Kato is the eyes and ears of your agents.

Questions

What is Kato?

Kato is a Mac app that captures what your agents can't reach: your calls and what's on your screen, filed by client. Your agents pull it over MCP and do the work. You see each promise with what the agent reported about it.

Who is it for?

A one-person firm with a few clients that runs its work through agents.

Which agents does it work with?

kato connect registers Kato as an MCP server in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and OpenCode, whichever are on your Mac. A promise on your list can also be handed straight to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Grok.

How do I connect an agent?

Right-click Kato in the menu bar, open Settings and choose Install the kato command-line tool. It links kato into ~/.local/bin, so add that to your PATH if your terminal can't find it. Run kato connect ~/kato once. For each client, run kato track ~/kato acme, then kato bind ~/kato acme ~/work/acme with that client's folder.

How does it read my screen?

Through the macOS Accessibility API, locally: it reads the same text a screen reader gets. By default Kato runs no OCR and keeps no pictures of your screen. It keeps a picture of a meeting window only when you press ⌃⌥⌘S during a call. There is an optional per-app deep read, off unless you enable it from Terminal, and every use of it is logged.

Are my calls transcribed in the cloud?

No: Kato transcribes on your Mac, with Apple's on-device speech until its whisper.cpp model has downloaded, and the audio never leaves. To pull out the promises and decisions, the transcript text goes to the brain like any other text: secret-scrubbed for keys, cards and emails, and logged in the egress ledger. Names and business detail go as written. Leave a call unfiled and its text stays on the Mac. Kato can also file a call without asking: when one client's domain or email address on file is said on it, when the meeting window's title names two of that client's people or one's email, or, if you turn on Brief me before calendar calls and give Kato your calendar, when the calendar names exactly one client. That can happen on a personal call, and the text goes when the call ends: Change moves the call and can't take the text back.

Which calls does it hear?

Any call, client or personal, once a meeting app or a browser is in front with your mic in use: Zoom, Teams, Webex, Slack huddles, Discord, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave and Arc. On macOS 14.4 and later a web call in Safari isn't detected, and FaceTime isn't on the list. To turn call capture off, run defaults write mx.armando.kato kato.call.enabled -bool false and reopen Kato. Its whisper.cpp model listens for English and Spanish unless you change kato.call.languages. Kato doesn't tell the others on the call; telling them is on you.

What leaves my Mac?

Two streams of text go to the brain, both secret-scrubbed: the transcript of a filed call, and the text of the windows Kato files under a client that isn't sealed. Kato keeps an egress ledger of the cloud calls its brain makes, with their size and hash, so you can read what its brain sent. If macOS won't hand the app the ledger's Keychain key, the app makes a new one: the calls are still listed, but the saved copies of what was sent may not open. The kato command line logs its calls only when it can read that key. Five things sit outside that ledger: the one-time model download, a key check if you paste your own key, a draft you hand to WhatsApp, Telegram or Mail, work you hand to a coding agent, and what your agent pulls over MCP. Nothing Kato files under a sealed client goes to the brain or to your agents unless you send it or hand it on yourself. Screen text it can't tie to that client can still reach the brain. The Blind Kato menu-bar switch stops capture within seconds. What it already heard of a call still goes to the brain when the call closes, if that call is filed under a client that isn't sealed.

What does sealing a client do?

It keeps that client away from the brain and your agents, and it erases that client's transcripts, drafted follow-ups, kept frames, journal text and saved copies of what was sent, in your local backups too. kato unseal brings none of it back. The summaries, promises and memory stay, and Time Machine copies aren't covered. Later calls under a sealed client keep no transcript and get no summary or promises. Seal a client only when that is what you want, with kato seal ~/kato acme. To remove a client whole, run kato forget ~/kato space acme, which has no undo.

Where is my memory stored?

The day journal is encrypted at rest. Your memory is plain local files you own, and kato export ~/kato writes the whole thing out as a plain-file bundle: the journal lines and the saved copies of what was sent stay encrypted, and your Mac's key opens them.

How long does Kato keep what it captures?

A call's transcript stays 7 days by default, unfiled calls included. Kato then empties it and deletes the call's kept frames; the summary, promises and decisions stay. To keep transcripts past 7 days, run defaults write mx.armando.kato kato.call.retentionDays -int 0. Either way Kato keeps only the newest 50 calls and their plans, personal and unfiled calls included. An older call goes whole, summary and decisions too, though your daily backups can still hold a copy. Its promises stay. The copy sent to the brain is separate: for a filed call, the scrubbed text stays encrypted on this Mac in the ledger's saved copies, the newest 32 MB, and in your daily backups. Screen text in the journal is kept until you pick 90, 30 or 14 days in Inspect my brain, under Keeping, and the backups keep their copies either way, with no end date. Sealing or forgetting a client erases its saved copies, backups included. Kato keeps Time Machine off its journal, capture logs and backups, not the rest of ~/kato, so where Time Machine is on, its copies of call records outlast all of this.

Does it send anything without me?

Kato sends no message without your keypress: it places a reply where you can send it, and in Mail your Return on its chip presses Send. The two streams of text above go to the brain with no keypress. Your agent does the work, under that agent's own permissions, and whatever it sends is its own.

Do I need an API key?

No: the AI is included, with no key to set up. You can use your own Anthropic key instead: the subscription stays, you pay Anthropic for the calls, and you switch to it in Kato's Settings menu. Running on a local model through Ollama works from the kato command line, not yet from the menu-bar app.

What does it cost?

One plan: $29/month USD, with a 7-day free trial, card up front and nothing charged today. The download itself is free, and Kato stays paused until you start the trial.

How does the trial work?

Nothing is charged until the 7 days end. You can cancel any time from the self-serve billing portal linked in your welcome email, or by replying to it.

What happens if I cancel?

Kato pauses. Your journal stays on your Mac, readable and exportable, and we never hold your memory.

What if I delete the app?

Deleting the app leaves your files: ~/kato holds the memory, transcripts, saved copies and backups, and the sweep that empties transcripts stops, because only the app runs it. First run kato connect ~/kato --undo to take Kato out of your agents. Then delete ~/kato to erase what it holds. Kato's Keychain items stay until you remove them in Keychain Access.

Who makes Kato?

An independent maker, and you're buying direct, not through a marketplace or reseller. Billing runs on Kato's own Stripe account, so your card statement reads INSTALLKATO.COM. Questions go to a human: iam@armando.mx.

What do I need?

An Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later, with 14.4 or later to capture both sides of a call (below that, mic only). macOS asks for Screen & System Audio Recording when your first call starts. Until you allow it Kato hears only your mic, so that call can come out one-sided, and ⌃⌥⌘S keeps nothing. No API key is needed. The app is signed and notarized by Apple.