AutoPaper

Help

Everything AutoPaper does, where to find it, and what to try when it doesn’t do what you expected. You don’t need to read it in order.

This page describes AutoPaper 0.1.2 on macOS, Windows and Linux; where they differ, it says so. Names are as each app shows them: Mac menus use title case (New Wallpaper Now), Windows and Linux sentence case (New wallpaper now).

What you need

And one of: an OpenAI API key, a Google Gemini API key, or models running on your own computer or network (see Local models). Without any of them, Demo lets you try the app: it writes simple ideas from your keywords and paints soft gradients, without AI, a network or a cost.

Install

Download AutoPaper from the latest release. On GitHub, choose Watch › Custom › Releases to hear about new releases.

macOS

  1. Download the .dmg from the latest release. It is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings.
  2. Open it and drag AutoPaper into Applications.
  3. Open AutoPaper from Applications. Its welcome opens, and a display-and-sparkles icon appears in the menu bar.

Updating: on its second launch AutoPaper asks whether to check for updates automatically (about once a day). Settings → About changes that answer, can also download and install updates automatically, and shows when it last checked. Check for Updates… checks now. Each update is verified with AutoPaper’s signature before it’s installed, and your settings, keys, history and wallpapers are kept.

Windows

Download AutoPaper.appinstaller and open it. Windows’ App Installer shows what AutoPaper is and who signed it (Michael Sitarzewski, verified by Microsoft), installs it from msitarzewski.com, the author’s own server, and then keeps it up to date from there. The signed bundle (x64 and Arm) is also attached to each release.

winget install msitarzewski.AutoPaper will work once Microsoft has reviewed AutoPaper’s winget listing, which can take a few days.

Then open AutoPaper from Start. It lives in the notification area. The .msixbundle package itself (x64 and Arm) is also attached to each release.

Linux

The GNOME runtime AutoPaper needs comes from Flathub’s runtime repository, which Flatpak sets up if you don’t have it. Then open AutoPaper from your apps. Flatpak keeps it up to date from AutoPaper’s repository (GNOME Software, Discover or flatpak update); AutoPaper never checks for updates itself.

If you’d rather build AutoPaper yourself, the README has the steps for each system.

The first launch

Until a provider other than Demo is set up, AutoPaper opens with a welcome: Tell your computer what you’d like to see. It has three steps.

  1. Add a few keywords. Type one and press Return (or Enter). Each starts as a Must; you can change that later.
  2. Choose who writes and paints: OpenAI, Google Gemini, Local (Ollama writes, ComfyUI paints) or Try it without AI (Demo).
  3. Add your key, with a link to where you get one; or, for Local, check that Ollama and ComfyUI are running.

Then Make My First Wallpaper. You can also skip the welcome (Not Now on a Mac, Skip for now on Windows, Skip on Linux) and set things up in Settings later. On a Mac, nothing on a schedule happens until the first wallpaper has been made, so AutoPaper never changes your desktop just by being opened.

Where AutoPaper lives

The window has four parts: Now (the wallpaper on your desktop, what it is, and what happens next), Moods, History and Console (wallpaper attempts and their results). Settings are in Settings… on a Mac (also the gear at the bottom of the sidebar), in the navigation pane on Windows, and in Preferences in the main menu on Linux.

Moods and keywords

A mood is a name, its keywords and its own Surprise. One mood is current, and new wallpapers come from it; your first one is made from the keywords you added in the welcome. Everything else (the schedule, providers, budget, memory and taste) is shared between moods.

Keywords are words or short phrases, up to 40 characters each and 64 per mood, each marked:

Surprise runs from 0 (Faithful) to 100 (Wild), with four bands: Faithful (below 25) follows your keywords closely and adds nothing; Fresh (below 50, and where new moods start, at 35) may add one idea of its own; Adventurous (below 75) up to two; Wild takes your keywords as loose inspiration and adds up to three. The higher it is, the less your taste counts and the more chance plays a part.

If AutoPaper keeps finding ideas too close to ones you’ve had, it says “Your keywords are narrow, so new ideas are getting hard to find. Add some Maybes or raise Surprise for more variety.” It goes away once new ideas come easily again.

On a Mac, choosing Moods with no mood selected shows Your Moods: how many moods, wallpapers, likes and echoes you have, a chart of wallpapers made in the last 30 days by mood (Show as Table shows the same as numbers), and a card for each mood, most used first, with its keywords, Surprise, counts and latest wallpapers. Each mood also shows Made in this mood; on Windows and Linux, Recent wallpapers.

