Image: GitHub
Why it mattersA developer already paying for a Claude subscription can now talk to their Mac to open apps, search files and run small tasks, without a separate API key or a monthly voice assistant bill.
Most Mac voice assistants ask for a second subscription, and a new one takes the opposite path by using whatever Claude plan the developer is already paying for. Atticus, posted to Show HN on 11 October, is a hold-to-talk assistant for macOS that runs on Claude Code and a user's existing Claude Pro or Max plan. The thread reached 30 points with three comments, including one person adapting it for Windows.
The app is built in Swift with a Python backend, released under the MIT licence by a 9th-grade student who goes by Saarth. A user presses Control plus Option plus Space, speaks the request, and the request runs through Claude Code with a system prompt the README says stays under 10,000 characters when every option is on.
What it can do
The named examples in the README are opening apps like Calculator, Chess, Spotify, Chrome, Terminal and Slack, arranging windows across displays, searching files by content, reading the screen, summarising articles, typing replies, playing music, and watching a long task so the user is told when it finishes. Simple app launches finish in 0.08 seconds because they do not need the model at all. The AI median response is under 6 seconds in the author's own measurement.
The assistant memorises shortcuts the first time it is asked. The README's example says an action that took 5.5 seconds on the first ask drops to 0.4 seconds the second time, because the shortcut is replayed directly without going through the model.
Safe mode and the cost per ask
The README quotes a cost of roughly $0.00095 per request at the API list rate, about 700 asks for one dollar. In practice the cost sits inside the user's existing Claude Pro or Max fee, so the API list rate is a comparison figure, not what a Pro subscriber pays. Audio stays on the Mac through Apple's on-device speech recognition.
Safe mode runs every command inside Claude Code's sandbox, which can only write to a scratch folder. Deletions, sends, purchases and file changes ask for a confirmation. The commands rm, sudo, disk tools and shutdown are blocked permanently, and every executed command is logged.
What is needed to run it
The install requirements are macOS 26 or later, a paid Claude plan (Pro or Max), Claude Code itself, and Apple's command line tools. Clicking inside applications uses the optional Peekaboo helper. The setup window installs Claude Code if it is missing.
The assumption behind the project is that teams who run Claude Code every day have already paid for the model, so adding voice costs only an afternoon to install and a few cents a day in equivalent compute. The audience is narrow by design: a Windows user or a developer without a Claude plan cannot use it. For the audience it is aimed at, the price of trying it is close to zero.
Source
This item was written by an AI system from the linked source. Reveneau is responsible for what it publishes.
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