Maisnie

Software preview · Early access

Your mail, your calendar, your reading: filed at home, answered on request.

Maisnie runs on a computer you own and files your mail, calendar and news feeds as plain notes in a folder that stays yours. Ask it anything about them, through the AI you choose, including one that never leaves the house.

Request early access See what works today

Maisnie MAYZ-nee Old French for the household: the family and its staff, taken together.

Household book

Open pigeonholes are folders in the preview, and the thread is a link to a person you keep notes on. A boarded pigeonhole is a source that is off or not built yet; the book carries on without it.

How it works

You see the answers. The filing happens below stairs.

Above stairs: what you see

Today
Today's meetings, the newest mail threads, and whether each source ran on time.
Search
Every note, by any word in it.
Ask
A question in plain words. The answer cites the notes it came from, and only those.
Read
Any thread, meeting or person, as a page in your browser.

When does the lease renewal need signing?

By 10 October. Dana Whitfield sent it on 25 September with the rent up 2%, and the walkthrough is on Friday 2 October at 10:00.

Sources Mail / Lease renewal Calendar / 2026-10-02 Lease walkthrough

Nothing below the stairs uses an AI model. Your model is called when you ask a question.

Below stairs: what the staff does

Fetch
Checks each source on a schedule. Reads mail without marking it read.
File
One note per mail thread, per meeting, per feed item, each in its own folder.
Link
Names on a thread or an invitation link to the people you keep notes on.
Index
Keeps search current as notes arrive.
Log
One line per run: when, how long, how many notes. Never what they said.

People

One person, however many addresses they use.

Maisnie reads the names and addresses in your mail and calendar and proposes who is who: a new person, a second address for someone you already keep, two notes that are one person. You approve each one, and nothing is created or merged without your say-so. Every mail thread and meeting that includes any of a person's addresses links to their page, so one search for their name brings back the lot.

Phone numbers and chat handles join the same page when Messages and Chat arrive.

Receipts: each line is the note a fact came from, and opens it.

Models

Your AI, your choice, including one that stays in the house.

Maisnie doesn't ship a model or resell one. It uses the one you point it at, through any of four doors. Each door is tested with a live call before it is used.

With local-only on, a question never falls back to the cloud. If no local model answers, it tells you and stops. Try the switch.

  • Your subscription

    Use the AI subscription you already pay for.

    It works through your provider's official command-line app on the same computer, so there is nothing new to pay. The wizard helps you find the app. Your provider's terms apply; check them for this kind of use.

    Tested with Claude's command-line app. Not available inside the Docker image.

    Not used while local-only is on

  • API key

    Pay as you go with your own key.

    A direct key for Anthropic's API. Keys from other providers go through the aggregator door.

    Not used while local-only is on

  • Aggregator

    One account, many models.

    Any service with an OpenAI-compatible API, such as OpenRouter. You choose the model.

    Not used while local-only is on

  • On this machine

    No text leaves your network.

    A model on your own hardware, through any OpenAI-compatible server: Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio or vLLM. Turn on local-only and it is the only door used.

    The only door used

Fallback
Set up more than one door and it tries the next when one is down, in the order you set.
Usage
Usage records keep counts, times and cost. Never what you asked or what came back.
Ceiling
A monthly spend ceiling for the pay-as-you-go doors.

With a hosted door, your question and the notes found for it go to that provider, under their terms. Filing sends them nothing.

Plain files

Plain files in a folder you own. Leave whenever: copy the folder.

Every note is a Markdown file with a few lines of plain settings at the top. Open them in any text editor or the notes app you already use. Back the folder up with anything. If you stop using Maisnie, the notes stay where they are, readable without it.

Already keep notes in Markdown? Point it at that folder. It adds the few contract files it needs and touches nothing you wrote. Give it a name and email for the history, and every change is recorded with git from the first day.

vault/
├── Calendar/        one note per meeting
├── Mail/            one note per thread
├── Resources/       items from your feeds
├── Entities/
│   └── People/      the people you keep notes on
├── Notes/           your own writing
└── _meta/           the contract: what a note looks like
vault/
├── Calendar/
│     one note per meeting
├── Mail/
│     one note per thread
├── Resources/
│     items from your feeds
├── Entities/
│   └── People/
│         the people you keep notes on
├── Notes/
│     your own writing
└── _meta/
      the contract: what a note looks like
Mail/Lease renewal.md
---
title: Lease renewal
type: email
status: active
created: 2026-09-18
modified: 2026-09-25
source: mail
---

With [[Dana Whitfield]] and [[Tomas Ferreira]]. 3 messages.

## 2026-09-18 · Dana Whitfield
Your lease ends on 31 October. The owner is happy to renew on the same terms. Shall I draw it up?

## 2026-09-22 · Tomas Ferreira
Yes from me. Can we ask about the side gate at the same time?

## 2026-09-25 · Dana Whitfield
The renewal is ready to sign, rent up 2%. The gate is booked for repair on 6 October. Please sign and return by 10 October.
The two names in brackets are links to their notes.

