Soil Desktop
The local, offline-first Soil app for macOS · your handovers live on your machine, an AI client connects to a local MCP server, and cloud backup is opt-in.
Soil Desktop is the local Soil app. Your handovers live in a store on your own machine, your AI client connects to a local MCP server, and nothing leaves the device unless you turn on cloud backup. It's the private, offline-first way to run Soil.
Not downloadable yet
Soil Desktop is built but not released. There is no DMG to download yet ·
the signed macOS build is not published, so nativesoil.dev/download is not a
live page. This section describes the app as it is built; it becomes
installable the day the release goes up. Use Soil Cloud today · one
URL, nothing to install.
Install & sign in
- Download and install. Once the signed macOS build is published, you open the DMG, drag Soil to Applications, and open it. Until then there is no download link anywhere, on this site or the main site.
- Sign in to your Soil account · Continue with Google, or email and password. The first sign-in needs an internet connection; after that Soil launches offline on this device until you sign out.
Your Soil account is the same one the web/Cloud uses · the same email means the same handovers, wherever you connect.
What's inside
Connect your AI client
A local MCP server your AI client launches. Paste one config block and soil save / soil load work right where you type.
Features
Opt-in, local-only capabilities · Verify against your repo, save reminders, decisions → repo, and menu-bar quick access. Off by default; a toggle appears only when it works.
Gateway
Store providers and API keys locally, encrypted with the OS keychain, and route AI tools through a local-only server that injects the key. Off by default; keys never leave the device.
Cloud backup
Off by default. Opt in to push handovers to your Soil cloud account as a one-way backup · and delete those cloud copies to go local-only again.
Account & privacy
What's stored on this device, what's excluded from every handover, and how the offline session works.
Everything is local by default
- Your handovers and projects are stored offline on this device.
- Raw prompts, provider payloads, source files, and private paths are excluded from every handover · the same safety scan Soil runs everywhere.
- Cloud backup is off until you turn it on, and it's one-way: nothing is ever downloaded or merged back onto your machine.
- The opt-in Features and the Gateway are off by default and run entirely on this device · a toggle appears only once a capability actually works, and nothing they do is uploaded, synced, or written into a handover.
Desktop vs Cloud
| Soil Cloud | Soil Desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A hosted Remote MCP connector | A local app + a local MCP server |
| Install | None · paste a URL | A macOS app on your machine |
| Storage | Your handovers live in the cloud | Your handovers live on this device |
| Cloud | Always (it is the cloud) | Off by default · opt-in one-way backup |
| Best for | The fastest path, any device | Privacy, offline, a local process in the loop |
Same account, same soil save / soil load · so a handover you make in one is
loadable from the other.
Gemini CLI
Connect Soil to Gemini CLI with an httpUrl entry in ~/.gemini/settings.json · Gemini CLI handles the OAuth sign-in itself.
Connect your AI client
Soil Desktop runs a local stdio MCP server on your machine. Paste one config block into your AI client and soil save / soil load work right where you type.