50 Things to Ask Dottie on Your Mac (2026)

50 Things to Ask Dottie on Your Mac (2026)

These are asks that change the Mac, not trivia Siri already handles. Dottie is a free native Mac AI agent: voice or text in, system action out through 134 tools. Requirements: Apple Silicon and macOS 15.4+. Cumulative downloads are past 1,000 (1,062 as of 2026-08-26, api.dottie.ai).

This page is the catalog. Setup is Getting Started: first 10 minutes. Voice modes (Option+Space, chat mic, Hey Dottie) live in the voice control guide. How this differs from Shortcuts and Keyboard Maestro: automate your Mac with AI. Category ranking: best AI assistants for Mac.

Permissions start off. Grant the one category the ask needs (files, calendar, Mail, Messages, and so on). Leave the rest off. Destructive steps still ask before they run.

TL;DR

If you want to…Start with asks
Clean a folder without a script1–10 (files)
Stop living in Calendar.app11–17
Triage Mail / iMessage18–23
Drive Safari and other apps24–31
Photos, Music, FaceTime32–37
Notes, contacts, maps, weather38–44
Screen, system, Terminal45–50

Files (1–10)

Finder work is the fastest way to prove the agent. Enable files first.

  1. “Find PDFs I downloaded this week.” Spotlight search scoped to Downloads, then a list you can act on.
  2. “Move all screenshots from today into a Desktop folder named Today Screenshots.” Creates the folder if needed, then moves the files.
  3. “Rename every PDF on the Desktop with today’s date.” Batch rename without a bash one-liner.
  4. “Find every file in Downloads larger than 10MB.” Size filter, not a find incantation.
  5. “What is taking up space in Downloads?” Large-file survey before you delete anything.
  6. “Organize the Desktop by file type.” Groups into folders (PDF, PNG, ZIP) instead of a pile.
  7. “Show my recently modified files.” Same surface as recent documents, without digging Recents.
  8. “Find files tagged Orange.” Finder tags, not filename search.
  9. “Create a folder called March Reports and move all spreadsheets on the Desktop into it.” Two tools, one ask.
  10. “Move all screenshots older than 30 days from Desktop into Archives.” Date + move. Confirm before anything leaves the folder you still use.

Calendar and reminders (11–17)

Needs calendar (and reminders for 15–17). EventKit, not a screenshot of Calendar.app.

  1. “What is on my calendar today?” Upcoming events for the day.
  2. “What do I have this week?” Multi-day agenda without opening the app.
  3. “Schedule lunch with Alex tomorrow at 12:30.” Creates the event. Name the calendar if you have more than one.
  4. “Move my 3pm meeting to 4pm.” Update by title. Say which meeting if two share a name.
  5. “Remind me to send the invoice Friday at 9am.” Reminders.app, with a due date.
  6. “What reminders are due this week?” List, not a widget glance.
  7. “Add buy printer paper to the Shopping list.” Named list, not the default dump.

Mail and Messages (18–23)

Needs mail.read / mail.send and messages as you use them. Dottie talks to Apple Mail and iMessage, not a Gmail tab.

  1. “Summarize my unread emails.” Read-only triage.
  2. “Find the email from Jordan about the contract.” Search by person + subject.
  3. “Send an email to Alex saying I will be 10 minutes late.” Compose and send. Check the draft if you have not granted send yet.
  4. “Text Jordan that I am leaving now.” iMessage to a contact, not a chat-app draft you paste.
  5. “What did Jordan text me last?” Recent thread, read-only.
  6. “Draft a reply to the latest unread email and do not send it.” Write, stop. You hit send.

Apps and Safari (24–31)

App launch is cheap. Safari asks need safari.read / safari.control. Accessibility asks need the matching toggle.

  1. “Open Safari and go to GitHub.” Launch + URL.
  2. “What tabs do I have open in Safari?” Titles and URLs, so you can close the junk.
  3. “Close all Finder windows.” Window control, not a hidden shortcut.
  4. “Switch to Notes.” Focus the app you already have running.
  5. “Hide everything except the browser.” Focus for a writing block.
  6. “Open Terminal.” Then ask 49–50 if you actually want a command run.
  7. “Click Save in the front window.” Accessibility path for apps with no script interface. Confirm first on anything destructive.
  8. “What app is frontmost?” Perception before you ask it to click.

Photos, Music, FaceTime (32–37)

These are first-party Mac apps, not a web wrapper. Grant photos, music, or FaceTime as needed.

