PocketBot: A Local AI Autopilot for iOS Using App Intents and On-Device Inference

PocketBot is an iOS autopilot agent that runs entirely on-device, using native iOS frameworks to create event-driven automations without sending data to cloud servers. The developers built it over four weeks with help from Claude Opus 4.6's 1M context window.

Architecture and Technical Details

The system uses a privacy-first approach with these key components:

• 100% Local Inference: Runs a quantized 3B Llama model natively on iPhone's Neural Engine via Metal
• Native Orchestration: Uses Apple's AppIntents and CoreLocation frameworks instead of screen scraping
• Event-Driven Engine: Only wakes up in background when OS fires system triggers (location, time, battery)
• Privacy-First: Prompts, data, and automations never hit cloud servers

Current Capabilities

Three working examples from the beta:

• The Battery Savior: "If my battery drops below 5%, dim the screen and text my partner my live location."
• Morning Briefing: "At 7 AM, scan my calendar/reminders/emails, check the weather, and push me a single summary notification."
• Monzo/FinTech Hacks: "If I walk near a McDonald's, move £10 to my savings pot."

Development Context and Challenges

The developers built PocketBot because they wanted a "Driver, not a Search Bar"—an actual agent rather than just another chatbot wrapper. They specifically avoided fighting the OS by architecting around native iOS APIs.

Current limitations include battling memory limits of A-series chips during on-device reasoning. The beta is limited to 1,000 testers to monitor battery impact across different iPhone models, with particular interest in testing on iPhone 15 Pro or newer devices to see if iOS kills the app process.