The outcome
Compare and use models without exposing credentials, confusing provider privacy boundaries, or losing the local workspace.
Cherry Studio is a Desktop AI productivity workspace for multi-provider chat, assistants, knowledge bases, agents, web search, image generation, MCP, and local data management. Managing multiple model providers from one desktop app, comparing assistants, working with a local knowledge base, and extending personal workflows with carefully reviewed agents and MCP tools. This guide narrows that broad capability into one repeatable outcome, with checkpoints that keep the source material and your judgment in the loop.
Before you begin
Set the boundary before the tool starts.
Choose one real task, identify who will use the result, and decide what evidence or test will make the result acceptable. Gather only the source material needed for that task. If the work contains confidential, personal, regulated, or client-owned information, confirm that the platform and account are approved before sharing it.
AI should make the work easier to inspect. If the workflow removes the source, the owner, or the review step, redesign the workflow.
Step by step
A workflow you can repeat.
- 01
Install a verified official release, enable operating-system encryption and account lock, update the system, and create an encrypted backup before importing any existing workspace.
- 02
Choose approved providers, review their retention and training terms, create dedicated low-privilege keys, retain official endpoints, and allowlist only evaluated chat and embedding models.
- 03
Build one assistant with narrow instructions, disable unneeded search and tools, and run a frozen non-sensitive benchmark for quality, routing, context, errors, latency, and cost.
- 04
Classify conversations and files before use, confirm exactly which provider receives each request, and avoid shared-device profiles, screenshots, logs, clipboard leaks, and unapproved cloud backups.
- 05
Configure an encrypted WebDAV or S3-compatible backup if needed, test restore on a separate profile, rotate keys, review telemetry settings, and repeat backup before every upgrade.
Working standard
What good use looks like.
- Use dedicated provider keys.
- Know every request's remote destination.
- Test encrypted backup and restore.
Cherry Studio stores local workspace data and keys but sends prompts and selected content to configured providers and may call search, embedding, backup, MCP, agent, or mini-app services. Local storage is not automatic encryption or backup. Use official builds, dedicated keys, approved endpoints, device encryption, narrow filesystem roots, reviewed MCP packages and skills, human approval for actions, and tested encrypted backups before upgrades.
Official references
Check the current product documentation.
Features, plan limits, availability, and data controls change. These official pages are the starting points used for this collection.