Marv

Marv is a small AI companion for Windows that sits alongside your cursor and helps you get things done on your own desktop. It sees your screen, answers out loud when you ask a question, and then shows you the next step by drawing on top of whatever application you are using. The interaction is deliberately simple: you hold a hotkey — the website shows Ctrl + Alt — and ask about anything currently on your screen. Marv replies in speech so you can keep moving, while circles, arrows, highlights and written notes appear on screen to point the way. The website describes Marv as 'your cursor's new plus-one', a little companion for everyday desktop work, and early access is being offered for Windows through a waitlist. The friction Marv addresses is the interruption that comes with needing help. When you get stuck — on a formula, a line of code, or a control you cannot find — the usual move is to leave the thing you are working in, open a browser, search, read, and then try to translate what you found back into the app in front of you. Marv is built to remove that round trip. The Product Hunt listing says it lets you debug some code, work out a spreadsheet formula or find the right control in your video editor 'all without leaving the app you're using'. The website captures the same idea with the line 'One task, all the way through', illustrating it with a spreadsheet question that carries from the formula through to the next app. Instead of answering a single question and stopping, Marv is presented as a companion that stays with you as the task progresses. Marv's first capability is voice conversation tied to a hotkey. The website lays out three steps, and the first is 'Ask out loud. Hold your hotkey to talk.' The example prompt shown is a simple one — 'Where do I start?' — which reflects the kind of open question Marv is meant to handle. The second step is 'Get a clear answer. Marv speaks, so you can keep moving.' That detail matters: because the answer is spoken, your eyes and hands stay on the task, and you are not pulled into a chat window to read a wall of text. Underneath the interface the website shows Marv in a few states — listening, smiling and pointing — so you can tell at a glance whether it is hearing you, responding, or directing you. The third step is 'Follow Marv's lead. Circles, arrows and highlights show the way.' This is the feature that separates Marv from a plain voice assistant: rather than describing where something is, it marks it on your actual screen, so the instruction and the thing you need to click are in the same place. The Product Hunt description adds that Marv draws arrows, circles buttons and writes notes directly on your screen while it walks you through a task. Written notes are useful for anything that does not map neatly to a single click — a sequence of steps, a formula to type, or a list of things to do. The website's hero illustration shows exactly this spirit, with Marv peeking over the edge of a cream mouse pointer, holding on with both hands. Because Marv answers questions about what is on your screen, it has to be able to see your screen, and the website treats that access as something visible and controllable. A section headed 'Helpful when you need it. Quiet when you don't.' includes a 'Screen access' control shown in a paused state. In practical terms, that means Marv's view of your desktop is a state you can switch rather than something running invisibly. The site also publishes Terms and a Privacy Policy, which are referenced when you join the early-access waitlist with your email address. Together these details describe a companion that is present when you call on it and out of the way when you do not. Marv's approach is a loop rather than a one-off query. You hold the hotkey and speak; Marv listens, looks at the screen you are on, and responds with spoken guidance; then it draws its answer onto the same screen so you can act on it immediately. The website frames this as a 'conversation, on your desktop', and the demo on the page is captioned as taking a spreadsheet question 'from the formula to the next app' — a description of one task carried through end to end. Everything happens on top of the application you already have open, which is the core of the design: no separate window to manage, no switching, and no moving information from one place to another. The practical benefit is continuity. Spoken answers keep your hands on the keyboard and your attention on the screen, and on-screen marks remove the translation step between reading an instruction and finding the thing it refers to. The website's phrasing for this is 'so you can keep moving'. For someone who is momentarily stuck, that means the interruption lasts as long as the question rather than the length of a search. The other stated benefit is quietness: Marv is described as helpful when you need it and quiet when you don't, with screen access able to be paused. The examples given for Marv are concrete desktop tasks. Debugging code is named in the Product Hunt description, where Marv can point at what matters inside your editor instead of you pasting code elsewhere. Working out a spreadsheet formula is a second example, and the website's demo shows a spreadsheet question being carried through to the next app. Finding the right control in a video editor is a third, which plays to Marv's on-screen arrows and circles — pointing out a specific control in a dense interface is far quicker than describing its location in words. The website also illustrates a simpler everyday case with a Notepad file titled 'Weekend plan' containing tasks to book a train and pack a bag, alongside the prompt 'Where do I start?' — an example of Marv helping someone begin rather than solve something technical. Marv is built for Windows, and the site states that early access is for Windows, with a waitlist you join by entering an email address. That places the current audience at desktop users rather than mobile users: developers, spreadsheet users, video editors, and anyone working in software where a second window would break concentration. Beyond Windows, the website does not detail additional platforms, integrations or a technology stack. Pricing is not stated on the page either; the only current call to action is to join the waitlist, and the site notes that joining is subject to the Terms and Privacy Policy. Marv's promise is narrow and clear: a small companion that sees your screen, answers out loud, and draws the next step directly onto the app you are using. By keeping help inside the window you are already working in — and keeping screen access under your control — it turns a moment of being stuck into a spoken question and a marked-up answer, so you can carry one task all the way through without leaving what you were doing.