How Bench works
You own the Mac. Here's the box most contractors buy.
You buy one Mac and it stays on in your office. For most contractors that's a Mac mini with 48GB of RAM. Get the RAM first. The chip matters less.
Hardware
Your MacBook Air can help. It can't be the machine that stays on.
The agents live on the office Mac that never sleeps. A MacBook Air can help as a second machine, and it's allowed to close its lid.
How Bench works
A chatbot thinks. A harness gets a job done.
ChatGPT is a visit. A Bench agent lives on your Mac. The harness is the setup on that Mac so work still runs when you close the laptop.
How Bench works
Software is the app. The harness is the Mac.
Bench Software is the browser app. The harness is how agents run on a Mac you own. The first always-on Mac is included with the first agent. Extra machines add compute, not seats.