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Frequently asked questions

Last updated: September 4, 2026

Start here if you are deciding whether Sageling fits your work, setting it up, or wondering what it will do with your files and information. If you handle confidential or regulated information, the second half covers the additional questions that may apply to your work.

Contents

About Sageling

What is Sageling? An AI assistant that runs on your Mac. Describe the result you want in your own words: transcribe a session and write the notes, grade reports, compare venues, or review a contract. Sageling can read and write files, run programs, and search the web as it works. It is built for anyone with work to finish; you do not need to be a software developer.

Is it really free? Yes. The app is free to download and use, including for commercial work. There are no usage limits and no subscription. We may offer paid features in the future.

Is it open source? No. Sageling is free to use but not open source. It is built on open components, and the acknowledgements page lists every one of them with its license.

When should I use it instead of ChatGPT or Claude? Use Sageling when you want to work directly with files and programs on your Mac, keep the work there, or run without usage limits. ChatGPT and Claude run on someone else’s computers, so material you send them leaves your Mac. Their largest cloud models are generally faster on long jobs and better at hard reasoning than Sageling’s smaller local model. Sageling is the better fit when local control and the ability to act on your Mac matter more than having the largest available model.

Which AI model does it use? Qwen 3.5, a 9-billion-parameter open-weight model, compressed to fit comfortably alongside your other apps. It can read text and see images. It cannot hear, so audio is transcribed first by a separate speech tool that also runs on your Mac.

Getting it running

What Mac do I need? A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) and at least 16 GB of memory, running macOS 13 or later. More memory helps: the model and its working space take a large share of 16 GB, so on a 16 GB Mac you will want to close other heavy apps while Sageling works.

Will it run on an Intel Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, or iPad? No. Only Apple silicon Macs are supported today. If that changes, we will announce it on the mailing list.

How big is the download? The app itself is small. On first run it downloads the language model, which is about 8 GB, and keeps it in your Library folder. The download resumes if interrupted and is checked against a known fingerprint before it is used.

Does it need an internet connection? For setup, yes, to fetch the model. After that it works offline. Searching the web and reading pages require the network, and the app checks for updates when it can. Other work runs without a connection.

Does it slow my Mac down? While it is working, it uses the graphics processor hard, the fans may come on, and battery drains faster than usual. When it is idle it uses very little.

How does it update? The app checks for updates on its own and installs them when you agree. Model updates arrive the same way, and a newer reviewed model becomes a download on the next launch. The changelog lists what changed.

How do I uninstall it completely? Drag Sageling to the Trash. To remove everything it stored, also delete ~/Library/Application Support/Sageling (the model, about 8 GB) and the hidden .sageling folder in your home folder (your settings, registered projects, and personal memories). Conversation history and project memories live inside each project folder and stay there until you delete them.

Using it

What can it actually do? It can turn recordings into transcripts and notes, compare documents or spreadsheets, draft from your source material, research a question on the web, organize files, and run programs already on your Mac. It can also use skills, which are packaged instructions for a particular kind of job. Ask for the result you want in plain words. It may ask when a request is ambiguous, but it cannot recognize every uncertainty or mistake.

How do I give it its first job? Choose the folder that contains the material, then describe the result and where you want it saved. For example: “Transcribe interview.m4a, write a one-page summary to summary.md, and leave the original alone.” You can watch its steps in the conversation, stop the turn at any time, and give a follow-up instruction if it goes in the wrong direction. Check the finished files before you rely on them.

What kinds of files can it read? Plain text of every kind, images, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents, and the speech in audio or video files. Other formats usually work through a skill.

What are skills? Skills are instructions for a specific job, such as a particular report, review checklist, or repeated workflow. Choose one, fill in a short brief, and Sageling follows it. Skills come from our reviewed catalog, and each install is verified before it runs.

How long can it work on something? There is no usage cap or fixed time limit. You can watch the work as it happens and stop the turn at any time. A long job may finish, ask you a question, or stop when a step fails; it cannot promise that every job will complete unattended. Keep the Mac awake and plugged in. If you stop it, any work already completed remains in place, so check the files before continuing in the same conversation.

Can it delete or change my files? Yes. Sageling works with the same file access as your Mac account. In its default independent mode, it decides which steps fall within the job you gave it and asks before going further. Turn independence off for important or irreplaceable material; Sageling will then ask before any step you have not already permitted. You can stop a turn at any time, but stopping does not undo changes already made. Keep a separate copy of anything you could not easily recreate, and check changed files before using them. The terms describe what each mode authorizes.

What if it gets something wrong? It will, sometimes. A small model can be confidently wrong about a fact, a citation, or a number. Read what it drafts before you rely on it, the way you would a capable assistant’s first pass. Tell it what was wrong and it will fix it. If you want us to know too, press the thumbs down under the reply and pick what went wrong. Add a note only if you chose “Other”, and keep other people’s information out of it: apart from your name and email at setup, the note is the only thing you type that reaches us.

Does it work in languages other than English? The model understands and writes many languages, and English is its strongest. Speech transcription quality also depends on the language. Try a representative sample of your own material before relying on it for a larger job.

Can I use it for my job, or on a work Mac? The license covers commercial work. If the Mac is managed by an organization, check its software policy before installing it. For an approval request, the short description is: Sageling runs its AI model on the Mac, stores conversations inside the project folder, and sends project content to the network only when the work calls for web access. The sections below cover questions about confidential work.

Where do I get help or report a problem? Write to support@sageling.ai. Say what you asked for and what happened. For a single bad reply, the thumbs down under it is quicker, and if you gave us an email at setup it reaches us with that email so we can write back.

