REVIEW · LOCAL AI APP
Verdict: Msty Studio is a strong, privacy-minded workspace for chatting with local and online AI models, with your data stored on your own device and a free plan that covers the desktop app. It is not a file finder: its Knowledge Stacks answer questions about documents you add to them, which is different from finding a file you have lost.
20 October 2026 · By Ishtiaque Hossain · 4 minute read
Looking for a file you can describe but not name? Try Shlexball. The first 30 searches are free and need no account.
macOS 15 or later. Apple silicon. 16 GB memory. On a phone? Email yourself the link.
This review is based on Msty Studio's own pages, read on 14 October 2026. Every claim links to the page it came from. We are the makers of Shlexball, so we say plainly where Msty Studio does better.
| Price | Free forever for core Studio Desktop; Aurum 149 USD per user a year or 349 USD once |
| What it is | A privacy-first AI platform for local and online models, on desktop and web |
| Documents | Knowledge Stacks (RAG), limited on the free plan |
| Where your data goes | Stored locally on your device; it does not sync between devices |
| Local engines | Ollama, Llama.cpp and MLX |
| Best for | People who want one private place to work with many AI models |
Msty Studio is a privacy-first AI platform for running local and online AI models from a desktop app or a web app. It is one of four Msty products, alongside Go for agents, Nexus as a model gateway and Stack for organizing knowledge.
In the desktop app you can chat with local models (AI models that run on your own computer) or online ones, run split chats that compare answers, use Agent Mode for multi-step tasks, and set up personas and crews of personas.
For local models it supports Ollama, Llama.cpp and MLX as inference engines, the programs that actually run a model on your machine.
The Free plan costs nothing, forever, and includes core Studio Desktop features: chat with local and online models, persona and crew conversations, Agent Mode and Knowledge Stacks. Several of those are marked as limited on the free plan in Msty's feature table.
Aurum costs 149 USD per user per year, billed yearly, and adds Studio Web, Azure and Bedrock providers, Studio Assistants and power-user features. Aurum Lifetime is a one-time 349 USD per user with lifetime updates and access.
Enterprise and Teams plans start at 5 seats and add single sign-on, user and team management, audit logs and shared resources.
Msty's documentation says data is stored locally on your device and does not sync between devices. Even Studio Web, the browser version, stores data in your browser's local storage.
For organizations, Msty lists customer-controlled storage, zero product telemetry (no usage data sent back to Msty) and a data processing agreement on request.
Msty is open about one gap: its formal SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, two common security audits, are not yet complete.
Remember that when you choose an online model, your conversation goes to that model's provider; the privacy picture is strongest with local models.
Not in the way a file search app does. Msty's document feature is Knowledge Stacks, which its documentation describes as RAG: retrieval-augmented generation, where the app pulls relevant passages from documents you have added and hands them to the AI model so it can answer from them.
That is useful for asking questions about a set of documents you already have in hand. It does not scan your whole Mac to tell you where a forgotten file is, and Knowledge Stacks are limited on the free plan.
Msty also lists Attachments and Search among its additional features, for bringing files into a conversation and searching your work inside the app.
It suits people who want one private workspace for many AI models: researchers, legal teams and educators are the groups Msty itself names.
Start with the free desktop app, which Msty recommends for new users, and move to Aurum only if you need the web app or the advanced features.
Shlexball does the job Msty Studio does not: it finds a file on your Mac from a plain-English description of what you remember, searching file and folder names and the text inside files, including PDFs and Word documents.
Nothing needs to be added first, its language model runs on your Mac, and files are never uploaded. The first 30 searches are free and need no account.
When you need the file itself, Shlexball finds it by meaning on your Mac and opens it: 30 free searches.
▶ DOWNLOAD SHLEXBALLYes. The Free plan is free forever and includes the core Studio Desktop features. Aurum, at 149 USD per user a year or 349 USD once, adds the web app and advanced features.
Msty says data is stored locally on your device and does not sync between devices, and it lists zero product telemetry. Its SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications are not yet complete.
It is Msty's RAG feature: you add documents, and the app pulls relevant passages from them to help the AI model answer your questions. It is limited on the free plan.
Yes. Msty Studio Desktop supports local models through inference engines such as Ollama, Llama.cpp and MLX.