abhayparolkar/zboy

ZBoy sets up a coding assistant that runs entirely on your own Mac, without sending your code to a cloud AI service. It combines a local AI language model with a coding agent called pi, but keeps the two carefully separated for safety: the AI model itself runs directly on your Mac to use the machine's chip efficiently, while the coding agent that actually reads files and runs commands lives inside a disposable virtual machine, using Apple's container feature. This means if the AI decides to run something unexpected, it happens in a throwaway environment rather than directly on your work computer, and no developer tools like Node.js need to be installed on your actual Mac. The project was built with Ruby on Rails projects in mind, though the README states it can work with other kinds of projects too. Setup involves building the container image, finding the network address the container uses to reach your Mac, and running a script that mounts your project folder into the disposable environment. A separate script lets you open a plain shell inside the same sandboxed environment for manual poking around. There are a few safety and configuration details worth knowing. A built in extension can block or require confirmation before the agent touches sensitive files like SSH keys or credential files. The project also supports connecting the coding agent to messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, and Matrix, so you can send it instructions remotely from your phone. This requires a fairly specific setup: a recent Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 26, Apple's container command line tool, and a local model server already running. The README describes the project's current status as an early, hands on draft rather than a polished release, so some rough edges should be expected.