Frequently asked questions

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.

People who use AI assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor or Codex and want them to handle downloads: AI tinkerers, students, researchers, creators and anyone tired of big downloads failing halfway. You do not need to be a programmer.

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.

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets AI apps use tools. Zeus is one such tool. You only need to add Zeus to your assistant once (usually a few lines of settings); after that you just ask in plain language.

No. The thinking is done by the assistant you already use; Zeus does the downloading. Zeus works without any model of its own, and without any AI at all from the command line.

No. Zeus never opens your browser’s cookie or password files. When a download needs a login, the Zeus browser extension asks you first, then passes the cookies for that one website directly to the Zeus app on your computer. They stay in memory for at most 15 minutes and are never written to disk, logged or sent anywhere else.

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.

No. Zeus has no telemetry, no analytics and no account. Your download history and permissions stay in a database on your computer. This website does not use cookies or analytics either. See the privacy policy.

Every site you approved is listed in the extension’s settings and in the Zeus app, each with a revoke button. The kill switch withdraws every active permission and pauses every download at once.

Zeus never runs what it downloads. It marks downloaded files the way your operating system expects (so Windows and macOS still warn before opening them), records where each came from, and does not take over downloads the browser itself blocked as dangerous.

No. Zeus does not solve captchas, disguise itself as a browser or break copy protection. If a website wants a person, Zeus hands the job back to your real browser and to you. Use Zeus only for files you are allowed to download; see the acceptable use policy.

Zeus’s MCP server runs over stdio, the transport most MCP assistants use, such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and Codex. Testing with each of them is part of the work before the alpha. Zeus also has a command line (zeus) for scripts and people who prefer typing.

Windows, macOS and Linux are the targets, and the automated tests have run on all three. The 0.0.1a pre-alpha has builds for Windows x64 and Linux x64; macOS builds come later. The browser extension targets Chrome and Edge first and is not packaged yet (its source is on GitHub). A Firefox build exists but has not yet been tested in an installed browser.

Only for two things: rescuing downloads that fail in your browser, and downloads that need a website login. Plain public links work without it.

Most servers can send a file starting from a given byte. Zeus records each saved part in a crash-safe journal, checks that the file has not changed on the server, and asks only for the missing bytes. If the server cannot resume, Zeus tells you instead of silently starting over.

Some sites give links that work for a few minutes only. Zeus is designed to ask the browser extension for a fresh link from the page you started on and then continue where it stopped. The extension side exists; connecting it to the download engine is still in progress.

Into a Zeus folder inside your Downloads folder unless you allow others. Zeus refuses to write outside the folders you allow, never overwrites a file without asking, and gives each file a safe name even if a website suggests a strange one.

Verne Ltd., a forward-deployed AI engineering firm in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Zeus is a Verne product, licensed under Apache-2.0. See About.

Ogun is Verne’s developer platform for data pipelines, data mining and AI-agent benchmarks. It is built on the same download engine as Zeus. Zeus is for everyday downloads with your AI; Ogun is for engineers building datasets. See the Ogun site.

Zeus is the Greek god of the sky and of thunder, and the name stands for authority. In the app, your AI does the work and the authority to approve stays with you.

Yes. The source is public: zeus, zeus-core and zeus-extension on GitHub. Security reports are welcome: see the security policy. For anything else write to info@vernesystems.com.