Ember
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Getting started

Install, grant a couple of permissions, and start telling Ember what to do.

1 · Install

  1. Download the build for your OS from the download page and unzip it.
  2. macOS: drag Ember.app to Applications, then right-click → Open the first time.   Windows: run Ember.exe; on the SmartScreen prompt choose More info → Run anyway.
  3. Add an API key in Settings — a free Gemini key works great; add an Anthropic key to use Claude.

Permissions

macOS needs Screen Recording and Accessibility (System Settings → Privacy & Security) so Ember can see the screen and control input. Windows works out of the box; the global hotkey may ask for input access.

2 · Talk to it

Type or speak what you want — "find the cheapest flight to Tokyo next month and screenshot it", "clean up my desktop", "why is my Wi-Fi dropping". Ember screenshots, reads the screen, and acts. Press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Space to summon it from anywhere.

Slash commands

/voiceToggle hands-free voice chat
/remoteStart Ember Link (control this computer from your phone)
/manualBridge an external AI for a hard step
/windowsList open windows
/updateInstall the latest Ember version
/clearClear the chat
/forgetWipe saved facts
/helpShow all commands

3 · Ember Link — drive it from your phone

Run /remote (or enable "start automatically" in Settings). Ember prints a URL + PIN — open the URL on a phone on the same Wi-Fi, enter the PIN, and you get a live mirror of your screen with a trackpad, keyboard, full-screen mirror, and a chat tab that tells Ember what to do. The PIN is stable, brute-force throttled, and stays on your LAN.

4 · Updates

Ember checks for a newer release on launch and offers to install it — or run /update any time. Updates are downloaded, checksum-verified, and swapped in place with a rollback backup, then Ember relaunches. Toggle it in Settings → Performance → Automatically check for updates.

5 · Troubleshooting

macOS: "Apple could not verify Ember is free of malware"

Ember is open-source and not paid-notarized, so Gatekeeper asks once. It's safe to open — do any one of these:

  1. Right-click the app (or .command file) → Open → Open.
  2. Or System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll down → Open Anyway.
  3. Or in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /path/to/Ember

Updates afterward don't re-prompt. (Fully removing the prompt requires an Apple Developer ID + notarization.)

It can see the screen but won't click

On macOS, grant Accessibility (not just Screen Recording) and reopen Ember. On Windows, make sure no other app is blocking simulated input.

Glass looks dark instead of blurred

Toggle Liquid Glass in Settings → Appearance. The native blur is on by default; if a macOS/Windows version misbehaves it falls back to a frosted style automatically.

The hotkey doesn't work

macOS: grant Input Monitoring + Accessibility. Windows: another app may have claimed the same combo — change it in Settings → Performance.

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