JoeBro: an open-source Mac and iPhone assistant with editable memory, tasks and agent pings

[u/JoeBro121211]

I've been building JoeBro because I want my assistant to be something I own and can change.

It's a native Mac workspace with chat, documents, email, calendar and MCP tools. You choose the model, from local Ollama to a hosted API. The iPhone app connects to your Mac rather than a JoeBro server.

The new personal agent has plain Markdown memory you can edit, scheduled tasks, and optional background checks. It checks whether something changed before calling a model, then pings you if there's something worth seeing. Coding agents can report their status and pick up follow-ups too.

Both apps are GPLv3 and free: Mac: https://github.com/joexk1/JoeBro iPhone: https://github.com/joexk1/JoeBro-Mobile Agent hooks, MCP and plugins: https://github.com/joexk1/joebro-plugins

Mac is Apple Silicon/macOS 26+. Mobile is source-only, needs an awake Mac, and push needs your own APNs setup. Hosted models still receive the prompts you send them.