Shlexball is a Mac app that finds files from a plain-English description of what you remember, such as a topic, a date range, or a phrase from inside the document. A 1.5B-parameter AI model runs entirely on your Mac, so your files are never uploaded. Shlexball is made by Forge Analytics & Systems Inc., a Canadian company based in Toronto.
COMPANY
Forge Analytics & Systems Inc. 915 Queen Street East Toronto, ON M4M 1J4 Canada
SUPPORT
Email ishti@shlexball.com. Include your macOS version and what you searched for if something went wrong.
One app, Shlex.app, which you drag to your Applications folder. It shows as Shlex in Applications and the Dock.
The download is a disk image (about 154 MB), signed and notarized with Apple.
On first launch it downloads about 3.1 GB of model files into your user Library. Internet is needed for this one-time setup.
No kernel extensions, no background login items, no browser extensions. It only reads files: it never changes, moves or deletes a file.
Requirements: an Apple silicon Mac, macOS 15 or later, 16 GB memory.
HOW TO UNINSTALL
If you subscribe, cancel first in the Stripe customer portal. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
Quit Shlex, then drag Shlex.app from Applications to the Trash.
To remove the model files and search history too, open Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder, enter ~/Library/Application Support/shlex and move that folder to the Trash. Do the same for ~/Library/Caches/com.porkicoder.shlex.
Empty the Trash.
REFUNDS
If Shlexball does not run on your Mac, email us within 14 days of your first payment and we refund it in full, back to the card that paid. Cancelling stops renewal at the end of the paid period. The full rules are in the terms.