Getting Started

Set up the OnlookAI desktop app on macOS.

The OnlookAI desktop app is a macOS menu bar tool that keeps you focused while watching lecture videos. Drop in a video file or URL, pick a monitoring mode, and the app watches your attention and fires comprehension checks when engagement drops.

Download

Download the latest release for Apple Silicon:

Download for macOS

Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later. Apple Silicon (M-series) only.

Open the .dmg, drag OnlookAI to Applications, and launch it. The app lives in your menu bar — no Dock icon.

First launch — onboarding wizard

On first launch, a four-step setup wizard walks you through configuration:

1. Welcome

   Enter your name so OnlookAI can greet you during sessions.

2. Pick a focus mode

   Choose how you want to be monitored. See Monitoring Modes for a full comparison. You can change this any time in Settings.

3. Camera setup

   If your chosen mode uses face detection, you’ll be prompted to grant camera access. If you deny or skip this step, the app automatically switches you to Timed Q&A mode (no camera required).

4. Ready

   Confirm your setup and start watching.

Onboarding only runs once. To re-run it, delete ~/Library/Application Support/onlookai/settings.json.

Starting a session

After onboarding, the main window has two ways to start:

• Drop a file — drag any .mp4, .mov, or .webm file onto the drop zone
• Paste a URL — enter a direct video URL and press Enter or click Start Session

Before navigating to the player, the app checks that camera permission is granted if your current mode requires it. If permission is missing, an inline error appears with a Retry button.

Menu bar

The menu bar icon shows the OnlookAI logo mark. During a session, the icon title updates with your current attention score (e.g. ◎ 72). Click the icon to show or hide the app window.

Permissions

The app requests the following permissions:

Permission	Why
Camera	Face detection for Face Guard and Full Attention modes
Microphone	Reserved for future audio attention signals
Network	Sending questions to OpenAI for comprehension checks

All signals are processed locally. Only comprehension question generation hits an external API, and only if you’ve added an OpenAI key in Settings.