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A personal operating system. Nine mini-apps, hybrid AI, and probably the most overengineered productivity tool you'll ever see. I use it every day.
At some point, I decided that existing productivity apps weren't good enough. Not because they lacked features, but because they were all separate apps that didn't talk to each other.
My notes were in one place. Meeting recordings in another. Calendar somewhere else. Every tool had its own AI assistant that knew nothing about the others. What if everything lived in one place? What if the AI could see across all of it?
This is how bad decisions begin.
Mimir is an Electron app. Yes, I know what you're thinking. But hear me out: I needed cross-platform desktop, I know web technologies, and Electron gets the job done. Judge me later.
The concept: a personal operating system with multiple mini-apps that share context. Take notes in one app, the AI remembers them when you're chatting. Record a meeting, the summary feeds into your calendar context. Everything connects.
Also it has a Matrix-style screensaver because I couldn't help myself.
Hybrid AI: Ollama for local processing (privacy-first), plus cloud APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini) for heavy lifting. The AI picks the right model based on the task. Simple queries stay local. Complex analysis goes to Claude. Image generation uses Gemini.
Persistent Memory: The AI builds a profile of who you are over time. Asks questions organically during conversations. Remembers preferences, projects, team members. Less "AI assistant," more "AI that actually knows you."
Dual Themes: Matrix retro sci-fi aesthetic for when I'm feeling dramatic. Clean modern professional for when clients might see my screen. Toggle between them instantly.
File-Based Storage: Everything saves to the file system, not localStorage. Proper backups. No mysterious data loss when Electron decides to clear caches.
Nine apps, all integrated, all feeding data to the central AI.
Notes: Markdown notes with AI tools. Summary generation, intelligent tagging, content enhancement, writing assistance. Auto-save with word counts. Nothing revolutionary, but it works well and the AI can reference your notes in conversation.
Meeting Recorder: Deepgram Nova-3 for transcription. Supports English and Hindi. Gemini generates summaries scaled to meeting length. Extracts action items and participants automatically. Can process external recordings from Zoom or Teams. Four-location emergency backups because I've lost recordings before and it's devastating.
Estimator: Project cost calculator for the agency. Team management with hourly rate calculations. Agency overheads distributed across projects. Client multipliers (startups pay less than enterprise). Complexity factors. Export detailed breakdowns to Notes. Actually useful for quoting projects.
Shrink: Image compression via Tinify API. Three quality levels, batch processing, smart resizing. Drag in images, get optimised versions. Before/after analytics. Surprisingly satisfying to use.
PIXIE: AI image editor using Gemini 2.5 Flash. Create new images, edit existing ones, combine multiple references. Natural language editing. "Make the background more futuristic" and it just works. Tracks generation costs in real-time.
Calendar: Google Calendar integration with OAuth. The interesting part: AI-powered natural language event creation. "Schedule 1-hour meeting with Karan tomorrow at 5pm" and it creates the event, resolves Karan to his email address, sends the invite. Function calling magic.
Timer: Session tracking. Honestly the simplest app. Sometimes simple is good.
Voice/TTS: Kokoro text-to-speech with nine voice options. The AI can read its responses aloud. Adjustable speed. Useful for listening to summaries while doing other things.
Matrix Screensaver: Full-screen digital rain effect with cinematic progression. Authentic 12fps animation. Movie-accurate katakana characters. Press Escape to exit. Entirely unnecessary. Deeply satisfying.
The central AI is the glue. It sees everything: your notes, meeting transcripts, calendar events, project estimates. When you ask a question, it has full context.
"What did Karan say about the budget in last week's meeting?" The AI checks your transcripts, finds the relevant section, answers with citations. "How much should we quote for this project?" It references your estimator data and similar past projects.
The proactive learning system is interesting. During natural conversation, the AI occasionally asks questions to build your profile. "I noticed you mentioned TWO Design. What's your role there?" The answers get stored and inform future responses.
Smart model selection means Ollama handles quick queries locally (fast, free, private), while Claude or Gemini handle complex analysis. Cost tracking shows exactly what you're spending on cloud AI.
Is this overengineered? Absolutely. Could I achieve similar results with separate apps and some discipline? Probably.
But here's the thing: I actually use it. Every day. The contextual AI is genuinely useful. The meeting recorder saves hours of manual transcription. The estimator has made project quoting faster and more accurate.
The Matrix screensaver makes me happy every time it activates. That counts for something.
Mimir is a personal tool that keeps evolving. I add features when I need them. Fix bugs when they annoy me. It's software built for an audience of one, which is perhaps the most honest form of software development.
Would I recommend building your own personal operating system? No. It takes forever, the maintenance never ends, and existing tools are probably fine for most people.
Would I do it again? Unfortunately, yes. Some lessons only stick after you've learned them the hard way.