Most desktop AI tools today suffer from two fundamental problems: they rely entirely on remote cloud APIs—raising serious privacy concerns—and they require constant context-switching between separate application windows.

To address both issues, I built Mintu, an open-source, local-first desktop companion that integrates directly into your screen as a native Dynamic Island. With today's v0.2.1 release, Mintu expands its platform footprint and core capabilities.

Here is a breakdown of what Mintu is, how its architecture works, and what is new in version 0.2.1.

The Core Philosophy: Complete Local Privacy

Mintu does not send prompts, conversation logs, or telemetry to external servers.…