System requirements
Friday is designed to run on virtually any modern Windows PC. Check these before starting.
Windows 10 or 11
64-bit builds are recommended, the bundled speech and voice models run noticeably better on modern hardware.
Free disk space
The Installation of Friday needs atleast 1.5GB of free space (Friday files + Ollama).
Microphone
Any USB, built-in, or Bluetooth mic. Set it as the default recording device in Windows Sound Settings.
Audio output
Speakers or headphones required to hear Friday's voice responses.
Download the installer
Grab the latest official Friday release directly from GitHub Releases and the Download Page.
Friday-Setup.exe
Download the Friday Installer by using the button below or visiting the download page.
Finding the right file on GitHub
Click the button above or go to the GitHub Releases page or the Download Page. Under the latest release, look for the Assets section and click Friday-Setup.exe to download it.
Run the installer
Double-click the downloaded .exe and follow the short Setup wizard.
Installing Friday
Double-click Friday-Setup.exe. The Setup wizard unpacks the frozen application files and Ollama Offline model into a folder of your choosing, and creates Start Menu shortcuts.
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Friday or C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Friday. Avoid C:\Program Files unless you run as admin, Friday's runtime files (config, TTS cache) live alongside the executable.Once the wizard finishes, Friday is ready, no additional setup, no dependencies to install, no configuration files to edit by hand.
What's inside the installation
The installer unpacks everything Friday needs to run:
Moonshine speech model, the offline recognition engine that hears your wake word, commands, and dictation entirely on-device.
Piper voice model + TTS cache, the offline text-to-speech engine Friday speaks with, plus a cache folder that fills up over time for instant playback of repeated phrases.
Config & secrets files, written to
%APPDATA%\Friday on first run, and DPAPI-encrypted so they're unreadable outside your own Windows login.
Launch Friday
Open the installed folder and double-click Friday.exe to fire it up for the first time.
Running Friday.exe
Open your Friday install folder and double-click Friday.exe, or use the Start Menu shortcut. On first launch it may take a few extra seconds while Friday warms up.
What happens on startup
When Friday starts successfully it will:
Set Friday to auto-start
Add Friday to your Windows startup folder so she launches automatically every time you log in.
Don't skip this step
Installing Friday only puts the files on disk, it does not make her launch on its own. If you want Friday ready the moment your PC boots, her shortcut needs to be sitting inside the Windows startup folder.
Adding Friday to Windows startup
Follow these steps exactly:
shell:startup and press Enter. A File Explorer window opens showing your personal startup folder.start up is one of the folder shortcuts she recognises.%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. Only your shortcut goes here, never move the actual Friday install folder. The shortcut is just a pointer; Friday stays where you installed her.shell:startup folder. The Friday installation itself is untouched.Start talking to Friday
Say a wake word, then just speak naturally, Friday listens, understands, and responds.
Speaking clearly
Friday uses Moonshine for fully offline speech recognition, the same engine handles the wake word, spoken commands, and free-form dictation. It performs best when you speak clearly at a moderate pace. You don't need to yell or over-enunciate.
All audio is processed entirely on-device by your CPU, no round trip to the internet, so recognition is fast regardless of your connection.
How the Piper TTS cache works
Every time Friday speaks a new phrase, the generated audio is saved in a local cache folder inside the Appdata directory. The next time she needs that exact phrase, it plays back instantly instead of generating it again.
Customising every command in the Settings GUI
Almost nothing you say to Friday is hardcoded, every wake word and command phrase shown in this guide can be edited, extended, or removed.
Opening the Settings interface
Say Configuration, configure, or open config at any time to open the on-screen FRIDAY | SYSTEM INTERFACE window. Every tab holds a set of editable phrase lists, add a phrase, remove one, or add your own alternate wording for how you naturally speak.
The tabs below map directly onto the command groups in this guide, open the matching tab to edit any command you see in the explorer further down the page:
A few extra tabs round out the rest of the interface: MODES for building your own custom activation phrases and routines, FOLDERS and REMINDERS for the paths and health nudges Friday uses, TEXT TO SPEECH for the Friday's voice itself, plus CONVERTER, DOWNLOADER, CONVERSATION, and CHAT for everything else.
What you can say
Every command Friday ships with, grouped exactly the way they're grouped in the Settings GUI. Browse the strip below, or let it play through each group on its own.
Getting the most out of Friday
Small habits that make a big difference in day-to-day use.
Add Friday to shell:startup
See Step 4 above. Placing the Friday shortcut in your Windows startup folder means she's always ready the moment you log in, no manual launching required. This is the single most-missed step during setup.
Open the Settings GUI and make the commands your own
Say "Configuration" and spend two minutes adding the phrasing you'd naturally use. Friday's collision check means you can't accidentally break another command while doing it.
Use a headset or close-field mic
Friday's accuracy improves significantly with a microphone closer to your mouth. Even a budget USB headset beats a far-field laptop mic in a noisy environment.
Set your mic as the Windows default
Go to Settings → System → Sound → Input and confirm your intended microphone is set as the default recording device.
