Clairo
Menu bar & tray AI for Slack, Zalo & WhatsApp

Private. Instant.
Genuinely smart.

Clairo reads your workplace conversations and analyzes the context in real time — entirely on your own device. No cloud, no accounts, no data leaving your machine.

Clairo is a free, on-device AI reply assistant for Slack, Zalo, and WhatsApp. Press one hotkey and it reads the active thread locally on your Mac or Windows PC — through the OS accessibility APIs — then drafts a context-aware reply using a local model you run yourself (9router, LM Studio, or Ollama). No cloud, no account, and nothing ever leaves your device.

Works with
💬 Slack 🟦 Zalo 🟢 WhatsApp

More platforms coming soon.

🔒 No cloud· 🚫 No account· 📴 No data leaves your device

macOS 11+ · Windows 10+ · Free · Requires 9router, LM Studio, or Ollama

Clairo
Slack ▾
📌 Reading #team-engineering · 17 msgs
ANALYSIS
Core question: Are we using Feature Flags for the new checkout flow?
Asked by: John Smith · Thread tone: Informational, seeking alignment
REPLY
As of now, we haven't decided yet. I suggest we align on Feature Flags for the new checkout flow in stand-up.
✓ ON-POINT — Answered clearly and suggested next steps.
↩ Insert ⟳
Free to use

Get Clairo

🍎 macOS
⬇ Download for Apple Silicon ⬇ Download for Intel
Minimum RequirementsmacOS 11 (Big Sur) or later. 8 GB RAM minimum. Slack, Zalo, or WhatsApp desktop app (not the browser).
🪟 Windows
⬇ Download for x64
Minimum RequirementsWindows 10 (64-bit) or later. 8 GB RAM minimum. Slack, Zalo, or WhatsApp desktop app (not the browser).
✏️

Draft Reply

Clairo reads the full thread and drafts a reply that actually matches the tone and context of the conversation — so you spend seconds reviewing instead of minutes writing. Every suggestion is generated locally; nothing is sent to a third-party server.

👥

Participant Detection

Long group threads get confusing fast. Clairo automatically identifies who’s involved, what they’re asking for, and what’s already been decided — so you can catch up on a conversation without scrolling back through fifty messages.

⏰

Reminder & Action Tracking

Clairo picks up on commitments and follow-ups buried inside conversations — "I’ll send this by Friday," "can you check with the client" — and surfaces them as trackable reminders, automatically, without you tagging anything.

Built for your platform

Built for the workplace platforms you already use

Your workplace conversations don’t live in one place — they’re spread across Slack, WhatsApp, Zalo, and whatever else your team and clients happen to use. Clairo reads and analyzes conversations across these workplace platforms the same way: entirely on your own device.

Whether it’s a Slack thread, a client chat on WhatsApp, or a Zalo conversation, Clairo surfaces who’s involved, what’s been decided, and what still needs a reply — then drafts a response that matches the tone of that conversation. All of it runs locally through Ollama or LM Studio. Nothing from any of these platforms is ever uploaded, logged, or sent to an external server.

How it works

Read the room. Reply in seconds.

One shortcut, and Clairo reads the active thread, works out what’s really going on, and drafts a reply you can trust — entirely on your own computer. No copy-paste, no extra tabs, no cloud.

1

Trigger from anywhere

Press ⌃A on Mac, or Ctrl+Alt+A on Windows, while you’re in Slack. Clairo reads the thread you’re focused on through the OS accessibility APIs — no copy-paste, no switching to another tab.

2

It reads the room

Before anything else, Clairo analyzes the conversation: the core question, who asked it, the tone, and the key context — plus issues it spots, like questions no one answered or a thread drifting off-topic.

3

Pick an action

Draft a reply, Summarize the thread, Rewrite the tone (formal · casual · concise), or Ask anything about it. Clairo answers in the thread’s own language.

4

Know it lands

Every draft gets a quality check — ON-POINT, partial, or off-topic — so you know your reply addresses what actually matters. Keep refining right in the popup until it’s right.

5

Insert — you hit send

One click drops the reply into Slack’s message box with your cursor ready. Clairo never sends for you — you always have the final word.

Clairo
Slack ▾
📌 Reading #team-engineering · 17 msgs
ANALYSIS
Core question: Are we using Feature Flags for the new checkout flow?
❓ No direct answer found in the thread.
ACTIONS
Summarize Rewrite
REPLY
As of now, we haven't decided yet. I suggest we discuss this in our stand-up and align on whether to use Feature Flags for the new checkout flow.
✓ ON-POINT — Answered clearly and suggested next steps.
↩ Insert ⟳
Clairo analyzing a live #team-engineering thread
🌐

Speaks your language

Auto-detects the thread’s language and replies in it — English in, English out; Vietnamese in, Vietnamese out.