Providers and keys

AutoPaper uses AI for two jobs, each set separately in Settings → Providers: Writing ideas and Painting.

What each provider can do, and its default model
ProviderWritesPaintsDefault model
OpenAIYesYesgpt-6-luna writes, gpt-image-2.5-flare paints
Google GeminiYesYes (needs billing turned on)Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite writes, Nano Banana 2 paints
OllamaYesNoThe first model your Ollama has
OpenAI-compatible (LM Studio, LocalAI, stable-diffusion.cpp…)YesYesThe server’s first model
ComfyUINoYesZ-Image Turbo
On this Mac (Apple Intelligence)Yes, on a Mac with Apple IntelligenceNoApple’s on-device model
DemoYesYesNo AI: simple ideas and gradients

On this Mac writes ideas with Apple’s own model, built into macOS 26 and later on Macs with Apple Intelligence: free, private (nothing leaves your Mac for the writing step), and with no key. It appears in the writing menu when your Mac can run it; if Apple Intelligence is off, Settings says so and links to where to turn it on. It’s smaller than the hosted models and follows keywords less closely, so AutoPaper asks it for fewer ideas at a time with shorter instructions, and puts right what it gets wrong (a Must keyword left out of the prompt, or “no people” for an Avoid keyword). Expect 10 to 40 seconds per wallpaper. It can’t paint: Apple’s image maker can’t be used by an app that paints on a schedule, so choose a painter as well, or leave Demo’s gradients. Windows has no equivalent yet; see Foundry Local.

The Model menu lists what the provider offers; leave it on Default unless you want another. Test checks the address, the key and the model list with a small request. Painting quality (Standard or High, High unless you change it) is for OpenAI and Gemini, where High costs more.

Keys go in Settings → Accounts on a Mac, Keys on Windows and Linux. Paste a key and it’s saved as you type, to your Keychain, Credential Manager or Secret Service; clear the field to remove it. Each has a Get a key link: platform.openai.com/api-keys for OpenAI, aistudio.google.com/apikey for Gemini. A key for an OpenAI-compatible server belongs to that server’s address, and many servers on your own network don’t need one.

About free Gemini keys: a free key may let Google use what you send to improve its products, and human reviewers may read it; a paid project doesn’t. (In the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, the paid terms apply either way.) Painting with Gemini needs a project with billing turned on, as Google’s image models have no free tier. Gemini’s images carry SynthID, Google’s invisible watermark. More in Privacy.

Local models

With local models, nothing leaves your computer or network, and nothing costs anything. Ollama (or LM Studio) writes; ComfyUI paints. They can run on this computer or another on your network: give the other computer’s address in Settings → Providers. Plain http works only for addresses on your own computer or network; anything else needs https.

Installing them

The models themselves are separate downloads. For Ollama, pull a model in Ollama (for example with ollama pull); AutoPaper uses the first one unless you choose another.

Ollama and LM Studio

Ollama is its own choice in the writing menu, at http://127.0.0.1:11434 unless you change it. LM Studio, and other servers that work like OpenAI’s API, are OpenAI-compatible: give the server’s address (LM Studio’s is usually http://127.0.0.1:1234), and AutoPaper adds /v1 if the address has no path. Start the server, load a model, then choose Test.

Foundry Local (Windows and Mac)

Microsoft’s Foundry Local runs open models on your computer and speaks the same language as OpenAI, so AutoPaper reaches it as OpenAI-compatible. Install it (winget install Microsoft.FoundryLocal on Windows, or brew tap microsoft/foundrylocal && brew install foundrylocal on a Mac), run foundry model load with a model, then foundry server status shows its address, such as http://127.0.0.1:64921 (the port changes each time the server starts, so update it in Settings, adding /v1 if you like). The model list works, and each model’s ID is its variant name, such as Phi-3-mini-128k-instruct-generic-cpu:3. Models run on a graphics card or NPU when there is one; on a computer with neither they are very slow, and some have only a graphics-card version. Windows’ own Phi Silica model can’t be used yet: it needs a special access token from Microsoft and a Copilot+ PC.

ComfyUI

Choose ComfyUI for painting; its address is http://127.0.0.1:8188 unless you change it. The Workflow menu has two choices.

