Tech Specs
Thread for Mac, and the browser extension that goes with it.
Requirements
- macOS 15 Sequoia or later
- Apple silicon or Intel — a universal app, native on both
- Apple's on-device intelligence features need macOS 26 and a Mac with Apple Intelligence; everything else works without it
- Internet connection to capture and sync; your ideas open and search offline
Size
- 5 MB download
- 17 MB installed
Captures from
- On your Mac
- Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot (VS Code), Jan, Ollama and LM Studio. No extension needed.
- In your browser
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, with the Thread extension for Google Chrome.
- Anywhere else
- Select text in any app and choose Capture in Thread from the Services menu, or paste a conversation.
- Past conversations
- Your ChatGPT and Claude history, brought in by the extension in minutes.
Fast and offline
- Your ideas live on your Mac, so they open instantly — with or without a connection
- Search finds ideas by meaning, not just by matching words
- Everything stays in sync with your Thread account across your Mac and browser
Works with your Mac
- Spotlight
- Your ideas appear when you press ⌘-Space.
- Shortcuts and Siri
- Recall in Thread, Continue a Thought and Show Open Loops.
- Services menu
- Capture in Thread and Recall in Thread, in any app.
- Apple Intelligence
- On Macs that have it, Thread uses Apple's on-device intelligence, privately.
- Menu bar
- Always one click away. Starts with your Mac — you can turn this off.
Learning
- Keep and Not an idea teach Thread what matters to you
- Teach Thread: a few questions about the ideas it's least sure of — about a minute, at most once a day
- Same idea, or just the same subject? — teaches Thread how you group your thinking
Notifications
Thread stays quiet. It sends only these, and Focus modes silence them:
- Unfinished thinking
- When you come back to an AI app or your browser after a while, and Thread is confident an idea is worth picking up. At most once every four hours.
- A few questions
- When Thread has questions that would teach it the most and you haven't opened it that day. At most once a week.
- Captured
- A confirmation right after you use Capture in Thread from the Services menu.
Turn any of them off in System Settings › Notifications › Thread.
Keyboard
- ⌘⇧T — open Thread from anywhere
- Arrow keys and Return to move through and open ideas
- thread:// links to open an idea or a search from anywhere
Updates
- Installs updates by itself, quietly, when you're not using it
- Signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple
Privacy
- Passwords, keys and tokens are removed on your Mac before anything is sent
- Your conversations and ideas are never used to train AI models
- Export everything in one file, delete any conversation, or delete your account
- No third-party analytics, advertising or tracking in the app or the extension
The details, including who processes your data and why, are on the privacy page.
Pricing
- Free: your first 25 ideas, no card, no time limit
- Pro: unlimited ideas — see pricing