Listing checked 20 Aug 2026
Overview
Ambiance is an on-device search app that finds passages by meaning rather than keywords. Indexing and search happen entirely on your Mac — no account, no cloud, no tracking — across PDFs, Markdown, plain text, HTML, and source code, in roughly 100 languages. It combines semantic, text, and regex search, keeps a tab per folder with Git branch information, previews hits in a side panel, and pins results across sessions. A built-in RAG prompt builder turns the passages you found into a prompt for ChatGPT or Claude, and results can be opened in the Rope editor via URL scheme.
Pricing: Free
Minimum macOS: 26 (Tahoe)
Architecture: Apple Silicon
Key Features
- Semantic search that matches meaning, not just keywords
- Indexing and search run entirely on-device — no account or cloud
- Indexes PDFs, Markdown, plain text, HTML, and source code
- Multilingual across roughly 100 languages
- Semantic, plain text, and regex search modes
- Per-folder tabs showing Git branch information
- Hover preview of matches in a side panel
- Pinned results that persist across sessions
- RAG prompt builder that hands passages off to ChatGPT or Claude
- Opens source files in the Rope editor via URL scheme
