A sleek, weightless, and context-aware floating AI companion for Windows 10 & 11.
It is a story as old as time. A stubborn, screen-cluttered, and weary Windows power user—envious of modern macOS UI paradigms and spiraling into despair from heavy Electron AI desktop apps consuming gigabytes of RAM—takes matters into her own hands. This is her creation.
Neika is a lightweight, zero-footprint Dynamic Island assistant framework for Windows. It is designed for desktop minimalism veterans who want less bloat in their workflows, native Win32 responsiveness, and the performance of a hand-rolled Rust core.
Its design is guided by these mantras:
- Gotta go fast. Startup and runtime performance are top priorities. Neika runs on a tiny ~10–15 MB RAM footprint via Tauri v2 and Rust, avoiding Electron memory leaks. Visualizers and animations are powered by zero-cost GPU CSS keyframes and 120 FPS spring physics.
- Unobtrusive by default. Pinned to the top-center of your display, Neika frees up 98% of your workspace when idle. It expands into a full assistant dock on mouse hover or hotkey invocation and vanishes when you don't need it.
- Close to metal. Native Win32 API integration (
WS_EX_TRANSPARENT,GetWindowRect,SetForegroundWindow,GetMonitorInfoW) ensures 0% phantom focus interception. Clicks outside the island pass 100% through to underlying applications. - Your system, your rules. Neika operates on a strict Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) model. Your API keys and conversation data stay encrypted on your machine and communicate directly with official AI endpoints—never passing through intermediary servers.
- Dynamic Island Form Factor: Smoothly transitions from a minimal 180×36px capsule into a 420×500px assistant dock using Framer Motion 120 FPS spring physics.
- Multimodal Intelligence (Gemini SSE): Real-time token streaming with instant response generation. Supports vision analysis via clipboard screenshots (Ctrl + V) and drag-and-drop file attachments.
- Siri-Style Live Audio Visualizer: A 5-bar GPU-accelerated soundwave that dynamically reflects
idle,thinking,speaking, andlisteningstates. - Voice & Speech Synthesis:
- Groq Whisper STT: Ultra-fast voice input powered by Whisper Large v3 Turbo.
- Microsoft Edge Neural TTS: Natural voice playback with customizable prosody (speed, pitch, volume).
- Smart Window Management:
- Zero Phantom Focus: Native pass-through ensures transparent areas never block mouse clicks.
- Smart Focus Restoration: Yields OS window focus back to your active workspace (VS Code, Chrome, Games, Desktop) automatically upon collapsing.
- Fullscreen Auto-Hide: Detects full-screen games, media players, and F11 browser modes to stay out of your way.
- Custom Glassmorphism UI: 4 built-in themes (
Dark, AppleLight#F5F5F7,AMOLED,Purple), customizable glass blur (0–40px), transparency, and accent colors. - Custom Glass Modals: Built-in drag-and-drop image picker and custom reset confirmation dialogs replacing native browser popups.
- Operating System: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit).
- Google Gemini API Key: Free tier supported (get one at Google AI Studio).
- Groq API Key: Optional, required for voice-to-text input (get one at Groq Console).
Warning
Regional Restrictions (HTTP 403 Forbidden): Google Gemini API blocks direct requests from certain regions (e.g. Russia, Belarus). If you encounter 403 Forbidden errors, ensure a system-wide VPN or proxy (e.g. Cloudflare WARP, Amnezia, VLESS) is active on your PC.
Important
Neika stores your API keys locally in an encrypted store via Tauri Store plugin. Keep your keys private and never share your local configuration files.
Neika is distributed as a pre-compiled, standalone Windows application. No compilation or build tools required.
- Download the latest installer
Neika_0.7.0_x64-setup.exefrom the Releases page. - Run the setup executable to install Neika on your PC.
- Open Settings (Ctrl + ,) and enter your Gemini and Groq API keys.
Default Installation Location:
C:\Program Files\Neika\Neika.exe
Neika includes a built-in silent updater. When a new release is available, an update badge will appear in the top header, allowing you to update in one click.
Neika is an active and ongoing project. Here is a preview of what is planned for upcoming releases:
- 👀 Screen Awareness (Beta): Real-time contextual screen analysis. Neika understands your active display without requiring manual screenshots or manual prompts.
- 🚀 Smart Actions: ClickUp-style one-click contextual actions under responses (e.g., Save Code to File, Optimize Code, Explain Concept, Find Errors).
- ✏️ Edit + Continue: Edit previous user messages and recalculate responses from that point forward without creating new chats.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP): Native integration with Anthropic's open MCP standard. Connect Neika to GitHub, Notion, Obsidian, Figma, and local file system tools.
When navigating your AI workflows, questions may arise. Here are quick references to help you out:
| Hotkey | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Alt + Space | Toggle Island | Global shortcut to expand or collapse Neika |
| Ctrl + Shift + V | Voice Input | Start or stop microphone speech-to-text |
| Escape | Interrupt / Close | Instantly stop speech synthesis or collapse the dock |
| Ctrl + N | New Chat | Clear history and reset context memory |
| Ctrl + , | Open Settings | Open the Glassmorphic Settings Window |
- Issue: Neika shows "Status 403 Forbidden":
This indicates a regional IP block by Google Gemini. Enable a system-wide VPN/proxy, verify your API key at Google AI Studio, and ensure the selected model is set togemini-1.5-flash. - Issue: Microphone recording doesn't start:
Ensure your Groq API key is set in Settings (AI tab) and microphone permissions are granted in Windows. - Issue: Resetting settings to default:
Go to Settings -> Storage -> Click Reset All (or clear local storage in DevTools via F12 when Developer Mode is enabled).
Copyright © 2026 **Alexia Winchester **. All Rights Reserved.
Distributed as Proprietary Freeware for personal use.
Made with ❤️ by Alexia Winchester