AI lives in your clipboard now.
Press ⌥ Space in any app. Type a command. Done in ~1.5 seconds.
Alter is a tiny macOS menu-bar app that turns your clipboard into an AI command line.
Copy any text. Press ⌥ Space. A floating bar appears over your current window with your text pre-loaded. Type "make this friendlier", "translate to Hindi", "shrink to one sentence" — anything you'd type into ChatGPT. Hit Enter. ~1.5 seconds later the transformed text auto-pastes where your cursor was, in the app you came from.
No tab switch. No browser. No account. No subscription.
⌘C → ⌥ Space → type a command → Enter → Accept → pasted in your app
- Copy any text from anywhere
- Press ⌥ Space — a floating command bar appears over your current app
- Type what you want: "make this friendlier", "translate to Hindi", "summarize"
- Hit Enter — Groq transforms it in ~1.5 s
- Press Accept — the result pastes directly where your cursor is
You never leave the app you're in.
- Floating HUD — summons in any app via ⌥ Space, vanishes when you're done
- 8 one-click presets — Rewrite, Shrink, Expand, Translate, Fix, Explain, Reply, Formal
- ⌘K opens the full preset library inline (browse + search)
- Custom commands — type anything you'd type into ChatGPT
- Auto-paste — result lands where your cursor was, in the original app
- ~1.5 s end-to-end — Groq
llama-3.3-70b-versatilewithllama3-8bfallback - macOS Keychain — API key encrypted via
safeStorage - Menu-bar only — zero Dock clutter, custom template tray icon
- No account, no telemetry — bring your own free Groq key
A separate menu-bar window for everything that doesn't belong in the HUD:
- Presets — manage your library of one-click transforms, add your own
- History — every transform you've made, searchable
- Settings — change hotkey, toggle features, manage permissions
- API Key — masked Groq key, copy/delete, status pill
- Open the latest Release and grab:
Alter-1.0.0-arm64.dmg— Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)Alter-1.0.0.dmg— Intel Macs
- Open the DMG and drag Alter onto the Applications folder
- First launch: right-click → Open (the build is unsigned, so Gatekeeper asks once)
- Grant Accessibility permission when prompted (needed for auto-paste)
- Paste your Groq API key on the setup screen
git clone https://github.com/tanujrajputdev/alter
cd alter
npm install
npm run devTo build a .dmg:
npm run distOutput lands in dist/. Requires macOS. No Apple Developer account needed.
- macOS 13 Ventura or later (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- A free Groq API key
- Node.js 18+ (only if building from source)
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌥ Space | Open / close the command bar |
| Enter | Submit command |
| ⌘ K | Open preset library |
| Escape | Dismiss without changes |
- Your API key is encrypted at rest via macOS Keychain (
safeStorage) - Clipboard text is sent to
api.groq.comonly when you press Enter - No analytics, no crash reporting, no remote logging
- No account, no signup — verify it all in the code
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Desktop shell | Electron 33 |
| Build | electron-vite 2 + Vite 5 |
| UI | React 18 + TypeScript |
| AI | Groq API (llama-3.3-70b-versatile) |
| Icons | @hugeicons/react |
| Secrets | Electron safeStorage → macOS Keychain |
| Packaging | electron-builder → .dmg (arm64 + x64) |
| Hotkey | Electron globalShortcut |
| Paste | osascript keystroke |
See ARCHITECTURE.md for the decision log, IPC contract, data flow, and security model.
The TL;DR:
⌥ Space → main: globalShortcut fires → reads clipboard → shows HUD
↓
type command + Enter → renderer calls window.electronAPI.transform()
↓
main: fetch(api.groq.com) → ~1.5 s → result back to HUD
↓
Accept → main: clipboard.write + app.hide + activateApp(source) + osascript ⌘V
See ROADMAP.md. Highlights:
- Voice command via Whisper (Groq)
- Multi-provider — OpenAI, Anthropic, local Ollama
- App-context awareness — knows you're in Slack vs. email vs. code
- Custom preset templates with variables
- Swift hotkey helper for Fn / CapsLock support
PRs welcome. Keep changes scoped, no telemetry, no dependencies that pull in megabytes of transitive deps.
MIT. Build it, fork it, ship your own version.