RecurseChat

RecurseChat is a desktop application that serves as a powerful AI chat client focused on privacy and local processing. It lets you chat with various AI models including local LLMs, ChatGPT, and Claude through a single interface. The core appeal is its offline capability—you can run AI conversations completely on your device without internet connectivity, ensuring your data never leaves your computer when using local models.

What sets RecurseChat apart is its robust document integration. You can chat with PDFs, markdown, and text files using local Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), which processes files entirely on your machine. The floating chat window feature (activated with ⌘ + ⇧ + Enter) provides instant AI access from anywhere on your desktop. It also includes blazing-fast full text search across all your conversations and supports multi-modal input, allowing you to chat with images using models like LLaVA.

This tool is ideal for privacy-conscious professionals, researchers handling sensitive documents, and developers who want to work with AI offline. Whether you're analyzing research papers without uploading them to the cloud, continuing conversations from ChatGPT history locally, or needing instant AI assistance while working in other applications, RecurseChat provides a secure, private alternative to cloud-based AI services.