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jo connects to your Mac’s native apps to give you AI-powered search across everything you work with. You control exactly what jo can see.

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Available data sources

jo can index the following data sources on your Mac:

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Native apps

Notes

All your Apple Notes, including folders, tags, and attachments

Photos

Your entire Photos library with dates, locations, and visual content

Mail

Email via IMAP access to your configured mail accounts

Messages

iMessage, SMS, and connected messaging apps on your Mac

Calendar

Events, meetings, and calendar entries

Files

Local files in your specified directories

Reminders

Tasks and reminder lists

Contacts

Your contact information and details

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Messaging apps

jo connects to messaging apps running on your Mac:
  • iMessage: Native integration with Messages app
  • WhatsApp: Via WhatsApp Desktop on Mac
  • Telegram: Via Telegram Desktop on Mac
Groupchat summaries: Ask “catch me up on the family chat” and jo summarizes key points, decisions, and anything that needs your attention. All processing happens locally.

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Browser history

jo can index your browser history to help you find:
  • Pages you visited but didn’t bookmark
  • Research you started but didn’t finish
  • Products or services you were considering

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How indexing works

jo uses the same APIs that Apple’s own apps use to access your data. This is the same secure method Spotlight uses.

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Initial setup

  1. Download jo: Drag to Applications folder
  2. Grant permissions: You choose which apps jo can access
  3. Wait 10 minutes: jo reads through your history
  4. Start asking: jo is ready to help
Everything stays on your Mac during indexing. jo processes all data locally and never uploads anything to external servers.

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Continuous indexing

After the initial setup, jo continuously indexes new content in the background:
  • New emails are indexed as they arrive
  • New notes are indexed when you create them
  • New photos are indexed when you import them
  • New messages are indexed in real-time
You won’t notice jo running. It uses your Mac’s Neural Engine, which is dedicated AI hardware that normally sits idle, so it won’t slow down your other work.

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What jo can see

jo only sees what you give it permission to access. During setup, you explicitly grant permissions for each data source.

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Granular control

You can control:
  • Which apps jo can access
  • Which folders or directories to include/exclude
  • Which email accounts to index
  • Which messaging apps to connect
jo reads your actual files using Apple’s native APIs. It doesn’t take screenshots or record your screen like some alternatives do.

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What jo can’t see

jo has the same limitations as any other Mac app:

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Encrypted content

  • Password-protected files remain protected
  • Encrypted email attachments aren’t accessible
  • Locked notes in Apple Notes aren’t indexed

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Apps without access

jo can only access:
  • Native Mac apps with public APIs
  • Messaging apps running on your Mac
  • Files you’ve granted permission to read
jo cannot access:
  • Web apps that don’t store data locally
  • Cloud-only services without local copies
  • System files or other users’ data

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Privacy boundaries

By design: jo respects macOS’s built-in privacy protections. If an app requires special permissions, macOS will ask you to approve it.

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Data storage

All indexed data is stored locally on your Mac.

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How data is stored

  • Encrypted database: jo creates an encrypted index on your Mac
  • Local only: Nothing is uploaded to external servers
  • Fast access: Local storage means instant search results

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Storage requirements

The index size depends on how much data you have:
  • Average user: 2-5 GB for the index
  • Power user: 5-15 GB for extensive email/photo libraries
  • Requirements: M1 or newer Mac with 16GB RAM
jo’s index is much smaller than your actual data because it stores semantic representations, not full copies of your files.

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Removing data sources

You can disconnect data sources at any time:
  1. Open jo preferences
  2. Go to Data Sources
  3. Toggle off any source you want to remove
  4. jo will remove that data from its index
Removing jo: If you uninstall jo, all indexed data is deleted with it. Your original files in Notes, Photos, Mail, etc. remain untouched.

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Email access (IMAP)

jo accesses email using IMAP, the same protocol used by Mail.app.

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Supported email providers

  • Gmail
  • Outlook/Microsoft 365
  • iCloud Mail
  • Any IMAP-compatible email service

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What’s indexed from email

  • Subject lines
  • Sender and recipient information
  • Email body text
  • Date and time
  • Thread conversations
Attachments: jo indexes attachment names and types, but doesn’t download or store the full attachment content unless the file is already local.

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Technical details

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How jo accesses data

jo uses Apple’s native frameworks:
  • EventKit for Calendar access
  • Contacts framework for Contacts
  • Photos framework for Photos library
  • Notes framework for Apple Notes
  • IMAP protocol for Mail
  • SQLite databases for Messages (read-only)
Verifiable architecture: jo uses Apple’s native APIs (same as Spotlight). We can’t access your data even if we wanted to. Security researchers can verify our claims.

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Network activity

jo does not make network calls for your data:
  • Zero outbound connections for content
  • All processing on-device using your Neural Engine
  • No cloud uploads of personal data
Verify it yourself: Open Activity Monitor while using jo. You’ll see zero outbound connections to external servers for your content.

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System requirements

To index and search your data, jo requires:
  • Mac with M-series chip (M1, M2, M3, M4)
  • 16GB of RAM
  • macOS Sonoma or later
  • 5-20 GB free disk space (for index)
Why M-series? Apple’s M-series chips have a Neural Engine that makes local AI fast and efficient. jo uses this dedicated AI hardware to run models directly on your Mac.

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