The tray assistant that reads your day on your own PC.
VincBuddy watches your mail, your project folders and your documents with a model that runs on your computer, and only interrupts you for the few things that need you — with the line that proves it.
Built to make a busy day easier. It reads your project folders and flags the few things that may need you. Changes in your folders wait until you click Do it.
Free while in beta · about 106 MB · unsigned installer (read the note below)
Illustration · sample items, not real mail
The rules
Three rules it works by.
It shows its evidence.
Every “needs you” item shows its evidence — the sentence it’s based on, quoted from the message. One exception: when an item is flagged because text was hidden in the message, there is no readable sentence to quote, so it tells you why it was flagged instead.
It proposes; you click.
No action runs until you press Do it — reading and the hourly heartbeat happen on their own.
It reads here, it stays here.
The model is a local llama.cpp server on your PC. Nothing VincBuddy reads is sent anywhere — not to Vincdata, not to any AI provider. If mail reaches it through your own Claude Code, that step is yours and works the way Claude Code does.
What it watches
What it watches — and where the data goes
The four things it reads, the one place they go, and the short list of what leaves your PC.
Mail, as text
subject (first 200 characters), sender name and address, first 1,200 characters. Attachments never opened; links become [link].
Your project folders
folders at the top of your C: drive that look like a project — a CLAUDE.md, a .git, a package.json, a Cargo.toml, ten markers in all — plus whatever you have open in Claude Code. First 1,500 characters of your rules file, your six newest dated progress lines. Two levels deep; node_modules, .git, dist, venv skipped.
Downloads · Desktop · Documents
names, sizes, dates. First 3,000 bytes of .md and .txt. PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are never opened. A .zip gives up its entry names, never its contents. Twelve files a sweep.
What you last worked on
recent Claude Code sessions: your last six prompts, 200 characters each, and the assistant’s last reply, 400 characters — only the last 384 KB of each transcript — so it knows what you were doing without you telling it twice.
Notes & priorities
two plain text files, read in full. They are the two files you write for it, so it reads all of both.
Your Microsoft mailboxoff
read-only, off until you turn it on, consent on Microsoft’s own page.
Model on your PC
llama.cpp · localhost only · runs on your CPU
reads here, stays here
Tray brief
only the items that need you — each with its quoted line
Leaves your PC
Your Vincdata sign-in check · a heartbeat about once an hour, and shortly after each start — fields listed below · updates and the one-time model download.
offIf you turn the mailbox on: a read-only request to Microsoft.
Never leaves
The model is a local llama.cpp server on your PC. Nothing VincBuddy reads is sent to Vincdata or to any AI provider.
What it watches
- Mail, as text only — attachments are never fetched, and links in the text become the word [link]. How mail reaches it is in the Beta honesty box below.
- Your project folders — folders at the top of your C: drive that look like a project (a CLAUDE.md, a .git, a package.json, a Cargo.toml, ten markers in all) plus whatever you have open in Claude Code — and what you last worked on: your last six Claude Code prompts, 200 characters each, and the assistant’s last reply, 400 characters. Only the last 384 KB of each transcript is read.
- Downloads, Desktop, Documents — names, sizes, dates, first lines of text files. Office and PDF files are not opened by the watcher.
- Notes and priorities you keep in two plain text files.
What leaves your PC
We say it before you ask.
- 1Your Vincdata sign-in check at start.
- 2A heartbeat of six fields about once an hour, and shortly after each start: a random install id, app version, Windows release, whether the model is set up, whether the last read worked, how many reads ran today. Linked to your account. Never a subject line, file name or note. You can turn it off in Settings → Heartbeat.
- 3Updates and, once, the AI model (about 3 GB) from Vincdata’s download service.
- 4Once you connect a mailbox: requests to Microsoft to read your mail.
- 5If you pair a phone: your brief, to that phone, over your own network or a tunnel you set up.
Details: vincdata.ca/privacy → VincBuddy
Download
Download the free beta
VincBuddy 0.1.31 for Windows 10/11, 64-bit. Installer about 106 MB (111,798,430 bytes), published 2026-09-27. Free while in beta; 0.x versions are pre-release.
Because it is not code-signed, the SHA-256 is how you check the file is ours. Compare it against your download:
afdbd3628635f7cb0c5f9c2fac8491ce51a987bf7f166476f514178ecd51834bTo check it, open PowerShell in the folder you downloaded it to and run Get-FileHash .\VincBuddy-Setup-0.1.31.exe -Algorithm SHA256; the Hash it prints should match.
Problems? support@vincdata.ca
Beta honesty box
- Free beta. Pre-release. The installer is not code-signed yet — Windows SmartScreen will say “Windows protected your PC”; choose More info → Run anyway.
- Needs a Vincdata account (free). Windows 10/11. The model runs on your CPU — best with 12 GB of RAM and 8 threads; slower below that.
- It never opens your mailbox by itself, and it cannot send mail.
- Not available to residents of Quebec.
- Mail reaches VincBuddy as text — a drop file another tool writes (today, Claude Code’s /checkmail), or your Microsoft mailbox, read-only, if you turn it on. You give that consent on Microsoft’s own page.
Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic PBC. VincBuddy is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.
Windows 10/11, 64-bit, and administrator rights to install — VincBuddy installs for everyone on the PC, to
C:\Program Files\VincBuddy, so Windows asks for approval during setup. There is no per-user install and no choice of folder.It starts after install and starts with Windows — a switch in Settings turns that off, and your choice is kept.
First run downloads about 3 GB more
A small local AI server (45 MB) and the model (2.7 GB, Qwen3.5-4B, Apache 2.0), both verified against a Vincdata-signed manifest before they run (the installer itself is not code-signed — see the Beta honesty box). Needs about 3.5 GB free.
Best with 12 GB of memory and 8 threads
The model runs on your CPU. It works below that, but the first read is slow. The model keeps about 5 GB of memory while it reads.
Updates in the background
A newer release is fetched, verified, and installs the next time the app starts (or when you press Install). Settings shows the channel’s publish date.
Uninstall keeps your notes
Windows → Apps removes the program; the app’s own folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\VincBuddy stays until you delete it — your sealed state, notes and log, any mailbox sign-in, and the downloaded model. That folder is about 3.4 GB once the model is there. Deleting your Vincdata account deletes the heartbeat records.
The same pages the app’s Settings → About opens: Privacy · Terms · Software License · Delete my account · third-party notices ship beside the app.
Beta list
Want product updates? We’ll email you.
Product updates — new versions, and what changed. VincBuddy only; you won’t be added to anything else.
Vincdata Technologies Inc. · Edmonton, Alberta · Privacy · Terms · Software License