gary4local (macOS)

this is the macOS control center and localhost stack for running the gary model backends directly on Apple Silicon.

it pairs with gary4juce and now ships as a signed Swift app target, also called gary4local, that handles service lifecycle, logs, setup flows, model downloads, and update checks from a normal desktop app instead of a pile of terminal tabs.

if you want the Windows version, that's here: gary-localhost-installer.

version history

version history moved to CHANGELOG.md so this file can stay focused on what gary4local is right now.

older Sparkle release notes live under docs/updates/gary4local/release-notes/.

what lives here

• gary4local/ the active macOS Swift app target and Xcode project.
• ace-lego/ the Carey / ACE-Step localhost backend, plus the wrapper flow used by the mac app.
• audiocraft-mlx/ the MLX path used for local Audiocraft / MusicGen continuation work.
• melodyflow/ the MelodyFlow localhost backend.
• sa3/ the Stable Audio 3 localhost backend and mac training flow.
• stable-audio-tools/ the vendored Stable Audio runtime pieces still used on this stack.
• foundation/ the local foundation-1 runtime path.
• control-center/ an older Swift package prototype plus manifest and packaging docs that are still useful as reference material.

what ships right now

• a signed + notarized Apple Silicon macOS app with Sparkle-based in-app updates.
• a local control center that can start, stop, restart, rebuild, and monitor the backend services without dropping straight into shell scripts.
• carey on the mac path, including the regular and XL ace-step-v15-{base,sft,turbo} model family flow.
• foundation-1 on the MLX path, including model download flow, prompt randomization support, text generation, and audio2audio.
• MelodyFlow with backend switching between mps, mlx_native_torch_codec, and mlx_native_mlx_codec.
• Stable Audio 3 on Apple Silicon, including local LoRA training, prompt-pool building, continuation, adapter registration, and the related UI inside gary4local.

the main localhost endpoints in the production manifest are:

• audiocraft-mlx: http://127.0.0.1:8000
• melodyflow: http://127.0.0.1:8002
• carey: http://127.0.0.1:8003
• sa3: http://127.0.0.1:8006
• foundation-1: http://127.0.0.1:8015

repo layout notes

• development runs directly from this repo.
• release builds stage the runtime trees into the app bundle under Contents/Resources/runtime/.
• mutable runtime data stays outside the app bundle.
• app support, venvs, models, and caches live under ~/Library/Application Support/GaryLocalhost/.
• logs live under ~/Library/Logs/GaryLocalhost/.
• the production service manifest lives at control-center/manifest/services.production.json and gets staged into the app resources at build time.

rough edges

• i am still not especially happy with ACE-Step training and generation speed on the MLX path. most of the testing here has been on a MacBook Air with 32 GB of unified memory, so some of this may just be "don't expect miracles from the air."
• some runtime failures, especially Carey-side failures, still explain themselves better in logs than they do in the UI.
• the SA3 auth and token flow is better than it was, but it still has enough weirdness that i don't consider that part "done."
• full-track training is hidden for now. MLX wants far more memory for it than the windows build does, and we want to know why first. short crops still train LoRAs that generate several minutes fine.
• SA3 converts pytorch weights to MLX at runtime instead of using stability's hosted MLX models. they're byte-identical, so it's an install-size win waiting on its own release.

auto-updater

this repo now uses Sparkle 2.

the production flow is:

• GitHub Releases hosts the notarized gary4local DMG.
• GitHub Pages hosts the stable Sparkle appcast.
• a new mac release becomes visible to installed apps when the stable appcast is updated.

maintainer docs for that live in:

• docs/releasing/SPARKLE_RELEASE.md
• docs/updates/README.md

useful commands

rebuild all Python environments from a fresh clone:

./scripts/rebuild_venvs.sh

build an ad hoc Apple Silicon DMG for trusted handoff testing:

./scripts/build_gary4local_adhoc_dmg.sh

build the signed + notarized release DMG:

./scripts/build_gary4local_release_dmg.sh

staging repos

these repos are where some of the MLX and localhost-specific work gets proven out before smaller runtime slices get promoted back into this one:

• ace-lego
• stable-audio-mlx
• melodyflow-mlx

related repos

• gary4juce
• gary-localhost-installer
• gary-lora-examples