Zeus is a free, open-source download manager that assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor and Codex use through MCP.
It resumes interrupted downloads, takes over downloads your browser could not finish, uses a website login only after you approve that site, and verifies each file. It runs on your computer.
Zeus is a download manager for AI agents. When your assistant needs a file, Zeus downloads it, resumes after failures, can take over downloads your browser gave up on, uses a website login only after you approve that site, and verifies the result. It is made by Verne, runs locally and is open source.
Download links expire, files behind a login need a session that the assistant should not hold, and a large file that fails part-way often starts again from zero. The assistant then has to ask you to download it by hand.
When a browser download fails, the browser usually has to start again. Zeus keeps the bytes already saved, checks that the server still has the same file, and fetches only the rest.
The animation on this page uses sample data.
SHA-256 3b1f 9c07 … 52ae ✓ matches the publisher · BLAKE3 recorded · receipt saved
Your assistant hands the download to Zeus. Zeus asks you before it uses a login or does anything else sensitive.
You tell your assistant what you need. It passes the link and a destination to Zeus through MCP.
Zeus checks the file, splits it into parts when it can, resumes when the connection drops, and asks the browser for help if the site needs your login.
Anything sensitive, such as using a login, waits for your approval. When the file is finished it is verified, and your AI gets its location and fingerprint.
When a file is behind a login, your AI cannot approve the request itself. The request appears in your browser extension with the facts: which site, who asked, for what and for how long.
A simulation with sample data, not the real extension.
What Zeus does for you, in plain terms. Every feature is described in full on the features page.
After a dropped connection, a crash or a reboot, Zeus keeps the bytes it has already saved. It records every saved part in a crash-safe journal and continues from the last committed byte, as long as the server supports resuming.
When a server allows it, Zeus fetches a large file in several parts at once over a limited number of connections, so one slow connection does not hold up the whole file and the site is not flooded with requests.
When a download fails in Chrome or Edge, the Zeus extension offers to hand it to Zeus, which continues from the bytes the browser already saved when the server supports it.
Some files are behind a login. Zeus can use that website session, but only for a site you approve and for the time you choose. Cookies are held in memory for at most 15 minutes and are never written to disk or sent anywhere else.
Each finished file gets SHA-256 and BLAKE3 fingerprints and a receipt that records where it came from and when. If a file does not match a checksum you supplied, Zeus reports the mismatch.
Zeus offers its download tools through MCP, the open standard for giving AI apps tools, so assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor and Codex can call it. The assistant sends a request and Zeus reports the result.
Zeus can use your website logins, so it follows fixed rules. They are part of its design and its code, and the source is public on GitHub so anyone can check them.
Your AI can ask. It cannot approve, extend a permission or see a cookie.
Zeus never opens the browser’s cookie or password files. Sessions come only through the extension, with your consent.
No telemetry, no analytics, no account. Your history and permissions stay on your computer.
Zeus does not solve captchas, disguise itself as a browser or break copy protection. If a site wants a person, Zeus asks you.
Three of the six kinds of people Zeus is built for. The use cases page has all six.
Papers, datasets and supplementary files from journal sites and university portals you can already sign in to. Zeus downloads them with your approval and keeps a receipt of the source for your references.
Read moreLet Claude Code, Cursor or Codex fetch model weights, sample data and release files while you keep working. If a 20 GB download drops, it resumes instead of starting again.
Read moreLarge collections you have the right to keep, such as public-domain archives or your own exported data, fetched and checked file by file, with a record of where each came from.
Read moreShort answers to the questions people ask first. The FAQ page has the rest.
Zeus is a free, open-source download helper for AI assistants, made by Verne. Your AI asks it to download something; Zeus fetches the file reliably, uses a website login only if you approve, checks the file and tells your AI where it is. It runs on your own computer.
Yes, as a pre-alpha. Release 0.0.1a has a Windows installer, Linux packages and the zeus, zeusd, zeus-native-host and zeus-web-bridge programs, and you can try the client in your browser on a hosted sandbox first. The binaries are unsigned and not yet tested on many machines. See Get started.
Nothing. Zeus is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license. There is no account and no subscription. If Verne ever offers optional paid services, such as syncing between devices for teams, they will be separate and will never be needed for downloading or handle your logins.
No, by design. Your AI can ask for a login or a risky action, but approvals are only accepted from you, through your own keyboard or the browser extension. A web page that tries to trick your AI into “approving” something cannot get past this, because the AI has no way to approve.
Zeus 0.0.1a is a pre-alpha release: try it in your browser on a private sandbox, or download it for Windows or Linux. Expect rough edges.