How It Happened
What kicked it off
I wanted to ask questions across private files without giving up citations, offline use, or control over where an answer ran. That became a native workspace for searchable libraries on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
What got hard
The difficult part was not calling a model. It was parsing messy files and media, retrieving the right evidence, verifying citations, abstaining when support was weak, and making the route visible enough to inspect.
Why it matters
Retrieval and verification stay local, the on-device answer path works offline, and supported systems can use Apple Private Cloud Compute for final synthesis only after payload disclosure and consent.