BYOA – Build Your Own Assistant

Meet BYOA (Build Your Own Assistant) — a fast, lightweight AI assistant that lives on your desktop and works the way you want it to. No forced subscriptions, no cloud lock-in, and no vendor limitations. I built BYOA because I wanted an AI tool that: * Runs on Windows, macOS, or Linux * Lets me plug in any AI provider (OpenAI, Gemini, local LLMs, Ollama, LM Studio, etc.) * Has a clean, native UI, not a bloated web wrapper * Works with any App and instantly on the click of a shortcut * Has a menubar/system tray entry for quick access to Settings * Respects privacy and gives me full control * Is fully open source so that anyone can inspect or extend it Instead of reinventing yet another chat UI, the goal of BYOA is simple: give people an AI tool that adapts to them, not the other way around. This is just the beginning — and the project is 100% open source, inviting contributors to build more capabilities, add integrations, or improve workflows.