Preinvent

Don't reinvent the wheel.

Find what already exists before you build it. Describe what you want to build, in plain words. Preinvent searches your own repos, your GitHub stars and the public registries, and returns one ranked list of what is already out there.

Download for Mac Docs

Free. Version 0.1.10, 25 MB. macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon. Signed and notarised by Apple.

Version: 0.1.8
Price: Free
Requires: macOS 26 or later
Runs on: Apple silicon
Size: 24 MB
Kind: Mac app, iPhone app, CLI + skill

No account, no API keys, no server of mine.

The Preinvent Mac app after a search for esp32 wifi provisioning: 50 results from 8 sources in one ranked table, with match score, author, source, language, stars, last update and description. — Mac: one search, eight sources, one ranked table.

The Preinvent iPhone app after a search for esp32 wifi manager: 34 results from GitHub, the ESP Component Registry and PlatformIO, each with stars, date and match score. — iPhone: the same engine, on the phone.

One query

Searches your repo folders, your GitHub stars, your installed tools and public sources, from GitHub, GitLab and npm to Artifact Hub and the ESP Component Registry.

One ranked list

Every row names its source, with license and upkeep where the registry reports them.

Whole systems

List its parts in one file, and pre discover --catalog returns a shortlist of existing projects for each part. Near misses are labelled, not dropped.

Three ways to get it

Mac appPreinvent-0.1.10.dmg

The full app. The pre CLI is inside it. Open the DMG and drag Preinvent to Applications.

Download the DMG

iPhone appTestFlight beta

The whole search engine runs on the phone. No Mac and no server needed. The link opens once Apple has reviewed the first beta.

Join the TestFlight beta

CLI + skillprecli-0.1.10-arm64-apple-darwin.tar.gz

pre for the terminal, plus a skill that tells a coding agent when and how to use it. The installer puts pre in ~/.local/bin and the skill in ~/.claude/skills/preinvent/.

Download CLI + skill (Apple silicon)

Docs

Install the CLI + skill

tar -xzf precli-0.1.10-arm64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
./install_cli.sh

Already have the Mac app? Run this instead

install_cli.sh /Applications/Preinvent.app/Contents/Resources/pre

Plan a whole system

pre discover --catalog

Privacy

No account, no API keys, no server of mine, no chat model and no cloud AI. Ranking runs on your device. The privacy page lists every host a search can reach.