🎯

Reads what you mean

Highlight a few messages to scope the reply, or let Clairo read the entire thread by default.

🕶️

Remembers nothing

Close the popup and the session is gone. No history, no logs — nothing is stored, ever.

✋

You always hit send

Clairo drafts and inserts, but never sends a message on its own. Final control stays with you.

What Clairo can do

Six actions. One shortcut.

🔍

Evaluate

Understand if you actually need to reply, and what the thread needs from you.

✏️

Draft

Compose a context-aware reply based on the thread, your role, and the tone.

📋

Summarize

Get a concise summary of long threads before jumping in.

🔄

Rewrite

Adjust tone: formal, casual, concise — your draft, but better.

💬

Ask

Ask any question about the thread. Clairo answers from context.

✨

Refine

Polish your existing draft before hitting send.

Setup in 3 steps

Up and running in minutes.

01

Install a local AI backend

Pick one: 9router (easiest, recommended), LM Studio, or Ollama. Install it, download a model, then start its local server.

9router → :20128 · LM Studio → :1234 · Ollama → :11434
02

Install Clairo

Download the installer for your platform, run it, and open Clairo. Its icon appears in the menu bar on Mac, or the system tray on Windows.

03

Grant access + press the hotkey

On Mac, allow Clairo in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. On Windows, there is nothing to grant. Open Slack, press the hotkey. Done.

⌃A on Mac · Ctrl+Alt+A on Windows

Installation Guide

What You’ll Need+
Before installing Clairo, make sure you have:

✅ A Mac running macOS 11 (Big Sur) or newer
✅ Slack, installed as a desktop app (not used through a web browser)
✅ At least 8 GB of RAM (16 GB is better if you can)

You’ll also need one extra piece of free software so Clairo has an AI “brain” to work with — covered in Step 2 below. It only takes a few minutes.
Step 1: Check What Kind of Mac You Have+
This helps you pick the right installer later on.

1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Choose About This Mac.
3. Look at the line that says Chip (or Processor):
  • If it says Apple M1, M2, M3, or M4 → you have Apple Silicon
  • If it says Intel → you have an Intel Mac

Keep this in mind for the next step.
Step 2: Install the AI Software (Choose One)+
Clairo needs a companion app that actually runs the AI. Pick one of the three options below — we’ve ordered them from easiest to more advanced.

Option A — 9router (easiest, recommended)
1. Open the Terminal app (press ⌘Space, type “Terminal”, hit Enter).
2. Run:
npm install -g 9router
(If npm isn’t found, install Node.js free from nodejs.org first, then try again.)
3. Start 9router:
9router
Leave this Terminal window open — closing it turns 9router off.
4. In your browser, go to localhost:20128 to open the 9router dashboard.
5. Click the Providers tab and connect a provider — to keep everything private, connect a local provider like Ollama or LM Studio rather than a cloud AI service.
6. In Clairo’s Settings, use the address http://localhost:20128.

Good to know: 9router doesn’t run the AI itself — it connects Clairo to whichever provider you choose. If you connect a cloud provider instead of a local one, your conversations will leave your Mac.

Option B — LM Studio (simple visual app, great for Apple Silicon)
1. Download LM Studio from lmstudio.ai and drag it into Applications.
2. Open LM Studio and click the Discover tab.
3. Search for and download:
lmstudio-community/gemma-4-E4B-it-MLX-4bit (Apple Silicon) or gemma-3-4b-it-GGUF (Intel) — about 7 GB.
4. Click the Local Server tab, then Start Server. Leave LM Studio open in the background.
5. In Clairo’s Settings, use the address http://localhost:1234.

Option C — Ollama (lightweight, works on any Mac)
1. Download and install Ollama from ollama.com.
2. Open Terminal and run:
ollama pull llama3.1:8b
3. Ollama runs automatically in the background once installed.
4. In Clairo’s Settings, use the address http://localhost:11434.
Step 3: Install Clairo+
1. Download the Clairo installer for your chip:
  • Apple Silicon Mac: Clairo_aarch64.dmg
  • Intel Mac: Clairo_x64.dmg
(Not sure which? Check Step 1 above.)
2. Double-click the downloaded file to open it.
3. Drag the Clairo icon into the Applications folder.
4. Open Clairo from your Applications folder — its icon appears in the menu bar at the top-right of your screen.
Step 4: Give Clairo Permission to Read Slack+
Clairo needs one special permission so it can see what’s happening in your Slack conversations. This is a one-time setup.

