Most AI assistants today live in a browser tab, which means every real action they take has to be faked, proxied, or bolted on through a fragile extension. We decided early on that Romeo would run as a native desktop app instead, with direct access to the filesystem, the clipboard, and the applications you already use.
That decision costs more up front — desktop distribution, code signing, and platform-specific quirks are all harder than shipping a web app. But it buys something a browser sandbox cannot: Romeo can actually open your invoicing software, read a folder of contracts, or fill out a form the way you would, instead of describing what it would do if it could.
The tradeoff shows up most clearly in permissions. A browser extension asks once and then quietly has broad access forever. A desktop app lets us scope access action-by-action, and show you exactly what Romeo is about to touch before it touches it.
We think that visibility matters more as these assistants get more capable, not less. Early access is open now if you want to see how it behaves on your own machine.