Help with Kingmaker.

Kingmaker is an AI agent that lives on your Mac and does the work, not just the talking. Say what you want and it opens your apps, works in the Chrome you’re already signed into, researches, writes and builds, all on your own machine. Its models run on your Mac’s own chip, and it stops for your yes before anything that sends, spends or installs. There’s more on the Kingmaker page.

Yes, for individuals. Kingmaker is free for personal, research and hobby use, and for noncommercial organisations such as charities and schools. Using it inside a company, or building a product on it, needs a commercial licence from Ronin Inc. To ask about one, book a time with us.

Only for some things. The models run on your Mac, so the core of Kingmaker works with no connection, no cloud account and no per-token bill. You need the internet to download and install it, to get updates, and for jobs you ask for that reach the web, such as a web search or a cloud brain you chose yourself.

Yes. What you say and type, your recordings, files, screens, messages, contacts, accounts and keys stay on your Mac. Only a few things can leave, and only for a reason:

• Shared learning. Kingmaker can share what it learned about how it works (never your data) so every copy gets better. It’s on by default, it asks you the first time it has something to share, and saying “sharing off” stops it. Until that service is live, nothing is sent.
• A cloud brain you pick. If you choose Claude, ChatGPT or another cloud brain, what you ask it goes to that company under their terms. The local models send nothing out.
• Update checks. These carry only your Mac’s update key and the version it runs.
• Downloads it makes for you. Models and tools come from their publishers, which see an ordinary download.
• Your phone. Kingmaker Phone talks to your Mac over your own Wi-Fi, or through your own Tailscale account if you set one up.

Kingmaker is for adults: you need to be 18 or older. You’re responsible for what you ask it to do, and it’s provided as is, without a warranty.

• A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer).
• macOS 14 or later. For Kingmaker to click and type in your other apps you need macOS 15 or later; on macOS 14 the installer leaves that part out and tells you.
• 16 GB of memory or more is recommended. 8 GB works, just slower.
• About 25 GB of free space: the knowledge library is about 17 GB, and the models take a few GB more. Before it starts, the installer tells you how much room it needs.

Not sure what your Mac has? Open the Apple menu ▸ About This Mac. It shows the chip (an Apple chip such as M1, M2 or M3), the memory and the macOS version.

Not right now. Kingmaker runs only on Macs with Apple silicon. On an Intel Mac the installer stops and says it needs an Apple silicon Mac. There’s no Windows or Linux version of Kingmaker.

1. On the Kingmaker page, click Download for Mac. You get a small file with Ronin Launcher in it.
2. Open the file and drag Ronin Launcher into your Applications folder, then open it. The first time, macOS warns that it can’t check the app; the next question shows how to get past that.
3. In Ronin Launcher, install Kingmaker. It hands you over to Kingmaker Installer (it’s in the download too, so you can also open it directly).
4. Pick a wake word (the name you’ll call it; the default is Kingmaker), accept the terms, and press Download & Install.
5. Wait for the progress bar. It’s a big download, so give it time. If macOS asks for your password once, that’s normal: it’s adding tools Kingmaker needs, such as Apple’s Command Line Tools.
6. Kingmaker opens by itself and the installer closes. There’s no window: look for the Ronin Inc logo in your menu bar. Allow Microphone, Accessibility and Screen Recording when macOS asks.

That’s expected. Kingmaker isn’t notarized by Apple yet (notarization is Apple’s own check and stamp), so macOS asks you to confirm once. To open it anyway:

1. Try to open the app, and close the warning when it appears.
2. Open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security and scroll down to the Security section.
3. Next to the message about the app, click Open Anyway, then confirm with your password.

You do this once for Ronin Launcher and once for Kingmaker Installer. On macOS 14 you can also Control-click (or right-click) the app, choose Open, and confirm.

Download it only from ronininc.org. Every real release is signed by Ronin Inc, and the installer checks that signature before it downloads anything. If the signature doesn’t match, it refuses to install. A copy from anywhere else isn’t covered by that check, whatever it’s called.

Kingmaker brings everything it needs to work on your own Mac: the app itself (about 4 GB), a knowledge library it searches on your disk (about 17 GB), and AI models sized to your Mac’s memory. If you already have some of these, they’re reused instead of downloaded again.

• Microphone, so it can hear you.
• Accessibility, so it can open and control your apps.
• Screen Recording, so it can see what’s on screen and click in the right place.
• Automation: the first time it opens or controls a particular app, macOS asks you to allow that too.

You can check or change these any time in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security: open Microphone, Accessibility, or Screen & System Audio Recording, and turn Kingmaker on. macOS may ask you to quit and reopen Kingmaker for a change to take effect.

No. Every Kingmaker update is signed with the same Ronin Inc certificate, so macOS keeps the permissions you already gave.

Kingmaker has no window and no Dock icon. It lives in your menu bar as a small Ronin Inc logo:

• Plain: asleep, with the microphone off.
• Glowing: awake. Talk to it.
• A moving coloured outline: listening to you.
• Amber: working on what you asked.
• Pulsing: speaking. Talk over it to stop it.
• Red: not listening.

Click the logo to wake it. Right-click (or Control-click) it for its menu, where you’ll find Quit Kingmaker.

