It reads and files pages
Your Mac takes a share of the reading list, works through it, and hands back finished, searchable knowledge. Every page it files is a page nobody has to wait for later.
Indexer · macOS
APPLE
SILICON
M1 and later.
Built native. Nothing emulated.
The chip that makes a Mac fast is the part we were wasting.
A node built for Apple Silicon, so the graphics cores do the heavy reading instead of sitting idle. One line in Terminal, and your Mac starts keeping the index fresh in the background.
What the machines have done so far
Every one of these is somebody's spare machine.
No datacentre, no rack, no procurement — just capacity people were not using. The figures below come straight from the fleet as it runs, and they move while you read them. Adding a Mac moves them faster.
Connecting…
113 GB
Memory pooled
across every machine reading
13
Machines online
dedicated to reading
67
Processor cores
spare capacity, pooled
—
Pages in the index
web pages, read and filed
30
Subject collections
filed beside the web pages
—
Web pulled down
read, cleaned, filed
230/s
Shared card throughput
across 2 shared graphics cards
What the Mac actually does
Four jobs, none of them yours.
Once it is running there is nothing to operate. It takes work when the fleet has work, stands back when you are using the Mac, and never asks you for anything.
It uses the graphics chip
This is the part a Mac is unusually good at. Turning text into something searchable runs on the Mac's own graphics cores — measured at around six times the speed of doing it on the processor alone.
It rescues the hard ones
Some pages refuse to be read by anything simple. Those get passed around the fleet until a machine can handle them, and your Mac takes its turn.
It stays in its lane
It runs at low priority with a fixed share of memory, and reads the public web. It never touches your documents, your browser, or anything you have signed into.
Step one · run
One line, then walk away.
Open Terminal — press Command and Space, type Terminal, press Return — then paste the line below. It opens your browser to approve the Mac, then sets itself up and starts reading.
Apple Silicon · M1 or later
curl -fsSL https://get.askfinz.ai/install/node/install-macos.sh | bashAny askFinz account can add a node. askFinz is in private access today, so the way in is to request an account — approval happens in your browser, with nothing to paste.
- The first run takes ten to twenty minutes — most of it is downloading. Later restarts take seconds.
- It installs Apple's developer tools if they are missing, which is a normal, signed Apple download.
- It picks its own name and number — you never configure anything.
askfinz · macOS install
Illustration of a first run. Your node number is assigned by the fleet.
What you need
An Apple Silicon Mac, and a plug.
If the Mac has an M-series chip, it can run a node. Each thing below raises how much it takes on — but a base M1 with 8 GB is a real contributor, not a token one.
| Tier | What it needs | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
The chip | Apple Silicon — M1 or later | Everything on this page. The node is built natively for Apple Silicon, so nothing is emulated. Intel Macs are not supported by this route; they can still run a node through Docker. |
Memory | 16 GB recommended, 8 GB workable | A Mac shares one pool of memory between the processor and the graphics chip, so memory is what decides how much it takes on at once. The installer sizes itself to what it finds. |
Disk | About 12 GB free | Room for the developer tools, a browser engine for the harder pages, and the language model the node keeps on hand. |
Connection | Always-on broadband, and mains power | Steady reading. The installer stops the Mac sleeping while it is plugged in — including with the lid shut — and brings it back by itself after a power cut. |
The one setting it changes
A laptop is the only node that closes.
Every other machine in the fleet is a desktop, a server or a container — none of them fold shut. A Mac laptop does, and a sleeping node is simply an absent one: it stops mid-page and the work goes back to the fleet.
So the installer changes exactly one thing about your Mac. While it is on mains power, it will not sleep — including with the lid shut. On battery, nothing changes at all.
What changes, and what does not
- On mains
- Never sleeps including lid closed
- On battery
- Unchanged your settings, untouched
- The display
- Still sleeps after 10 minutes
- After a power cut
- Restarts itself and rejoins the fleet
- On removal
- Put back your originals are restored
Step two · verify
Find yourself on the live board.
Every node in the fleet shows up on a public status page. Your Mac appears within a few minutes, under the name it was given. That page is the only confirmation you need.
Open the live status pageA healthy node climbs. If uptime is going up and the page count is going up, it is doing its job — the rest of the row is detail.
A healthy row
- Name
- askfinz-indexer-016 assigned to you at sign-in
- Uptime
- 6h 12m climbing, not resetting
- Pages
- 8,417 rising every refresh
- Reading
- 5 at a time sized to the Mac
- Shared chip
- Metal the graphics cores, in use
Illustration. Live values are on the status page.
If something looks wrong
Five things people ask about.
Most of these aren't faults at all. Nodes are built to recover on their own, so the usual answer is to give it a few minutes.
It stopped when you shut the lid
The sleep setting did not take. A Mac sleeps on a closed lid even when told not to sleep otherwise.
Re-run the install line. It sets this again and prints a warning if it cannot.
Nothing appears on the status page after 10 minutes
The first run is still working. It downloads developer tools and a browser engine before it starts reading.
Give it up to twenty minutes the first time. After that a restart takes seconds.
No Metal badge on your row
The node could not get a usable answer out of the graphics chip, so it fell back to the processor.
Nothing is broken — the node still contributes. Re-run the install line to try again.
Your node was listed, then disappeared
The Mac slept, lost its connection, or was unplugged.
Bring it back and give it a couple of minutes. It rejoins on its own and keeps its number.
Pages sat at zero for the first few minutes
Nothing is wrong. A new node waits to be given its share of the reading list.
No action. Pages start climbing once work is handed to it.
Whenever you like
Leaving is one line too.
No notice period, nothing to negotiate. It hands back whatever it was working on, releases its number to the pool, removes its two background services, and puts your sleep settings back the way they were.
Apple Silicon · macOS
curl -fsSL https://get.askfinz.ai/install/node/uninstall-macos.sh | bashApple's developer tools and Homebrew are left alone — they are the Mac's, not ours, and other things you use may depend on them.
askfinz · macOS removal
Questions
Before you
run it.
- Which Macs does this work on?
- Any Mac with Apple Silicon — M1, M2, M3, M4 and later, in any model. The node is compiled natively for that chip, so nothing runs under emulation. Intel Macs are not covered by this route, but they can still run a node through Docker.
- Will it slow the Mac down?
- It shouldn't. It runs at low priority with a fixed ceiling on how much it takes, and it sizes itself to the machine when it installs. Anything you are doing takes precedence. You can stop it at any moment.
- Can it see my files?
- No. It reads public pages from the web. It has no access to your documents, your photos, your browser, or anything you are signed into.
- Do I need to paste a key or a secret?
- No. The line opens your browser and asks you to approve a short code, the same way signing in to a developer tool works. Nothing is typed in and nothing is stored in your shell history.
- Why does it stop my Mac sleeping?
- A sleeping node is an absent node — it stops reading and the work goes back to the fleet. The installer disables sleep only while the Mac is on mains power, and only for the machine, not the display. Battery behaviour is untouched.
- How do I remove it?
- One line, the same way it went on. It hands back whatever it was working on, removes its two background services, restores your original sleep settings, and releases its node number to the pool.
Other ways to run one
Four routes, one fleet.
Got an Apple Silicon Mac?
The chip is already there. Put it to work.
A node built natively for Apple Silicon, so the graphics cores do the reading rather than sitting idle — measured at around six times what the processor manages alone. One line to start, one to remove, and the only thing it changes about your Mac is that it will not fall asleep while it is plugged in.