AutoPaper’s (the default): a tested workflow for each of three models. The Model menu lists only those your ComfyUI has everything for; put these files in ComfyUI’s models folders, then choose Refresh:

The files each of AutoPaper’s ComfyUI workflows needs, its largest size and its licence
ModelFilesLargest sizeLicence
Z-Image Turbo (the default)diffusion_models/z_image_turbo_bf16.safetensors, text_encoders/qwen_3_4b.safetensors, vae/ae.safetensors2048 px a side, about 3 megapixels (2048 × 1152 for a 16:9 display)Apache 2.0
Krea 2 Turbodiffusion_models/krea2_turbo_fp8_scaled.safetensors, text_encoders/qwen3vl_4b_fp8_scaled.safetensors, vae/qwen_image_vae.safetensorsThe same as Z-Image TurboKrea 2 Community License
Qwen-Image 2.1diffusion_models/qwen_image_2.1_int8_convrot.safetensors, text_encoders/qwen3vl_8b_int8_convrot.safetensors, vae/qwen_image_2.1_vae_bf16.safetensors2752 px a side, about 4.3 megapixelsQwen Research License

Each paints at the largest size its model supports, at your display’s shape and never larger than your display; AutoPaper then scales it to fit each display. The first two are capped at about 3 megapixels on every computer: a larger image fails at the last step in ComfyUI on Apple silicon. Bigger takes longer. On a fast Mac, a full-size wallpaper took about a minute with Z-Image Turbo, about two with Krea 2 Turbo, and about nine with Qwen-Image 2.1. Settings shows how long each takes on your computer once it has made one (About 9 minutes per wallpaper on this Mac).

Your own…: a workflow you exported from ComfyUI with Export (API), as JSON. Put {{prompt}} where AutoPaper’s scene goes; AutoPaper also fills in {{width}}, {{height}} and {{seed}} where you put them. The Model line then names the model your workflow loads. Choose Another… picks a different file.

Light and dark

With Match my appearance on (Settings → General, on by default), AutoPaper tells the writer whether your computer is in light or dark mode, and asks for wallpapers that sit well on it: bright and airy on a light desktop, deep and moody on a dark one. Your keywords still come first, so “night city” stays dark in light mode. It follows the change when you switch modes, and applies to the next wallpaper, not the one showing. Turn it off and nothing about your appearance is sent.

Your own wallpaper

On a Mac

Settings → General → Show wallpapers:

Apps can’t set the Mac’s lock screen picture on its own, so the lock screen shows AutoPaper’s wallpapers only with As my wallpaper.

On Windows and Linux

AutoPaper sets the real wallpaper, after keeping a copy of your own for each monitor (on Windows, including a slideshow or Windows Spotlight), and puts yours back when it quits or you choose Restore my wallpaper. Windows Spotlight comes back as the last picture it showed, with Turn Windows Spotlight back on to restart it. Also set the lock screen (on unless you turn it off) sets Windows’ lock screen too; AutoPaper doesn’t yet put your own lock screen picture back. On Linux, one picture covers every monitor; GNOME’s lock screen always shows the desktop wallpaper, and on KDE the lock screen setting decides. Putting your own wallpaper back works on GNOME, not yet on KDE or other desktops or in a Flatpak; there, Preferences says so.

Pausing and restoring

Progress and time left

While a wallpaper is being made, Now shows the stage (Composing an idea…, Checking memory…, Painting…, Downloading…, Preparing for your displays…), a progress ring, and, once AutoPaper knows how long your computer takes, the time left: About 40 seconds left, Almost done. The menu shows the same in a line. The wallpaper in the window looks as if it’s being remade; with reduced motion on, it holds still.

The estimate comes only from your own computer: AutoPaper notes how long each provider and model took, at each size, and the recent times count most. Until it has one for what you’ve chosen, it shows no time rather than a guess. To stop, choose Stop (the toolbar button that was New Wallpaper Now, on a Mac; Esc or ⌘ .) or Cancel.

History and memory

History has every wallpaper, newest first. Filter it: All, Liked, Disliked, Echoes, and by mood. Each wallpaper’s actions are on its context menu, which the keyboard opens too (on a Mac, also an Actions button): Show on Desktop, Like, Dislike, Make an Echo, Show Original and Echoes (when there are some), Show in Finder (File Explorer, Files) and Delete…. Deleting one removes its image and AutoPaper forgets it, so a similar idea may come back; echoes of it stay.

On a Mac, History has a Grid and a Gallery (switch in the toolbar; it remembers). The gallery shows the selected wallpaper large, a filmstrip, and its details: description, echo note with Show Original, when it was made, its mood and keywords, and a line saying what made it, such as Written by Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (Google Gemini) · Painted by Nano Banana 2 (Google Gemini) · 3840×2160 · about $0.04. Painted by opens Settings → Providers. Space opens Quick Look.