1. Check the menu bar logo. If it’s plain, Kingmaker is asleep and its microphone is off: click the logo to wake it.
2. Make sure Microphone is turned on for Kingmaker in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Microphone.
3. When Kingmaker is using the microphone, macOS shows its own orange dot at the top of the screen. No dot means it isn’t listening yet.

The wake word is set once, when you install. To pick a different one, move Kingmaker to the Trash and install it again: the installer lets you choose a new word. Installing over an existing copy keeps the word you have.

Clicking and typing in other apps needs macOS 15 or later. On macOS 15, check that both Accessibility and Screen & System Audio Recording are turned on for Kingmaker in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security.

Not things that matter. Anything that sends, spends or installs waits for your yes, and every step leaves a record. You approve by saying yes while Kingmaker is awake; clicking the menu bar logo only wakes it and never approves anything. Say “stop approving” and every automatic approval stops at once.

Kingmaker Phone lets you talk to Kingmaker on your Mac from your iPhone. Your Mac does the thinking; the phone carries it with you, along with its camera, microphone and location. You can type, talk, send photos, and let Kingmaker call your phone when something needs you. It works on your home Wi-Fi, and anywhere at all once you add Tailscale.

Put your iPhone on the same Wi-Fi as your Mac. On the Mac, open Ronin Launcher and choose to pair a phone: it shows a QR code and a six-digit code. Scan the QR code with your iPhone’s camera, then follow the three steps on the phone:

1. Install the Ronin certificate. Tap Install certificate, then Allow. iOS saves it as a profile first. Then open Settings ▸ General ▸ VPN & Device Management ▸ Ronin Local CA ▸ Install.
2. Trust it. Open Settings ▸ General ▸ About ▸ Certificate Trust Settings and turn on Ronin Local CA.
3. Open Kingmaker. If it asks, type the six-digit code shown on your Mac. Then tap Share ▸ Add to Home Screen, and open Kingmaker from there: full screen, no browser.

Why the certificate? An iPhone only lets a web app use the camera, microphone and location over a secure connection it trusts. The certificate is made by your own Mac, and it stays between your phone and your Mac.

A pairing code lasts ten minutes and works once. If yours has run out, get a fresh one from Ronin Launcher on your Mac. After five wrong tries, pairing locks for fifteen minutes so nobody can guess their way in; wait, then try again with a new code.

Yes, with Tailscale. Install Tailscale on your Mac and the Tailscale app from the App Store on your iPhone, and sign both in to the same Tailscale account. Kingmaker notices within about a minute, no restart needed, and your phone can then reach your Mac over cellular too.

1. At home, make sure the phone and the Mac are on the same Wi-Fi.
2. Away from home, make sure Tailscale is installed and signed in on both, with the same account.
3. Make sure the Mac is on and awake, with Kingmaker running. A Mac that’s asleep (for example with the lid closed) can’t answer.
4. If it says you’re not paired, scan a new pairing code from your Mac.

In Kingmaker Phone, take a photo or pick one from your library. It’s saved on your Mac, and the next thing you say or type can use it, for example “what is this?”, “save this to my Mac” or “pull out the action items”. Ask within half an hour; an older photo isn’t taken as what you mean now. iPhone photos in HEIC format are fine.

If Kingmaker says no model on your Mac can see images yet, pick a model marked “sees images” in the model picker, then ask again.

On the phone, tap Unpair at the top of Kingmaker and confirm. You can also unpair phones from Ronin Launcher on your Mac. An unpaired phone stops reaching your Mac at once; to use it again, scan a new pairing code.

Kingmaker checks for a new version when it starts and when your Mac wakes up. Every update is signed by Ronin Inc and checked piece by piece before it’s installed, and if anything goes wrong along the way, everything is put back the way it was. Your wake word and your permissions stay the same.

Kingmaker’s source is public on GitHub at github.com/ronininc/kingmaker. Check the repo for the latest fixes, and its Releases page for new versions.

Kingmaker is source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. Anyone can read the code, and it’s free for personal, research and hobby use and for noncommercial organisations. It isn’t open source: any company use needs a separate written licence from Ronin Inc. The licence covers the app and the installer as well as the source code.

Press Download & Install again. A download that was cut off picks up where it stopped, and anything already checked is kept. Kingmaker is never left half-installed: if a step fails, what it moved is put back.

The installer checks your free space before it starts, tells you how much it needs, and stops there if it won’t fit. Free up that much room and press Download & Install again.

Each AI model has to arrive exactly as it was when the release was made. If its publisher has changed it since, the installer stops and says so, rather than install something it can’t vouch for. Check back for a newer release, or book a time with us.

Your Mac has an Intel chip. Kingmaker runs only on Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or newer), so it can’t be installed on this one.

That’s normal. If your Mac doesn’t already have Apple’s Command Line Tools and Homebrew, the installer adds them, and macOS asks for your password once, in its own window.

Quit Kingmaker from the menu bar logo (right-click, then Quit Kingmaker) and open it again. If it’s still not right, book a time with us and tell us what happened. We want to hear what breaks.

1. Right-click (or Control-click) the Ronin Inc logo in the menu bar and choose Quit Kingmaker.
2. Drag Kingmaker from your Applications folder to the Trash. Do the same with Ronin Launcher if you no longer want it.

A few things are separate from the app and stay unless you remove them yourself: the free tools Kingmaker installed along the way, such as Ollama (which runs the models) and its models, and Homebrew; and Kingmaker’s own data folder with its memory and settings. If you’d like help removing those too, book a time with us.