Troubleshooting

View as Markdown

Windows warns when you open the installer

Windows says “Windows protected your PC” because the ASIST installer is not signed yet. Click “More info”, then “Run anyway”, to install it. The same warning appears each time you install a new version.
ASIST cannot be installed on Windows with Smart App Control turned on, because it is not signed. You can check its state under “App & browser control” in Windows Security.

The steps are in Installation.

In System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone, check that ASIST is turned on. After you turn it on, reopen ASIST.
If the permission seems to be in a wrong state, remove it with the steps in Resetting the permission and grant it again.

Click MIC OFF on the screen and check that the microphone is on.

The API key can’t be checked

If the first-time setup or “API keys” in the settings says the key couldn’t be checked, make sure you copied the key correctly, and that your account with the provider has credit or usage quota left.

The setup screen when the API key couldn’t be checked

There is no voice

macOS
Windows

If you chose VOICEVOX or AivisSpeech for reading aloud, check that the app is in the Applications folder. If ASIST can’t find it, the reason appears in the setup and under “Voice” in the settings.
If you chose “macOS voice”, check that a voice for the conversation language is installed. If there isn’t one, add it from System Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > System Voice.

If you changed the conversation language, reading aloud may have switched to the system’s voice. Check “Voice” in the settings again.
If you chose Irodori-TTS or Qwen3-TTS for reading aloud, replies are read with the system’s voice until its model is prepared. After an update of ASIST, a model you prepared before may need preparing again. Click “Prepare” in the row of that model under “Voice” in the settings. See Preparing the voice models.

ASIST says it couldn’t start MaAI

When “Turn-taking (MaAI)” is on in the “Voice” settings but MaAI can’t start, ASIST judges the end of speech by the silence length in the settings and the conversation goes on. The message appears once after MaAI is turned on. Prepare MaAI again under “Turn-taking (MaAI)” on the “Voice” page of the settings; the preparation ends by starting MaAI to check it. If MaAI still can’t start there, the log holds the cause; attach it when reporting a bug.

ASIST says MaAI is falling behind

While MaAI’s processing falls behind the audio of the conversation, ASIST judges the end of speech by the silence length in the settings until MaAI catches up. This happens when other work keeps the computer busy. When the lag lasts about 5 seconds and keeps growing, this message appears, once while the microphone stays on. While MaAI is catching up after a stall, nothing appears. Once the other heavy work ends, MaAI catches up and is used again to judge the end of speech. If the message keeps appearing, turning off “Turn-taking (MaAI)” in the “Voice” settings stops MaAI from using the computer.

When MaAI’s processing is slower than the audio of the conversation on average over 8 to 10 seconds, the log records HIGH LOAD; a short stall that leaves it behind records nothing.

Windows offers no speech recognition model

On Windows, speech recognition, and Irodori-TTS and Qwen3-TTS for reading aloud, need a discrete GPU on your computer, whether from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel Arc. When there is none they can use, “Listening” in the first-time setup and “Voice” in the settings show the reason in place of the model, and Irodori-TTS and Qwen3-TTS cannot be chosen for reading aloud either. ASIST checks the GPU when it starts.

If it says “This speech recognition needs a discrete GPU, and none was found on this computer.”, the Vulkan driver shows no discrete GPU. A GPU built into the processor is not used. If your computer has a discrete GPU, install its maker’s driver again and start ASIST again. Without a discrete GPU, use Whisper running in the browser for speech recognition, or choose Gemini Live as the voice engine.
If it says “Couldn’t check the GPU, so this speech recognition is unavailable.”, ASIST could not read the list of GPUs. Make sure the GPU driver is working and start ASIST again.

The first start of a new version of ASIST, and the first start after a GPU driver update, is when the driver builds the programs that run on the GPU. Only that time, preparing and starting speech recognition and reading aloud (Irodori-TTS and Qwen3-TTS) take longer than usual. From the second start on, the driver uses what it saved.

Agent jobs don’t start

Check that the CLI of the engine you chose under “Agent” in the settings (codex or claude) is installed and signed in. See Setting up the Agent.
If a Mac says ASIST could not read PATH from your shell, open a new terminal and check that your shell starts quickly and without errors. See On a Mac for details.
If Windows says ASIST cannot start a CLI installed with npm, reinstall that CLI with its official installer.
If Windows says codex’s Windows sandbox is not set up, start codex once in a terminal and set up the Windows sandbox as it asks. This setup needs administrator rights. See On Windows for details.

The calendar or mail won’t connect

See “If it does not connect” in Connecting your calendar and Connecting your mail.

At startup, ASIST says it can’t read a file

A file such as the settings was written by a newer version of ASIST than the one you are running, or it is damaged. ASIST leaves the file at the location shown untouched. Replace ASIST with the newer version, repair the damaged file, or move it somewhere else, then open ASIST again. For details, see Where your data is kept.

Reporting a bug

Open the log folder from “App log” in “About” in the settings, and write to GitHub Issues with that day’s file attached. The log folder is ~/Library/Logs/asist/ on a Mac and %APPDATA%\asist\logs\ on Windows. Keys and passwords in the log are masked. Report security vulnerabilities with the steps in SECURITY.md, not in a public issue.