How-to

How to set up the Outlier companion window

Last updated 2026-09-29 · Outlier v1.11.864

What you need first for “how to set up the outlier companion window”

Apple Silicon Mac, macOS 26 or later, the unified-memory minimum that the chosen tier requires (6 GB for Nano, 12 GB for Lite, 16 GB for Quick (24 GB to run it fully in memory), 24 GB for Core and Vision 3.8, 64 GB for Plus). Internet is required only for the one-time model download.

Steps

1. Enable the companion. Toggle in the menu bar or via the keyboard shortcut.
2. Grant Accessibility and Screen Recording permission. macOS prompts on first use. The bundled Info.plist declares both.
3. Pin the floating window. The companion stays above other windows but does not capture clicks.
4. Ask about the active app. The accessibility tree exposes window titles and labels; pixel-level vision requires the Vision tier.

What is the specific thing to know about this guide?

The companion window in v1.11.469 reads the active app context via the macOS Accessibility tree. Pixel-level vision uses the Screen Recording permission and is only wired into the Vision tier.

Both permissions are genuinely required and they do different jobs: Accessibility exposes the window titles and control labels the companion reads, while Screen Recording is what macOS asks for before any app can see window contents. Granting one and not the other produces a companion that opens and then appears to know nothing about the app in front of it. Both are revocable at any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security, and the companion degrades to a plain chat window rather than failing.

What can go wrong with this guide?

• If Accessibility permission is denied, the companion has no app context to read.
• Screen Recording permission is per-app and prompts on first capture only; deny once and it stays denied until reset in System Settings.

How does this guide differ from the cloud equivalent?

Cloud-side context-aware assistants typically read whatever the user pastes. The Outlier companion reads the active app via the macOS Accessibility tree, locally.

The companion window in v1.11.469 reads the active app context via the macOS Accessibility tree. Pixel-level vision uses the Screen Recording permission and is only wired into the Vision tier.

Both permissions are genuinely required and they do different jobs: Accessibility exposes the window titles and control labels the companion reads, while Screen Recording is what macOS asks for before any app can see window contents. Granting one and not the other produces a companion that opens and then appears to know nothing about the app in front of it. Both are revocable at any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security, and the companion degrades to a plain chat window rather than failing.

What does this guide not claim about “how to set up the outlier companion window”?

The companion window in v1.11.469 reads the active app context via the macOS Accessibility tree. Pixel-level vision uses the Screen Recording permission and is only wired into the Vision tier.

Both permissions are genuinely required and they do different jobs: Accessibility exposes the window titles and control labels the companion reads, while Screen Recording is what macOS asks for before any app can see window contents. Granting one and not the other produces a companion that opens and then appears to know nothing about the app in front of it. Both are revocable at any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security, and the companion degrades to a plain chat window rather than failing.

This guide does not claim feature parity with cloud-side workflows for “how to set up the outlier companion window”. Specifically, the product surface in v1.11.469 covers chat, file attachment, the local agent loop, project scoping, and the model picker. Cross-device sync, team workspaces, and shared session history are out of scope and are not on the v1.9 backlog either.

What does the companion read about the active app?

The companion calls osascript against System Events to walk the Accessibility tree of the frontmost app: window title, focused element, and the labels of nearby UI elements. That is enough context for ‘summarize what I am looking at’. Pixel-level vision (passing a screenshot to the model) requires the Vision tier and the Screen Recording permission, both of which v1.11.469 declares in Info.plist.

Where does this guide fit in the rest of the lineup?

The companion sees the active app via the AX tree, not via screenshot, until the user explicitly enables Screen Recording. The Vision tier is the only one wired to the screenshot path; other tiers ignore pixel data even when present.

One unique number

4 steps, zero network requests after the model is downloaded. The companion is an additional Tauri WebviewWindow; it shares the same FastAPI sidecar but renders a separate, narrower chat surface.

Download Outlier for Mac

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Free · M1 or newer · macOS 26+ (free update) · 290 MB. Intel Macs are not supported.