Spruce Grove is an apprentice that lives inside your Mac and does computer work when you ask in plain English — writing, organizing, building little tools, fetching information. It runs entirely on your own machine, keeps its own record of what it did, and never touches anything outside the folder you point it at.
Terminal. You'll find it the same way you find any program: press ⌘ + spacebar, type Terminal, press Enter. A plain window with a blinking cursor appears. That is your workshop door.grove --version and press Enter. If a version number answers back, your apprentice is hired.You will only ever do this once. Every evening after this, it is one word and one sentence.
Type grove and press Enter. The grove wakes up and asks where you'd like to work. From here, speak the way you'd speak to a competent friend:
| You say | What happens |
|---|---|
| “Make a folder called Receipts and a list inside it of what I should keep.” | It builds exactly that, inside the folder you chose. |
| “Read my report draft and make the summary shorter.” | It reads, edits, and shows you the result. |
| “Look up the three nearest repair shops and put them in a table.” | It searches, checks, and writes the table. |
When you're done for the night, type exit. It remembers where you left off.
| Habit | Why |
|---|---|
| Point before you speak. Start it in the folder you want worked on. | It cannot wander outside that folder. Your whole Mac stays untouched. |
| Ask for drafts, not miracles. “Draft a reply” beats “handle my email.” | Small, clear tasks come back right the first time. |
| Read before you trust. It shows its work; give it a glance. | It is diligent, but you are the master of the shop. |
| Steer mid-course. Type while it works and it changes course. | Like dictating to a secretary who is already typing. |
Two Fridays, two doors. Friday, September 18th is the establishment — the founding core sits, the board and seats are established, the presentation packages and delivery mechanisms are set, and the invitations go out that night. The first council is Friday, September 25th, 6 o'clock — a room of ten to fifteen. Bring one task you'd love to never do again — a pile of receipts, a messy folder, a letter you keep meaning to write. We will sit together, each at their own machine, and leave with the task done and the trick of it learned. That is the whole invention: mutual aid, one craft shared.
| The grove | What we call the apprentice program. |
| A prompt | Anything you type to it. A full sentence is a fine prompt. |
| A session | One working visit. It keeps the notes between visits. |
| To steer | To change direction while it works. Just start typing. |
| A folder | A drawer in your Mac's filing cabinet. The apprentice only opens the drawer you show it. |