows "You are offline" and a Try again button.
Get the iOS app
The Sensei iOS app is a beta on TestFlight. It runs on iPhone and iPad.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the TestFlight invitation.
- Install TestFlight if it asks, then install Sensei from the invitation.
- Open Sensei from your home screen and sign in.
When the app is installed, a link to Sensei on your iPhone or iPad opens in the app, on the same page. A link to app.kosuke.ai opens the Sensei app. Links to the pages that stay in the browser, listed below, still open in the browser, and so do links to sign-in, sign-up and onboarding.
Without the app, the link opens in the browser. Sensei opened in Safari, Chrome or any other browser on an iPhone or iPad shows "Use the Sensei app" instead of the app. Its Get the app on TestFlight button opens the TestFlight invitation of the Sensei app. If you already have the app, open Sensei from your home screen. The page also says "Or open Sensei on a computer."
Android phones and tablets, and every other phone or tablet, have no app. A browser on one shows "Open Sensei on a computer" and "The Sensei app is for iPhone and iPad only." Open Sensei on a computer instead. A home-screen web app installed from a phone browser shows the same page.
In the iOS app, a link to another website opens the app that owns it, such as GitHub, LinkedIn, Slack or YouTube, when it is on your phone. Otherwise it opens in your default browser. Come back to Sensei to find the same place, with your draft kept. A link to another Kosuke site, such as a preview, opens in Safari's own screen on top of Sensei. Tap Done to return.
A few pages still open in a phone or tablet browser, because people reach them from a link or from another device. They are a shared preview and its error page, an invitation link, the GitHub install page, and the pages that approve a sign-in from your Watch or glasses or let an AI app connect to your account, with sign-in on the way to those two. Accepting an invitation works in a phone browser. Then finish setting up your account in the iOS app or on a computer.
Share to Sensei from your iPhone
In the iOS app's share sheet, Sensei is listed for photos, screenshots, videos, PDFs and other files, from any app that shares them. Pick it and Sensei opens Share to Sensei over Deck. It shows the items you shared and asks where they go:
- New thread, first, opens a new thread's composer with the items attached.
- Below it are your 8 most recent threads, message threads such as WhatsApp groups included. Each shows its state, its project and its last activity. Type in Search threads to find any of your threads by its title. Pick a thread to open it with its last messages above and the items in its composer.
The items attach in the order you shared them, and each has an X to remove it. Nothing is sent until you tap Send. Cancel drops the items and returns to Deck. If you are signed out, sign in first: the sign-in page says the items wait, and Share to Sensei opens with them after.
A message takes up to 20 files of up to 10 MB each, of the types you can attach in the composer. Above the composer, Sensei names each item it left out and says why.
Use Sensei on a phone
The iOS app shows Sensei in a phone layout, which Sensei uses below 768 pixels wide. A narrow window of a computer browser shows it too. Sensei opens on Deck, its cards one at a time. Tap New thread to write a new thread in a composer that opens under it, or press and hold it to talk. The header holds your avatar on the left, New thread in the middle and Search on the right. The controls float over the content, which scrolls under them.
- Your avatar opens Settings. Search opens a page with Later, Needs you and Recent groups. Later starts folded into one row with its count; tap the row to open or fold the list. Type to find a thread by its name, its first message or the title of one of its tasks. A query also shows matching workspace and Personal Tasks in a Tasks group.
- A Later row brings its card back to the top of Deck. A Needs you row brings its available cards first in Deck and closes Search. If all its cards are in Later, or it waits on you for something that is not a card (such as Connect), it opens the thread. A Recent row always opens the thread. A Tasks row opens the task. Cancel returns to Deck.
- A card's header row opens its thread. Its task link opens the task. From a thread, the tasks button opens This thread, where you can open a task. Open chat on the task page opens that task's Chat Session on the phone. Write and send a message there to reach its agent.
- Search, threads, thread tasks, tasks, task chats, QA reports and Settings slide in from the right. Press Back, use the app's back button or swipe right anywhere on the page to go back one page. Text fields, sideways scroll areas and cards keep their own drags. A task with an unsaved edit stays open until you save or discard it.
- In Deck, tap New thread to write in the composer that opens below it. Hold New thread to talk instead. See Deck for recording controls.
- Swipe a card right to approve it or left for its negative button. Undo shows for four seconds before anything is sent. See Sensei.
- On a card, Reply opens the text composer with the card attached. Talk starts a spoken reply at once. Sending closes the card as Replied, and Sensei answers in the thread.
The thread and task lists are computer views. The phone has no Threads list and no Tasks column. Deck stays behind the pages you open. Going back returns to the page beneath the current one.
Settings opens a page with a You group for AI Providers, Token Usage, Integrations, Skills, API keys, Preferences and Signature. Signature shows whether Sign as Sensei is On or Off; open it to change your default and see the Slack and Gmail previews. This iPhone holds Notifications, Devices, Location when available, and Appearance. The page also has Account. See Share your location with Sensei. A workspace's Overview, its Tasks board and Personal Tasks need a computer. A task linked in a Sensei thread opens its Chat Session on the phone, or "Open this on a computer" when it has none. Other pages, such as a project or a workspace's settings, also need a computer. The phone layout shows "Open this on a computer" with a Copy link button for them.
Get notified on every device
Every card Sensei opens for you sends one native notification, on the desktop app, in the browser, on your iPhone and on your Watch at the same time. Its title is the card's headline. Its body is the first lines of the card. Clicking it on a computer opens the card's thread. On an iPhone or iPad a tap opens Deck on the card, or the card's thread when the card is no longer open. On a phone, Back or a swipe from that thread returns to Deck. On an iPhone, press and hold the notification to decide the card without opening the app: see Decide a card from its notification.
The app holds back only the notification for the thread you have open on screen. A card in any other thread notifies you, whether the app is in front or not. See Notifications.
Share your location with Sensei
In the iOS app, Sensei can know where you are. It then answers questions such as what is near you, which city to plan the day in, or which time zone to use. Sharing is off until you turn it on, and only the iOS app shares a location.
- In the iOS app, open Settings and press Location.
- Turn on Share location with Sensei.
- iOS asks to use your location. Choose Allow While Using App.
- iOS can then offer Always. Choose Change to Always Allow to share after large moves while the app is in the background or closed too. With While Using only, the iOS app shares only while it is open.
The page shows when your iPhone last shared its location. Sensei gets your exact coordinates, how accurate they are, and your phone's time zone with each message you send. It uses a location for up to 24 hours. After that, it uses your Memory again. Sensei keeps only the last location, never a history.
To stop, turn the switch off. Sensei deletes the stored location at once. Signing out on the phone, removing it in Settings > Devices, or turning location off for Sensei in iOS Settings also deletes it. Sensei's threads keep what it already said with the location.
When iOS location is off for Sensei, or Precise Location is off, the page says so and offers Open iOS Settings. Without Precise Location, Sensei gets an approximate location. iOS may not read your location after you close the app by swiping it away, or when Background App Refresh is off.
Limits
- In the desktop app, a swipe over a preview does not go back or forward, and neither do the keys while you are working in the preview. Click outside the preview, then press ⌘[ or ⌘].
- Sensei does not open in a browser on a phone or a tablet. There is no way to continue in the browser from the page it shows.
- Android has no app. Use Sensei on a computer.