OpenShell vs The Abyss

OpenShell — a unified AI client for your iPhone: local LLMs, cloud APIs, and remote coding over SSH, all in one app. Chat with Ollama, MLX, and LM Studio local models; OpenAI, xAI Grok, and Nous Hermes cloud APIs; or drive Claude Code on a remote Mac over SSH. Pick the backend you want and work in the same app — from quick questions to code reviews, file edits, and builds, straight from your iPhone.

The Abyss is the iOS companion for Hermes - your self-hosted AI agent running on your own machine. Connect over your local network or Tailscale, send prompts, watch the agent think and reach for tools in real time. The Abyss is a remote control. Hermes is the brain. You own both. Built for people who already host their own things. CHAT - Live token streaming. Watch the agent's reply appear as it's generated. - Transparent tool calls. See the agent reach into your shell, files, or the web - with each tool's name and arguments shown as a card. - Multimodal. Attach images from the photo library and send them with your prompt. - Slash commands. Trigger agent-side commands from a clean, keyboard-friendly composer. VOICE MODE - Hands-free conversation. Dictate prompts and hear the reply spoken back. - On-device transcription. Your voice is transcribed locally; the text is what gets sent to your agent. - Bring-your-own TTS. If your Hermes backend streams text-to-speech, you hear the agent in a neural voice; otherwise it falls back to iOS voices. SESSIONS - Server-side history. Every conversation lives on your own Hermes server, not ours. - Searchable, renameable, pinnable. Find the thread you need, give it a name, keep it on top. - Local cache. Scroll the transcript even when you're offline. MULTIPLE BACKENDS - Run more than one Hermes instance? Add them all. Switch active with one tap. - Pair a second device by scanning a QR code. Credentials never cross our servers - we don't have any. - Each backend gets its own identity colour so you always know which agent you're talking to. DEMO MODE - Not running Hermes yet? Try the demo. A scripted preview shows how the real client behaves, without any setup. No account, no network, no obligation. PRIVACY-FIRST BY DESIGN - All credentials live in iOS Keychain. Face ID required before revealing or sharing them. - No analytics. No third-party SDKs. No telemetry. - The Abyss only talks to the backends you point it at. Apple processes any future purchases; that's the only third party in the loop. - App data flows between your device and your own Hermes backend. Nothing else. REQUIREMENTS - A running Hermes Agent on a machine you control. - Network reachability to that machine. Same Wi-Fi works; Tailscale (or another mesh) is recommended if you want to reach the agent from anywhere. The Abyss is not a hosted AI service. It is a remote control for an AI agent you host yourself.