  1. “Show photos from last weekend.” Natural-language Photos search.
  2. “What albums do I have in Photos?” List, then you pick one.
  3. “What is playing in Music?” Now-playing, including artist and track.
  4. “Play the Miles Davis playlist.” Library search + play. Pause / next / previous work the same way.
  5. “Shuffle Jazz.” Playback with shuffle on.
  6. “FaceTime Jordan.” Starts the call. You still need the person in Contacts.

Notes, contacts, maps, weather (38–44)

Personal Context tools. Maps / weather / stocks / sports are lookup, then you decide whether to act.

  1. “Create a note called Trip packing with flights and hotel.” Notes.app, named note.
  2. “Read my note titled Meeting agenda.” Pull the body without hunting folders.
  3. “Find Jordan in Contacts.” Name, phone, email. Enable contacts first.
  4. “What’s the weather in San Francisco today?” Lookup, not a widget.
  5. “How do I get to SFO from here?” Maps directions from where the Mac thinks you are.
  6. “How is NVDA doing today?” Stocks quote. Not trading.
  7. “What’s the score of the game tonight?” Live sports lookup when the tool has a match.

Screen, system, Terminal (45–50)

Screen OCR and Terminal are the sharp tools. Grant screenshot / code.execute only when you mean it.

  1. “What’s on my screen?” OCR / vision of the display, then a spoken or typed answer.
  2. “Take a screenshot.” Saves a capture. Name the file if you care where it lands.
  3. “What’s using the most CPU right now?” Activity-style reading, not a guess.
  4. “Turn on Do Not Disturb for two hours.” Focus mode, then it should turn off.
  5. “In Terminal, list the files in ~/Downloads.” Command with a tight scope. Do not start with rm.
  6. “Generate an image of a red Mac Studio on a desk, then save it to Desktop.” Image gen, then a file you can open in Preview.

What not to ask (yet)

  • HomeKit, timers, phone calls as Siri does them. Keep Siri for the Apple stack. Dottie’s job is the Mac.
  • “Clean my whole disk.” Start with one folder you can undo. First 10 minutes: Getting Started.
  • Asks that need a permission you left off. The agent cannot invent Mail access you did not grant.
  • A macro that must fire identically forever. Keep Keyboard Maestro or a Shortcut for that. Dottie is better on variable inputs.
  • Intel Macs, or macOS older than 15.4. This list will not install there. Use a chat client instead: BoltAI vs Dottie if you want a pay-once multi-model window.

Same replacement map, in essay form: I Replaced Spotlight, Alfred, and Siri with One Mac App.

How to run the list

  1. Install from the landing page. Zip also lives on dottie-desktop-releases.
  2. Pick one model path: local (MLX / Ollama), BYOK (xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Cerebras), or Dottie Pro at $20/month. The 134 tools are not paywalled.
  3. Enable one permission that matches asks 1–10, 11–17, or 18–23. Not all of them.
  4. Type the first ask, or hold Option+Space, or say Hey Dottie.
  5. Stop when the Mac changed. Then enable the next category.

Offline loop: run local AI models on Mac. Ollama vs LM Studio on Apple Silicon: that comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I ask Dottie to do on a Mac?

Anything that maps to a granted system tool: files, calendar, reminders, Mail, iMessage, Notes, Contacts, Safari tabs, Photos, Music, FaceTime, screen OCR, and Terminal. The test is whether the Mac changes. Chat-only questions belong in a chat app.

Do I need to turn on every Dottie permission first?

No. Permissions start off. Enable the one category for the asks you will run today. Mail, Messages, screen, and Terminal can wait. Destructive steps still ask before they run.

Can I ask Dottie by voice on Mac?

Yes. Hold Option+Space (push-to-talk), use the mic in the Dottie window, or say Hey Dottie. Voice is the same agent as text. See the voice control guide for the three modes.

Does this work on Intel Macs?

No. Dottie requires Apple Silicon and macOS 15.4 or newer. On Intel, use a chat client or a local runner. Dottie will not install there.

Is Dottie just a Siri replacement?

Only for Mac tasks Siri cannot finish: files, Mail, apps, screen, Terminal. Keep Siri for HomeKit, timers, and calls. The two wake words do not fight.

Do I need Dottie Pro to use these 50 asks?

No. Local and BYOK run the same 134 tools. Optional Dottie Pro at $20 per month is managed models, not a lock on automation.

Where do I download Dottie for Mac?

From the dottie.ai landing page, or the latest Dottie.zip on the dottie-desktop-releases GitHub repo. There is no Mac App Store listing.

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