Ivy: Local-First AI Router & Desktop App
Dsignable
Overview
Ivy is a local-first AI router for the Mac. A menu-bar desktop app and floating hub send each request to the right model, running on the Mac through Ollama when it can and reaching the cloud only when it needs to. Around it sit the getivyhub.com marketing site and PWA, Firebase sign-in and admin, and an OpenAI-compatible local API that tools such as Cursor connect to. The macOS desktop app is public at v0.2.17.
Our role: Product Design, Brand & Full-Stack Development (2026)
The challenge
Developers overpaid for cloud AI on tasks a Mac can do locally, picked models by hand, and sent private code to APIs by default. Ivy had to feel effortless, stay offline-capable, and refuse to invent weather or inbox data it cannot fetch.
What we built
We designed Ivy end-to-end: forest-green brand and site, an Electron hub, and a FastAPI router to local models with cloud only when needed — plus rich cards, OS control, Cursor connect, and Firebase admin at getivyhub.com.
Electron macOS Desktop App (menu bar + floating hub)
Next.js Marketing Site & PWA
FastAPI Smart Router + Ollama / LiteLLM
Firebase Hosting, Auth & Cloud Admin
Cursor / IDE Auto-Connect
Tiered Permissions (Free local · Pro cloud)
Premium Rich Cards (weather, mail, disk, calendar, reminders)
Context-Aware Chat & Iterative Image / Video
On-Device Email Summarization & OS Control
Results
Local On-device routing
Auto Model selection
v0.2.17 Shipped macOS desktop
Live getivyhub.com
Links
Live: getivyhub.com
Full case study: dsignable.com/work/ivy
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Posted Oct 29, 2026
Local-first AI router: a Mac menu-bar app that sends each prompt to the right model, plus a marketing site and an OpenAI-compatible API.
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