Settings → Memory has the rest: What AutoPaper has learned (the things you’ve tended to like and dislike, across every mood) with Reset What It Learned…; the Quiet period and how often Echoes come; whether memory is Full or Reduced; how much space images use, Keep up to, and Clear History…, which can keep memory (so AutoPaper still avoids repeats) or clear it too. Clearing never changes what’s on your desktop.

The History section of those settings also explains Console: what it records, how long it is kept, and what copying, exporting or clearing a run does.

Before making a wallpaper, AutoPaper checks both the writing and painting services. If either is unavailable, it shows the latest usable saved wallpaper from the selected mood and records both check results in Console. Disliked, missing or damaged images are skipped. If that mood has no usable image yet, the current wallpaper stays. These checks send no prompts or images and cost no generation credits.

Console and run statistics

Console groups wallpaper attempts by date, newest first. Select a run to see its outcome, the prompts sent to each provider and model, the responses, retries, checks, errors, elapsed time and estimated cost. A failed attempt or a budget block appears even when no new wallpaper was made. Requests made before Console was added were not recorded.

Once there are runs, the overview shows counts by outcome, runs by day, the success rate, average completed-run time, and average measured call time for each provider, model and job (writing or painting). Budget blocks, cancellations, interrupted runs and runs still in progress have their own outcomes. Success rate compares successful and failed attempts only; the average run time uses those finished attempts. Daily charts use UTC. Show as Table gives the chart values as numbers.

Model times come from completed provider calls recorded after this update. Older runs still contribute to outcome charts, but their model times cannot be reconstructed. A model’s call time covers its writing or painting request; the whole run may also include retries, memory checks, downloads and preparation for your displays.

Up to 200 runs are kept for 30 days on this computer. Console omits credentials and image bytes; unusually large details are shortened and marked. Prompts and responses can contain your keywords and provider answers. They stay on this computer unless you choose Copy Details or Export JSON… to share a selected run.

Clear Console… removes the recorded runs and their charts. Your wallpapers, memory, settings and budget spending stay. The separate time estimates used for progress are kept too.

The budget

Settings → Budget sets a monthly limit for hosted providers: No limit, $1, $2, $5 (unless you change it), $10, $20, or an amount of your own. It shows what this month has cost, what each wallpaper costs and what a month costs at your schedule, all estimated from the providers’ published prices as of October 5, 2026. Months follow UTC. Local providers, OpenAI-compatible servers and Demo cost nothing and are never stopped by the budget.

If the next paid request would exceed the limit, AutoPaper keeps the current wallpaper and shows the month’s estimated spend, your limit and the estimated next request cost. Console records the attempt as Blocked. The notice opens Budget settings; raising the limit or waiting for the next UTC month allows paid requests again. The provider bills you directly; AutoPaper’s numbers are estimates, so check the provider’s own usage page for the real amount.

Notifications

Notify me about new wallpapers in Settings → General: off unless you turn it on on a Mac, on unless you turn it off on Windows and Linux. A notification names the new wallpaper, with Like, Dislike and Show. On a Mac it comes for scheduled wallpapers; on Windows for scheduled ones, or any while the window isn’t in front; on Linux while the window isn’t in front. There’s also one notification when the month’s budget runs out and one when a key stops working, each with a button that goes to the fix; routine problems never notify.

Siri and Shortcuts

On a Mac, AutoPaper has five actions in the Shortcuts app and Siri: New Wallpaper, Like This Wallpaper, Dislike This Wallpaper, What’s on My Desktop (which reads out the wallpaper’s description) and Switch Mood (“Switch AutoPaper to Rainy beach”). The Reference lists them. Windows and Linux have none yet.

When something doesn’t work

When AutoPaper needs you, Now says so once, in plain words, usually with a link that goes straight to the fix. The wording below is the Mac’s; Windows and Linux say the same with their own names for things (Settings › Keys, Preferences).

“Add your OpenAI key”

The provider you chose needs a key. The link opens Settings → Accounts (Keys) with that field ready; paste the key and AutoPaper carries on. Test and Refresh wait until there’s a key.

“OpenAI didn’t accept your key.” · “Check your OpenAI key”

The key is wrong, revoked or from another account. Copy it again from the provider’s key page (the Get a key link) and paste it over the old one.

“OpenAI asked AutoPaper to wait; it’ll try again in 5 minutes.”

The provider is limiting how often you can ask (with Gemini, this is also how a used-up quota shows). AutoPaper waits as long as it was asked to, at most an hour, then tries again. Nothing to do unless it keeps happening; then check your account’s limits with the provider.

“The answer from your provider couldn’t be used. AutoPaper will try again later.”

The provider answered, but not with something AutoPaper could use. Common causes: an OpenAI account without credit, or a model your server doesn’t have. Check your account’s billing with the provider, or choose another model in Settings → Providers.

