Kai 9000
An open-source AI assistant with persistent memory that runs on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, and Web.
Sponsor: Atlas Cloud
Installation
Homebrew (macOS):
brew install --cask simonschubert/tap/kai
AUR (Arch Linux):
yay -S kai-bin
Winget (Windows):
winget install SimonSchubert.Kai
Direct Downloads
| Platform | Format | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Android | APK | GitHub Releases |
| macOS | DMG | GitHub Releases |
| Windows | MSI | GitHub Releases |
| Linux | DEB | GitHub Releases |
| Linux | RPM | GitHub Releases |
| Linux | AppImage | GitHub Releases |
AI That Builds Screens, Not Just Text
Kai 9000's Interactive UI lets the AI generate full interactive screens — quizzes, dashboards, recipes, brainstorms, and more. Navigate by tapping buttons instead of scrolling through chat.
Features
- Persistent memory — Kai remembers important details across conversations and uses them automatically
- Customizable soul — Define the AI's personality and behavior with an editable system prompt
- Multi-service fallback — 29 LLM providers with automatic failover
- On-device inference — Run AI models locally on Android using LiteRT, no internet needed
- Tool execution — Web search, notifications, calendar events, shell commands, and more
- MCP server support — Connect to remote tool servers via the Model Context Protocol
- Autonomous heartbeat — Periodic self-checks that surface anything needing attention
- Settings export/import — Backup and restore all settings as a JSON file
- Encrypted storage — Conversations stored locally with encryption
- Text to speech — Listen to AI responses
- Linux Sandbox — On Android, the AI can run shell commands, scripts, and tools in a secure sandboxed Linux environment
- Image attachments — Attach images to any conversation
Linux Sandbox (Android)
On Android, Kai includes a built-in Linux environment that the AI can use to execute shell commands, run scripts, and operate tools on your behalf. This turns Kai from a chat-only assistant into one that can take real action — installing packages, processing data, running Python scripts, and more.
- Powered by Alpine Linux — A lightweight ~3 MB download sets up a full Linux userland via proot, no root required
- Optional packages — One tap installs bash, curl, wget, git, jq, python3, pip, and Node.js
- Interactive terminal — A built-in terminal lets you run commands manually alongside the AI
- Secure — Everything runs sandboxed inside the app with no access to the host system
Enable it in Settings > Linux Sandbox.
Screenshots
Desktop
Web
Mobile
How It Works
┌────────┐
│ User │
└───┬────┘
│ message
▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Chat │
│ │
│ prompt + memories │
│ │ │
│ ▼ │
│ ┌────────┐ │
│ │ AI │◀─┐ │
│ └───┬────┘ │ │
│ │ tool calls │
│ │ & results │
│ ▼ │ │
│ ┌────────┐ │ │
│ │ Tools │─┘ │
│ └───┬────┘ │
│ │ │
└────────┼───────────────┘
│ store / recall
▼
┌─────────────────┐ hitCount >= 5
│ Memory │───────────────────┐
│ │ │
│ facts, prefs, │ ▼
│ learnings │ ┌────────────────┐
│ │◀─delete──│ Promote into │
└─────────────────┘ │ System Prompt │
▲ └────────────────┘
│ reviews
│
┌─────────────────┐
│ Heartbeat │
│ │
│ autonomous │
│ self-check │
│ every 30 min │
│ (8am–10pm) │
│ │
│ all good? │
│ → stays silent │
│ needs action? │
│ → notifies user│
└─────────────────┘
- Chat — User sends a message. The AI responds, calling tools (memory, web search, shell, etc.) in a loop until it has a final answer.
- Memory — The AI stores and recalls facts, preferences, and learnings. Memories that prove useful (5+ hits) can be promoted into the system prompt permanently.
- Heartbeat — A background self-check runs every 30 minutes. It reviews memories, pending tasks, and emails. If something needs attention, it notifies the user. Otherwise, it stays silent.
Supported Services
Atlas Cloud · Anthropic · OpenAI · Gemini · DeepSeek · Mistral · xAI · OpenRouter · Groq · NVIDIA · Cerebras · Ollama Cloud · LongCat · Together AI · Hugging Face · Venice AI · Moonshot AI · Z.AI · MiniMax · AIHubMix · Deep Infra · Fireworks AI · OpenCode · AI Horde · Perplexity · OpenAI-Compatible API · LiteRT On-Device (Android) · Free tier (no API key needed)
MCP Servers
Kai supports the Model Context Protocol for connecting to external tool servers. Go to Settings > Tools > Add MCP Server to connect to any Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint, or pick from a curated list of popular free servers:
| Server | Description |
|---|---|
| Context7 | Up-to-date library and framework docs |
| MDN | Web docs, search, and browser compatibility |
| DeepWiki | AI-powered docs for any GitHub repo |
| Parallel Search | Realtime web search and content extraction |
| Yahoo Finance | Stock data, market news, and price history |
| CoinGecko | Real-time crypto prices and market data |
| Jina AI | Convert URLs to markdown, web search, image search |
| Open-Meteo Weather | Global weather forecasts and air quality |
| Kiwi.com | Flexible flight search across airlines |
| Malwarebytes | Check links, phones, and emails for scams |
| tldraw | Diagrams and whiteboards |
| Find-A-Domain | Domain availability across 1,444+ TLDs |
| SubwayInfo NYC | Real-time NYC transit info |
All popular servers are free. Most require no API key (one-tap add); Jina AI can be added without a key, with an optional free API key from jina.ai for search tools. MCP servers auto-reconnect on app startup.
Integrations
Splinterlands Auto-Battle (Android & Desktop)
Kai can automatically play Splinterlands Wild Ranked battles. Configure one or more LLM services in priority order, add your Hive account, and hit Start -- Kai will continuously find matches, pick teams using LLM-powered strategy, and submit them on-chain. Falls back to a simple greedy picker if all LLM services fail. Available in Settings > Integrations.
Supported Languages
Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Zulu
Contributing
Screenshot Automation
Two separate screenshot pipelines exist, both using Compose screenshot tests:
README screenshots — Used for this README. CI runs this automatically on every push and auto-commits any changes.
./gradlew :screenshotTests:updateScreenshots
Store screenshots — Generates localized screenshots for the Play Store in all supported locales. Upload via fastlane.
./gradlew :screenshotTests:generateStoreScreenshots
bundle exec fastlane android upload_screenshots
Kai UI component screenshots — Records golden images for KaiUiScreenshotTest only. Faster than recording the full suite when iterating on Kai UI components.
./gradlew :screenshotTests:recordKaiUiScreenshots
Sponsors
This project is open-source and maintained by a single developer. If you find this app useful, please consider sponsoring to help take it to the next level with more features and faster updates.
Credits
- Mistral: https://mistral.ai/