Never move just the .exe
The TTS cache and config files live inside the Friday Appdata folder. Moving only Friday.exe breaks the lookup. If you need to relocate Friday, move the entire install folder and update your shortcut path.
Wait for Friday to finish speaking
Friday processes one command at a time. Issuing another command while she's mid-speech may cause it to be missed. Wait for the response to finish.
Say "rescan" after installing a new app
The app catalogue is built at startup and doesn't update automatically while Friday is running. Say "rescan" or "rebuild" to refresh it after installing something new.
Know the difference between "clear memory" and "reset to defaults"
"clear memory" only wipes the short-term conversation buffer. "reset to defaults" is a full factory reset, it wipes every command you've customised in the Settings GUI too, so use it deliberately.
Common issues & fixes
Most problems have a simple cause. Check these before anything else.
Friday doesn't hear me / no response to voice
Almost always a microphone configuration issue, not a bug.
2. Make sure the microphone volume is above 50%.
3. Check microphone permission: Settings → Privacy → Microphone → toggle on for desktop apps.
4. Confirm you said one of your configured wake words first, commands don't fire without one.
Friday crashes on startup
A crash on launch usually means a missing or corrupted file inside the install folder, or the installer didn't complete successfully, occasionally the case when a PyInstaller one-file build's temp extraction gets interrupted by another process (antivirus included).
Friday-Setup.exe from the GitHub Releases pageand the Downloads page and run it again. The original download may have been interrupted or corrupted mid-transfer.Voice recognition is inaccurate
• Reduce background noise (TV, music, fans).
• Speak at a steady moderate pace, not too fast, not exaggerated.
• Switch to a headset microphone if using a built-in laptop mic.
• If a specific phrase keeps getting misheard, add your own wording for it in the Settings GUI instead of fighting the default one.
No sound / Friday speaks but I can't hear it
Check that speakers or headphones are connected and set as the default playback device in Windows Sound settings. Confirm system volume isn't muted. Friday plays audio through the Windows default output device.
Antivirus or Windows Defender flagging Friday
Friday's installer and its frozen executable are both unsigned, there's no commercial code-signing certificate. Some antivirus engines heuristically flag unsigned executables, especially ones built with PyInstaller or Nuitka, as potentially unwanted programs. Friday is not malware.
Friday can't find a newly installed app
The app catalogue is built when Friday starts and doesn't automatically update while running. After installing a new application, say "rescan" or "rebuild" to trigger a fresh catalogue scan.
Frequently asked questions
The core loop does, Moonshine (speech recognition) and Piper (text-to-speech) both run entirely on your device. Optional features that reach out to a service, news, weather, email/Discord/Telegram checks, or AI chat via Duckduck Go/Groq, do need a connection, but nothing about hearing or responding to a command does.
Say "configuration" or Click on the friday Icon in the tray to open the Settings GUI, find the tab that matches the command (see the Customising section above), and edit the phrase list directly. Friday checks every new phrase against every other command list first, so you can't accidentally create a conflict.
Yes, wake words are just another editable list, on the GENERAL tab of the Settings GUI. You can add as many as you like; Friday responds to any one of them.
"rescan" (or "rebuild") only rebuilds the installed-app catalogue, say it after installing something new. "clear memory" wipes the short-term rolling conversation buffer, not anything permanent. "reset to defaults" is the big one, a full factory reset that also wipes every command phrase you've customised in the Settings GUI, so use it deliberately.
Yes. Just download and run the installer on each PC. There's no per-machine license, no activation, and no account needed. Each install builds up its own local config and TTS cache over time.
It grows slowly because it only stores audio for unique phrases Friday has actually spoken. In practice it stabilises quickly since daily usage repeats many phrases, greetings, acknowledgements, common responses. It's never cleared automatically, which is by design: Friday only gets faster over time.
No. Audio is processed locally by Moonshine and discarded after recognition, it's written to disk and never sent anywhere. Any credentials you configure (email app passwords, API keys) are stored DPAPI-encrypted on your own machine, readable only under your own Windows login. See the Privacy page for the full policy.
Download the new Friday-Setup.exe from the GitHub Releases page and run it, it updates the files in place. Because Friday tracks what shipped last time separately from what you've changed, every command or setting you've customised survives the update automatically; only genuinely new defaults get added.
Yes, entirely free. No paid version, no premium tier, no subscription, no ads. Friday is an independent personal project, distributed freely via GitHub.
The current build ships with an English Moonshine model. Other languages aren't officially supported in the current release.
Removing Friday
Because Friday is installed through Inno Setup, removing her the right way is a normal Windows uninstall, not a manual folder deletion.
To completely remove Friday
Go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps (or Control Panel → Programs and Features) and uninstall Friday, or run unins000.exe from inside the install folder directly. This removes the application files and Start Menu shortcuts the installer created.
shell:startup, or the %APPDATA%\Friday folder Friday creates at runtime for her config and TTS cache, delete both yourself if you want a completely clean removal.shell:startup) to point to the new Friday.exe. The TTS cache inside the folder moves with it automatically.Ready to get started?
Download Friday from GitHub, free, offline at her core, and set up in under five minutes.