Overview

Lorca is a small team of persistent, named AI bots that run on computers you own. Each bot has a job, a memory, and a home: one of your own computers. You message a bot the way you message a colleague, and it works on that computer with real tools, such as files, a shell, the web, and the plugins you install.

You talk to them from the desktop app or the phone app. A computer needs only the lorca command line to run bots, whether it uses macOS, Linux, or Windows. Your chats sync between your computers and your phone through a relay that only ever holds ciphertext.

What makes Lorca different

• Bots run on your machines. A bot is assigned to one of your computers, its Runner. It reads and writes files there, runs commands as you, and uses the AI provider you connected. Nothing runs in someone else's cloud.
• A team, not a single assistant. Create one-job bots, such as a researcher, a reviewer, or an ops bot, and let them message each other or work together in a group chat.
• Group chats with manners. Every bot in a group is offered a turn. A bot that has nothing to add passes, and you never see a word of it.
• Your own AI accounts. Connect a provider API key, or sign in with your ChatGPT or Grok subscription. Each bot picks its provider and model.
• Memory you can read. Every bot keeps its own notes as plain Markdown on its Runner. Open them, edit them, or delete them.
• End-to-end encrypted sync. Your identity is a key pair made on your first Device. Devices pair with each other, and the relay between them stores encrypted blobs and public keys.

Start with Chef

A new account comes with one bot, Chef, a chief of staff. Chef asks what you work on, proposes a small team of one-job bots, and creates them when you agree. After that it routes work to the right bot.

Nothing about Chef is privileged. Rename it or rewrite its description like any other bot.

A good first handoff

Tell Chef about a real piece of work instead of asking it a trivia question:

I maintain two open-source libraries and write a weekly changelog. Set up a small team: one bot that watches issues, one that drafts the changelog on Fridays, and one that reviews my pull requests.

Chef proposes the bots, creates them once you say yes, and each one gets its own direct chat with you.

FAQ

Next steps