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Sift for Mac

One app for Apple silicon Macs. It runs on your Mac and opens in your web browser.

Download the latest release

.zip about 111 MB · .dmg about 119 MB · both hold the same app

Requirements

Mac
Apple silicon (M1 or later). Intel Macs aren't supported.
macOS
macOS 13 Ventura or later.
Disk
About 250 MB for the app, 0.6 GB for the Whisper speech model it downloads during setup, and room for its cache next to your events.
AI key
An OpenRouter or Anthropic API key. See API keys & costs.
Editing
Premiere Pro, to open the exported project.

First launch

This release isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID yet, so macOS stops it the first time you open it. You approve it once; after that it opens normally.

  1. Unpack it

    Open the .zip (or the .dmg) and move the sift-…-darwin-arm64 folder somewhere you keep apps, such as your Applications folder. It holds one program, sift, and a short README.

  2. Open it, and see the warning

    Double-click sift. macOS shows a warning instead of opening it. Its title says “sift” can't be opened or “sift” Not Opened, and the message says Apple couldn't check it, or couldn't verify it, for malware. The buttons are Done (or OK) and Move to Trash. Click Done. Don't move it to the Trash.

  3. Approve it: pick one way

    Any macOS version

    System Settings

    Open System Settings → Privacy & Security. Scroll to Security, where it says “sift” was blocked. Click Open Anyway, enter your password, then click Open in the dialog that follows.

    macOS 13 and 14

    Right-click → Open

    In Finder, Control-click (or right-click) sift and choose Open. The warning now has an Open button. On macOS 15 and later this shortcut is gone; use System Settings.

    If you use Terminal

    Clear the quarantine flag

    Downloads carry a quarantine flag that triggers the check. Remove it from the one file:

    xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/sift

    Drag sift into the Terminal window to fill in its path.

  4. Set it up

    sift opens a Terminal window (leave it open while you work) and then your browser at 127.0.0.1. Setup has three checks: paste your API key (it goes in the macOS Keychain), download the Whisper model (about 0.6 GB; you can keep going while it downloads), and choose where exports go.

    To see which version you have, open Settings → Diagnostics.

Next: Install & first run in the docs, or Troubleshooting if it won't start.