Where your data sits

On your machine
The notes, the search index, the run log and the settings file.
With us
Nothing. There is no Maisnie server and no account to create.
With your model
If you chose a hosted door: each question and the notes found for it. With a local model, nothing.
With your mail
Nothing changes. Mail is read without being marked read; nothing is sent, moved or deleted.
Passwords
Sealed at rest on your machine, with the key kept by Windows or the macOS keychain where those exist; Settings tells you plainly what protects them, and the guide says what that does not cover.
On your network
It answers only on the computer it runs on until you claim it. Opening it to the rest of your home network is a switch you choose.

Setup

From install to first answer, in five steps.

Early-access testers get one install command: a Python package for Linux, macOS or Windows, or a Docker image. Start it, open the address it prints, and the setup pages take over.

  1. Claim.

    The first browser to reach it picks a passphrase and becomes the owner. There is no other account.

  2. Vault.

    Start a new folder of notes, or point it at one you already keep.

  3. Sources.

    Turn on calendar, mail and feeds. Paste a private calendar link or a mail app password, then press Test connection. Skip any of them; nothing else depends on them.

  4. Model.

    Choose a door and press Test. You see a live reply, how long it took and what it cost.

  5. Done.

    The home page shows Today. The first run fetches the last 90 days of mail, and your calendar from a month back to two months ahead, then keeps up on its own.

The ledger

What works today, what comes next, and what comes later.

If it isn't in the first column, it isn't in the preview.

Today · In the preview

  • One-command install: a Python package or a Docker image. Linux, macOS and Windows.
  • One owner, one passphrase. Sign-in lasts 30 days; five wrong tries lock it for 15 minutes.
  • Setup in the browser: vault, sources, model.
  • A vault of plain Markdown files, new or adopted, with git history if you want it.
  • Calendar, from a private calendar link.
  • Mail over IMAP with an app password. Read-only. Newsletters and bulk mail skipped by default.
  • News feeds, RSS and Atom.
  • Every source runs on a schedule, in your own time zone, and every run is logged.
  • A home page with Today and Search.
  • People, proposed from your mail and calendar and approved by you, one at a time, with a page for each person.
  • A morning briefing on the home page: today's meetings, mail that needs you, new reading. Written by your model, or as a plain list without one.
  • Ask, with the notes each answer came from.
  • Four model doors, each tested with a live call. Local-only mode. Usage records without content. A monthly spend ceiling.
  • Your home network after you claim it; HTTPS with a certificate you bring.
  • Away from home, on your own domain: a Cloudflare tunnel the box sets up from your account, off by default, with Setup never reachable that way and remote sessions limited until you say otherwise.
  • Stored passwords and keys sealed at rest, with the page telling you plainly what protects them on your system.
  • A user guide.

Next

  • The box: a small computer with Maisnie already on it. Plug it in, find it on your network, claim it. No install. Updates and backups from the browser. Three hardware rungs, priced below.

Later

  • Sign in with Google or Microsoft for mail, calendar and chat.
  • Chat and text messages.
  • Meetings: recordings and transcripts from video-call services.
  • Home and cameras: doors, heating and who came by, filed as notes.

Pricing

What it costs to run. Estimates, not quotes.

The preview runs on a computer you already own. Filing uses no model, so the running cost is what your questions cost at the door you chose, or nothing new if you use a subscription you already pay for.

The box Next

When the box ships, it comes in three rungs. All figures are estimates: hardware at August 2026 street prices, and monthly model cost for a busy household, electricity included. They are assumptions, not measurements.

RungWhat it isHow it thinksUp front (est.)Monthly (est.)
APi and cloud
 Raspberry Pi 5, 8 GB, with a 500 GB SSD Any hosted door ~$280 $21–41
BHybrid mini-PC Recommended
 32 GB mini-PC with a 1 TB SSD A small model on the box for quick jobs; hosted for the rest ~$260 $14–35
CSovereign, GPU
 Tower with a used 24 GB graphics card Local for everything ~$1,750 $13–21electricity only
CSovereign, unified memory
 128 GB unified-memory mini Local for everything ~$2,250 $5–8electricity only
  • Memory prices rose sharply in 2026, which is why the smallest box costs more up front than the recommended one.
  • Rung C's ranges run from US to EU household electricity rates. Nothing goes to a model provider.
  • Prices move; every figure is re-checked before anyone is asked to pay it.

White-glove setup

By request, priced per household.

We install Maisnie on your machine, connect your mail, calendar and feeds, set up your vault with notes for the people you deal with often, test your model, and show you how to keep it in order. Tick the box on the form and we'll write with a price.

Early access

Request early access.

The preview goes to a small group of testers at a time; leave an address and we'll write when there is a place, with the install command and the user guide.

We write only about early access.

What to call you.

What would you connect first?

Tick any. Some of these come later; your answer helps decide the order.

We'll write with a price for your household.

We keep what you enter here to reply about early access, and for nothing else. No cookies, no analytics. To be removed, write to [email protected]. Privacy notice

What a tester needs

A computer that stays on
Linux, macOS or Windows, with Python or Docker.
At least one source
A private calendar link, a mail account that allows app passwords, or a news feed.
A model, to ask questions
A subscription you already pay for, an API key, an aggregator account, or a model server on your own hardware. Filing works without one.