1. When you first open Clairo, your Mac will likely ask for permission automatically — click Open System Settings if prompted. If it doesn’t ask, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility yourself.
2. Click the + button.
3. Find and select Clairo (in your Applications folder), then click Open.
4. Make sure the switch next to Clairo is turned ON.

That’s it — Clairo can now read Slack conversations on your screen.
Step 5: Set Up Clairo (First Time Only)+
1. Click the Clairo icon in your menu bar, then click the gear icon to open Settings.
2. Under AI Backend, enter the address matching what you installed in Step 2:
  • 9router → http://localhost:20128
  • LM Studio → http://localhost:1234
  • Ollama → http://localhost:11434
3. Under Model, pick the model you downloaded earlier. Clairo finds it automatically as long as the app or Terminal window from Step 2 is still open and running.
How to Use Clairo+
1. Open Slack and click into the conversation you want help with.
2. Press ⌃A on your keyboard — the Clairo popup appears.
3. Choose an action: Evaluate (tells you whether the message needs a reply), Draft (writes a suggested reply), Summarize (sums up the conversation), Rewrite (changes the tone), Ask (ask a question about the thread), or Refine (tweak a reply you’ve written).
4. Once you’re happy with the text, click Insert — Clairo places it into Slack’s message box for you.
5. Review it, then press Send yourself. Clairo never sends messages on its own — you’re always in control.
Troubleshooting+
The popup doesn’t show up when I press ⌃A
Make sure Clairo is open (check the menu bar for its icon). Click the menu bar icon once, then try the shortcut again. Another app might be using the same shortcut — check Clairo’s Settings to confirm.

Clairo says it “can’t read Slack”
Double check the permission from Step 4 is turned on. Make sure you’re using the Slack desktop app, not Slack in a browser. Click directly into the Slack conversation first, then try again. If you just installed Clairo, try quitting and reopening it once.

Clairo says “AI backend not reachable”
9router: make sure the Terminal window running 9router is still open, and a provider is connected in the dashboard’s Providers tab.
LM Studio: make sure the app is open and you clicked Start Server in the Local Server tab.
Ollama: it should run automatically — try reopening Terminal and running ollama list to confirm it’s working.
Double-check the address in Clairo’s Settings matches: 9router :20128, LM Studio :1234, Ollama :11434.

No models show up in the list
9router: check that a provider is connected in the dashboard’s Providers tab — the model list comes from there.
LM Studio: confirm you clicked Start Server (not just downloaded the model).
Ollama: run ollama list in Terminal to confirm the model downloaded successfully.
Try the refresh button inside Clairo’s Settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Clairo send my messages to any server?+

No. Clairo reads your Slack, Zalo, and WhatsApp threads locally via the OS accessibility APIs and sends them only to the AI model running on your own computer. Nothing is transmitted to Clairo or any cloud service.

Does Clairo work with Ollama or LM Studio?+

Yes. Clairo connects directly to local inference engines like Ollama and LM Studio, so the AI model itself also runs on your machine — not through an external API.

Does Clairo require an account?+

No. There is no sign-up, no login, and no account syncing. Clairo works fully offline out of the box.

What platforms does Clairo support?+

Clairo currently works with Slack, Zalo, and WhatsApp, with more platforms on the way.

How is Clairo different from ChatGPT or other cloud AI tools?+

Cloud AI tools send your conversations to external servers for processing. Clairo does everything on-device — same intelligence, zero exposure.

What AI models does Clairo support?+

Any model you can run through 9router, LM Studio, or Ollama — Gemma, Llama, Qwen, Mistral, Phi, and more. You pick the model and can swap it at any time.

Does Clairo work in the browser?+

No. Clairo reads the native Slack, Zalo, and WhatsApp desktop apps through the OS accessibility APIs. The browser versions are not supported.

Is Clairo free?+

Yes. Clairo is free to use. There is no account, subscription, or paywall.

Why does Clairo need Accessibility permission on Mac?+

On macOS, Accessibility is how Clairo reads the contents of the active thread on-screen so it can understand context. Windows needs no such permission. On either platform, Clairo does not record your screen or log keystrokes.

Can I use Clairo without an internet connection?+

Yes. Once your local model is installed, Clairo and the model run entirely offline. No internet is required to draft replies.

What’s the difference between LM Studio, Ollama, and 9router?+

LM Studio has a friendly GUI and is fastest on Apple Silicon with MLX models. Ollama is a lightweight CLI tool that works well on Intel and Apple Silicon. 9router is a local router that forwards to whichever provider you connect — keep it pointed at a local provider to stay fully on-device. Clairo works with all three.

Clairo is not affiliated with Slack, Zalo, or WhatsApp.