Privacy and your data

Does my work leave my Mac? Your conversations, project files, and memories stay on your Mac during ordinary local work. Sageling does not send them to us or call an outside AI service, and it can run with the network disconnected after setup. Information can leave through web activity Sageling performs for a job, a folder you configured to sync, or feedback you deliberately send. The questions below explain exactly what each path carries. The privacy policy is the full statement.

Does Sageling learn from my work? It does not train on it, and neither do we. The model on your Mac is the same one everyone gets. When we ship an improved model, it arrives as a download that contains nothing of yours. Sageling does keep short notes called memories. These include facts you tell it or that it infers, such as your name or how you like documents formatted. They are plain text files on your disk that you can read, edit, and delete.

What does leave my Mac? These are the network paths Sageling uses:

Where does Sageling store things, and how do I delete them? A conversation’s history lives in .sageling/sessions inside its project folder. Use the conversation’s menu to delete that conversation or choose Show in Finder to see its files. Project memories live in .sageling/memories inside the project folder, while memories about you live in the same folder under your home directory. Open the MEMORIES table to inspect, edit, or delete any memory. Deleting a project folder also deletes the conversations and project memories stored inside it. To remove the app, downloaded model, settings, and personal memories together, follow the complete uninstall steps above.

What about iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or Google Drive? This is the one path that involves no action by Sageling at all. If a project folder sits inside a synced folder, its conversation history and memories sync along with it, to whichever service and devices you configured. Sageling does not know or care whether a folder is synced. If your obligations restrict where information may be stored, keep confidential projects outside synced folders, or use a service your organization has an agreement with.

Confidential and regulated work

Use the section that matches your work if rules such as HIPAA, FERPA, or attorney-client privilege apply to you. Each section explains what Sageling keeps local and what you may need to check before using it. It is not legal advice. Rules change and vary by state and country; when in doubt, ask your own compliance officer, licensing board, or lawyer.

Therapists, physicians, and other health professionals

Can I use Sageling in my HIPAA-covered practice? Yes, but you must still keep a HIPAA-compliant setup (unrelated to Sageling). Sageling processes client information on your Mac and does not give us access to it.

For that local use, you DO NOT need a Business Associate Agreement with us: HHS explains that merely providing software does not create a business-associate relationship when the provider cannot access protected health information. The privacy section above explains where Sageling stores information, what it remembers, how to delete it, and which actions can send it off the Mac.

Your overall setup and use still need to follow the safeguards and retention policies that apply to your work. For example, your organization may require access to the Mac and project folder to be limited to authorized users, and project files and backups to stay in storage approved for health information. Apply the retention schedule that already governs your records to Sageling conversations, transcripts, and drafts. HHS provides an overview of the Security Rule’s safeguard categories and notes that the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not set retention periods for medical records.

Teachers, professors, and school staff

Does FERPA let me use Sageling with student work? Yes. Student work that Sageling processes locally stays on your Mac and is not disclosed to us. FERPA governs education records and their disclosure to other people and organizations; it does not prohibit you from using local software to work with them. Web searches and synced folders remain separate paths out of the Mac, as described above, and your institution may have additional rules.

Then what should I check? Your institution’s policy, which is the thing FERPA actually operates through. Three points commonly come up:

What about grading and feedback? You can use Sageling to help draft grading and feedback. Your institution may require disclosure to students or require a person to make the final decision. Sageling drafts; you review and decide.

Does it help that my notes stay with me? Yes. FERPA excludes “sole possession” records — notes you keep for your own use, share with no one, and use as a memory aid — from the definition of education records. Notes that stay in a project folder on your Mac fit that shape until you share them.

Is Sageling a “student data” service under state law? Not for the local use described here. Laws like California’s SOPIPA regulate operators of online services that collect student information. We operate no such service and collect no student information. The obligations those laws create fall on services that hold the data, and we hold none.

Does using Sageling risk privilege or confidentiality? No, not when you keep matter information in Sageling’s local work. The model runs on your Mac and does not send that information to us or another AI provider, so it does not create the third-party disclosure risk of a cloud AI service. Web searches, synced folders, and anything you share remain separate paths to other parties. The privacy section above explains each one.

Bar guidance on generative AI seems to require client consent. Does it here? Not necessarily. Local use does not expose client information to us or another AI provider, so it avoids the confidentiality risk that drives consent requirements for many cloud AI tools. Disclosure or consent may still depend on your jurisdiction, engagement terms, client expectations, and how materially the tool affects the work. Check the rules that apply to your practice.

Anything specific to legal work? Two things:

Everyone in the EU, UK, and similar jurisdictions

Are you my processor under the GDPR? No. A processor handles personal data on your behalf, and we never receive the personal data in your projects: it stays on your Mac and is processed there, by software you run. There is nothing for a data-processing agreement to cover, so none is offered. You remain the controller of that data, as you were before you installed Sageling. The only personal data we hold is yours, the name and email you may choose to give us, and the privacy policy covers that.

Recording and transcription

Can I record a meeting or session and have Sageling transcribe it? Yes. Sageling can transcribe audio files on your Mac, and the audio stays there. Whether you may make the recording is a separate question. In the US, federal law and most states generally allow a participant to record with one party’s consent; some states require every party’s consent, and interstate conversations can complicate which rule applies. Laws outside the US and professional or institutional rules also vary. The simplest safe practice is to tell everyone and get their consent before recording. The Reporters Committee’s guide has current state-by-state information. Once recorded, handle the audio and transcript under the same rules as your other records.

A short checklist for confidential work

Ask us

If your compliance officer, board, or lawyer has a question this page does not answer, write to support@sageling.ai. We would rather answer it once and add it here than have you guess.