“Ollama isn’t running at http://127.0.0.1:11434.”

AutoPaper couldn’t reach your local server (the same for ComfyUI, LM Studio or another server). Start it, and check the address in Settings → Providers; on another computer, check that it accepts connections from your network. On Linux the message is “Ollama isn’t answering. Check that it’s running and its address in Preferences.” If it isn’t installed, see Installing them.

“The server has no models to use yet.”

Your server is running but has no model. Download one there (for example with ollama pull, or in LM Studio), then choose Refresh.

“ComfyUI couldn’t paint with Qwen-Image 2.1.” · “Check ComfyUI in Settings”

ComfyUI ran the job but couldn’t finish it: usually a model file or node is missing, or one failed. The link opens Settings → Providers. Check that the model’s three files are in place (see ComfyUI) and choose Refresh; ComfyUI’s own window or log names the node that failed. A scheduled wallpaper that hits this waits for its next turn rather than trying again and again.

“That workflow is in ComfyUI’s editor format.”

A workflow of your own must be exported with Export (API) in ComfyUI. It also needs a {{prompt}} placeholder where the scene goes; AutoPaper says so if it’s missing, or if the workflow isn’t valid once the placeholders are filled in.

“… took too long to answer.” · “… had a problem on its side.” · “The job was stopped in ComfyUI.”

The provider was slow or had an error, or someone stopped the job in ComfyUI. AutoPaper tries again later. A local painting is given up only when it stops making progress (three minutes without a new step) or runs far past its estimate.

“OpenAI declined to paint this idea; AutoPaper tried a gentler one, and it declined that too.”

The provider’s content rules refused the idea twice. If it happens often with one mood, change a keyword or lower Surprise.

“AutoPaper can’t reach the internet. It’ll try again soon.”

You’re offline, or the provider couldn’t be reached. If you’re back online, it tries again within the hour; New Wallpaper Now tries straight away. The first time, it may bring back a wallpaper you liked instead.

The next request would exceed this month’s budget

The notice shows your estimated spend, limit and next request cost, including amounts smaller than a cent. A request can be blocked before the limit is fully spent if it would cost more than what remains. The link opens Settings → Budget. Your current wallpaper stays; paid requests can start again next month (UTC).

The wallpaper doesn’t change

My own wallpaper didn’t come back

Memory says “Reduced”

The small model AutoPaper uses to compare ideas wasn’t found, so it’s using a simpler comparison that only catches near-identical repeats. In a development build, run scripts/fetch-model.sh; released apps include the model.

Open at login doesn’t work

On a Mac, if it says “Allow AutoPaper in System Settings → General → Login Items.”, do that. On Windows, check Settings → Apps → Startup; on Linux, check that AutoPaper may run in the background in your desktop’s settings.

Removing AutoPaper

  1. Choose Restore My Wallpaper (or quit AutoPaper), so your own wallpaper is back.
  2. Clear your keys in Settings → Accounts (Keys), which removes them from your Keychain, Credential Manager or keyring. Uninstalling doesn’t remove them by itself.
  3. Turn off Open at login in Settings → General.
  4. Quit AutoPaper and remove the app.
  5. To remove its wallpapers, history and settings too: on a Mac, delete ~/Library/Containers/com.autopaper; on Windows, uninstalling removes them; on Linux, flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.github.msitarzewski.AutoPaper removes the app with all of them, and flatpak remote-delete autopaper removes its repository (built from source: delete ~/.local/share/autopaper and reset its settings with gsettings reset-recursively io.github.msitarzewski.AutoPaper).

A local ComfyUI keeps its own copies of what it painted, in its output/autopaper/ folder; delete them there if you like.

Screen readers and the keyboard

Everything in AutoPaper has a name your screen reader reads out. Each wallpaper is described in words (its one-line description, and what changed, for an echo); keywords say their weight (“rain, Must”); Surprise says its value and band; the current mood says so; Like and Dislike say whether they’re on. Progress and problems are announced as they happen. The apps use their systems’ standard controls, so contrast, transparency and reduced-motion settings apply.

Keyboard shortcuts for each system are on the Keyboard shortcuts page. Each app has been checked through its system’s accessibility interface; full passes with VoiceOver, Narrator and Orca are still to come. More detail is in the Reference.

If something is hard to use with a screen reader or the keyboard, please tell us.

Asking for help

Questions and bug reports go to GitHub issues. Say which system you use, the AutoPaper version, and the providers and models you write and paint with. Security or privacy problems go privately instead, as described in SECURITY.md.